They're taking the curtain poles and fitted units. Is this normal?

[ThePurpleCarrot]

We're buying our first house and I've just received the property information form. I'm shocked that it says the sellers are taking their curtains rails/poles/pelmets.

It says they are also taking their fitted units from bedrooms, hallway, living room, dining room.

Are we dealing with difficult people or is this normal behaviour in London area?

Are the vendors from another country? My DSis lives in Germany, and it's quite common there to remove almost everything - (British) friends of theirs got a surprise on moving into their new rented house and finding the previous tenants had taken the loo, leaving them a U-bend with a cap on it

As it's far more common to rent than buy in some European countries, people do work/buy stuff for their rented home more than we do here, and then take it with them when they move (removal of parquet flooring is another example I've heard). Maybe it's the norm for these particular vendors?

You could always say fine, your offer was for the house including the fitted units and if they are planning on taking them a) they must make good afterwards (professionally) and b) you're taking £x off your offer to reflect the above.

I'm with miemohrs.

Our seller was dodgy like this - we don't regret buying the house (as there weren't many on the market like it back then), but bear in mind that sort of seller mindset means all sort of future problems. For example, after paying up for various bits and bobs around the home, we found upon moving in that she had removed lots of bathroom fittings and a bathroom mirror (!?). And hadn't done lots of things that had been pre-agreed as a condition of sale.

Would it be the estate agent I'd speak to, or our solicitior? The estate agent has a lot to lose as the sellers are also buying through them (in the same area!)

I immediately thought it was an attempt to raise the price through the back door, and they're waiting for you to offer to buy all these things.

As MadameCastafiore says have a really really good look at the original details.

Poledra - not foreign, they are British. I'm Scottish and when I sold my flat there I left loads of "extras" if you can call curtains and white goods extras. I wouldn't have dreamt of taking the light shades either.

Curtain poles, lightshades and mirrors I would say normal.

Anything fitted is considered to be part of the house though! Not normal at all.

I'm with justfornow - tell them you will have to revise your offer.

(Have you inadvertently done something to upset them btw? There was a flat we sold where we ended up taking far more than we would have done (although NOT fitted units I hasten to add ) simply because the vendor was being such an arse - I'm not suggesting you are being an arse either but maybe think if anything you've said might have been perceived differently to how it was intended to be)

Normally very reasonable people act very very strangely in the midst of house buying and selling ime!

If the fitted units were mentioned in the agent's specs then I think you are entitled to ask for a reduction in price as the rule of thumb is if it's mentioned there you can reasonably expect it to be left or negociated on.

Ah, OK then, they're just grasping bastards. Tell them to awa' and bile their heids.

Ha ha Poledra

Aftereight - do people REALLY usually take washing lines? Just all seems a bit petty to me. It's a half a million pound house

ShoeWhore - definitely haven't upset them. We've never met them and the house was only viewed once.

IME, curtains are usually taken. Curtain polls, blinds, lamp shades - it can go either way.

White goods are generally by negotiation.

Door bells and fitted units stay behind. End of.

I thought this was normal. I always find that the little bits like curtain poles, door bells maybe that's going a bit far and light shades can easily add up to a lot of money when setting up a house, especially if they've spent good money on them in the frist place if they are 2 quid ikea tat then its different

I'd walk away. I had a vendor who tried to charge me extra for the fitted carpets - she wanted £3k for them!! I'd never met her either but told her to do one and the estate agent persuaded her to back down

I bet in the end they don't take the units - how fitted are they really and are skirtings/floor cut around them ? It is more likely an invitation for you to say you really would prefer them to leave and can you pay x for them Curtain poles etc are the norm to take if they will fit.

For us fitted stuff stays - wardrobes and bathroom cabinet, towel rail and loo roll holder, fitted blinds, shelves on the walls etc.....

I will not leave my fancy expensive curtain poles - I chose them because I love them and someone else might just throw them in a skip.

I would not leave the doorbell either - it is a remote operating one with 3 separate plug in chimes - one for upstairs, one down, and one for the office outside in the garden.

I would not leave the washing line either - it is a triple one that you pull out individually from a reel when you want a line.. took me ages to find a triple that was the right weight grade for the stuff we put on -

Ooooh yes, if you do go ahead ask that they put skirting and coving in where they take out the cupboards.

Anything that would be attached if you turn the house upside down is supposed to be left.

I cant believe they are taking their doorbell. won't the new house have a doorbell? they are just creating bad feeling for nothing and making loads of extra work for themselves

If it's not in the particulars they are completely within their rights to take them as technically they weren't included in the sale.
Practically most people leave fitted stuff/poles etc as it's more hassle to take them.
Curtain poles are funny , yes sometimes they are cheap and its more hassle to take them but I've got rather expensive ones from John Lewis and once I'd totted the costs up there was over £2.5Ks worth of poles & rings up on the wall. I proposed to take 2 of them which would fit in the new house (£400 worth) but the purchaser has offered to buy them.
The same goes for our integrated dishwasher it's a rather expensive one that I would have to buy a direct replacement for. We proposed to take it obviously leaving the fascia panels & fittings but they have offered to buy it for cost price.
They've also offered to buy our overmantle mirrors for the same reason, which I'd not even thought of leaving.
Our curtains fit in the new house (same age property similar windows) and match our furniture so are coming with us.
The house we are buying are removing and selling all their rather ostentatious and ornate light fittings (and leaving us a bulb and flex) after asking if I wanted them but realising that they might not be to my taste.
The problem comes when stuff that you were expecting to be left according to the F&F list but isn't there when you move in. like my mum and dads house that had no plug sockets/light switches/ lights or even a toilet seat.

Light shades, curtain poles etc all fairly normal but fitted units is a bit odd. At least they're declaring it though. We moved into a house once where they had taken all the lightbulbs with them! (and it was late afternoon/ nearly dark by the time we got the keys!)

Fitted stuff is included in the sale price of the house, normally, isn't it? If it's freestanding then that's less clear. My neighbours had this, the kitchen in the house they were buying was freestanding (only IKEA) and just before they moved in they found out the sellers were taking it, oven and all. They had a mad scramble to persuade the sellers to leave it.

However... down the road is a house which a former prime minister lived in prior to being elected. Apparently when he and his wife moved out they didn't just take the light bulbs. They dug up plants from the garden (that were there before they moved in) and took the council-issue bins. Which is mad because a) they're free in this borough and b) they were moving within the borough so they would still have had free bins at their next house. Some people are just graspy bastards.

ours took the bastard skirting boards
ffs

What does it say in the estate agents particulars - does it say that the units are included in the sale. if the bedrooms are described as having 'fiited units/wardrobes' and THEY ARE NOT stated as being removed on sale then they should stay.
I would be very wary of these vendors if they are being so grasping then you can be sure that they will not 'make good to a professional standard'
all the mess they will make removing these fixtures. When they come out you will probaobly find that there is non matching paint/ wallpaper
behind them and that skirtings etc have been removed - all these would have to be made good before you exchanged as you will need to see the quality of the work.

Personally I would tell them to stick it !!

Fitted furniture is covered by the sale. They can't legally take without agreeing. Tell them to do one.

Note this also includes plants in the garden.

V important!