Buying house - what to pay for carpets and curtains

[KindleMum]

We're close to agreeing a price with a vendor. We're cash buyers and therefore in a strong position in the current market, I feel.

The vendor had indicated they'd probably accept our most recent offer but have now said they want it to be higher to include carpets, curtains and light fittings. Yes, it would mildly inconvenience us if they rip all that out but we would be replacing it all anyway. The carpets are hideous - some are those thin nylon-looking carpet tiles you get in cheap offices. The best of the carpets are ancient swirly flower things. The curtains are beyond belief - old, thin, and so chintzy they'd might even have been rejected for the old Ikea chuck out your chintz ad! We would be doing up the house before moving in, so really their only use to us is keeping out prying eyes of potential burglars etc. I've been told by various locals that the curtains and carpets are actually over 15 years old as were bought by a previous owner to the current vendor.

What would people normally pay to have this stuff left? It's a 4-bed house if that helps.

And does anyone have any idea what I should expect to pay to carpet, and decorate a 4-bed, 3 recep?

If you don't like them they actually have a negative value to you; I would stick with your price and agree that the vendors remove them - saves you a few trips to the tip.

Only pay extra if you think you couldn't get better for the price and you'd be really upset if they weren't there when you moved in.

We didn't have curtains left but did blinds, carpets are fixtures and fittings and should be treated as part of the house. Lampshades are give or take IIRC.

If you don't want them, make that clear and stipulate that they need to remove them and make good any holes etc... Left.

I have no idea on carpet or decorating costs as its all relative to your location.

I could definitely get better for the price - I could even get better curtains at a charity shop, everyone I've shown the house details to has been amazed at how awful the decor is.

Do I need to be concerned that they'll damage the house in removing things? I plan to redecorate before moving in but I don't want to end up with an extra bill for say, replastering that currently isn't needed.

wewereherefirst - are carpets usually counted in with the house? What else should be? This is only the second time we've bought so we're a bit ignorant!

I've only bought this one but afaik its curtains, light fittings, blinds anything built in unless specified in the details/mentioned by agent. You will get a list of fixtures and fittings in time which is where you can have quibbles over what's what.

If they remove anything they need to make good- holes from picture hooks filled etc or you can get your solicitor to make a claim for repairs

'are carpets usually counted in with the house?'

Yes, as wewere says. If you look at the EA's details it will probably say something like 'all fixtures and fittings included unless specifically excluded from the sale' (there was always something like this in houses I looked at, and it was on the brochure when I sold my house). If the vendor is now trying to charge you extra, they are being very cheeky indeed - in effect, they are raising the price of the house by agreeing a price and then adding in stuff that was almost certainly already part of the sale. I'd find the EA's blurb on this and remind them of it.

Re light fittings - they can take a pendant lamp but have to replace it with a basic pendant fitting - they can't just take lamps and leave a bit of wire hanging out.

When I moved last year I left all the made to measure blinds - I didn't ask for any more money though - mine were lovely - plantation shutters in the bedroom and romo fabric in the kitchen.

I wanted to take my antique chandelier in the living room with me sink had an electrician come in a put up a plain white plastic pendant - but I made it very clear that I would be taking if with me.

The sellers will have completed a list of stuff that is included in the price. They may choose to not include the carpets etc. but offer them to you at a price or "for negotiation". However, if you say you don't want them, they HAVE to either remove them or leave them for nothing. Removing them will be a major pita as they will most likely have to pay out for a skip or similar.

In the current market, I'd be tempted to say you don't want them.

I say all this as we have just sold my mum's house and whilst the buyers have paid us £200 for the curtains amd White goods we are chuffed to bits that they have said "we don't want to pay for the carpets but you can leave them if you want".

I've just gone through the brochure and there's nothing stating what's included/excluded - I suspect they're quite cunning and tight! All there is is a boundary disclaimer.

Say that you don't want them. The seller obviously wants a slightly higher offer from you. I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't take ancient carpet & curtains with them - that just the excuse to push the offer a little higher. If this proceeds further, ensure that it is written in the contract of sale that they are expected to make good any damage that removing said carpet/light fitting might make. Any doubts that you may have about this house, have them now and voalise them to the agent - they'll be scared that their tactics may have gone too far!

Say no! They are worth nothing. And who would go to the trouble of ripping up old carpet that wouldn't fit anywhere else anyway. We has this with current house when she tried to charge usbforbthe laminate flooring throughout! We said fine, take it, we. Don't like it and would rather lay out own floors anyway. Of course she couldn't be bothers to actually remove it. She did take her foul, smoke laden curtains but I was glad to see the back of them. I had curtains for all the bedrooms anyway and I bought some from Argos for 20 quid for other areas to make so whilst waiting for shutters.

This kind of grasping behaviour over things that are actually negative in value ( you'd have to pay someone to take them away or for a skip!) really annoys me!

If you are lucky they will rip out the old carpets for you and you can start from scratch. Tell them you don't want any of it.
We are including fitted carpets, new carpets are being installed for the sale. all window coverings, (blinds and curtains nice wood curtain rods) probably the big fridge freezer, the dishwasher (fitted) and if theres anything in particular they want we'd accept a small amount or just throw it in as we need to clear out all the furniture to move back to UK.
In our last house we left the fridge freezer, washer and dryer, all carpets window coverings and freestanding stove and dishwasher.

My seller wanted £1000 for some manly old curtains and white goods. I said no and offered £100 for the fridge as its an odd size and semi fitted with units around it. They ended up leaving the white goods anyway although did take most of the curtains (and left some quite bad holes in the walls to ). So certainly don't pay unless you really want something in particular. As others have said, you'll probably find that they don't take everything anyway.

We've just moved and are replacing all the carpets, etc. If you don't want them call their bluff on this and make it a condition of sale that they remove them and fix any damage. Old carpets are disgusting to move and a real PITA to cut up small enough to fit in the car to take to tip. We were lucky to have a skip anyway for other building works so just chucked it in there.

As to cost, it varies enormously. Start pricing stuff up now. When you agree the sale go back to measure up with your builder or whoever so that you can get things priced up and works scheduled. We had most of the downstairs floored, some doorways knocked through and two rooms plastered before we moved in. It would have been unlivable whilst that was going on. The rest is going to be done shortly (bathrooms, kitchen, replace boiler, tile, etc). It will end up costing about 35k and that doesn't include carpeting the bedrooms, stairs and hall. This is for mid-range everything (except the bath, which is going to be naice). We are painting ourselves and will be skint for years to come.

We don't actually want any of their stuff. We plan to wallpaper, recarpet throughout, lay Amtico or similar in kitchen and bathrooms before moving in. I also have a few things we'd need to do to the kitchen and I'll need to get some quotes as we just want a couple of things moved/removed but I need to check that it makes sense financially and wouldn't just be cheaper to gut and replace the whole kitchen. The built-in fridge etc is just rubbish. I'd hope we can spend a bit less than 35k but haven't got quotes yet as I think that would send the wrong vibes to the vendor. I'm hoping that I can negotiate discounts on carpets etc for doing the whole house.

I think I'm mainly concerned that I don't trust the vendor. My impression of them is that they're the type of people who will take everything that you've not specified and that if we pay for carpets we could still move in and find they've taken door handles or something daft. They strike me as people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing and very, very pedantic. And who would think that having pedantically removed door handles would make them really clever.

Won't carpet fitters usually dispose of the old carpet for you? I assumed they would.

We wouldn't pay for something we didn't want and would stick at our final offer. You are going to need as much money as you can to revamp the property. Good luck!

Any time I've had carpets fitted I've had to lift and dispose of old ones myself first, think this is standard.

I don't think its classed as commercial waste coming from a private property, is it?

ignore me, you mean in relation to carpet fitters removing it.

Definitely agree with saying no more money, and you would like them removed.

Someone I know decided they wanted some extra money, and so decided they would leave behind the playhouse for £5k - it had cost over £7k only a few months earlier - not only did the new people not want it (cute but naff) but they asked for it to be removed, which cost ££££. If they hadn't wanted the extra money (which they totally didn't need), they wouldn't have had to do that.

They can't remove door handles I think because they are fixtures. We did once have someone remove all the lightbulbs though - technically ok, but not very nice. Your solicitor will probably have clauses about bits like that in their standard paperwork.

Interesting, I've only had carpets fitted once before and they took away the old ones for nothing so I just assumed it was standard practice.
DH is soft as butter so I now need to convince him to stand firm!