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Original poster

Selling - leaving curtain poles and filling picture hooks?

22 replies

JoyofSpring · 23/02/2016 10:04

Hello,

In the process of selling our first house. Just got an email from the buyers solicitor saying "you will leave curtain poles because removing them will do damage to the property". We had actually planned to take them with us because they are really nice expensive ones... Can they just demand that we leave them like that?

And if we remove them the only "damage" would be some small holes with raw plugs in... Which would be the same as when we take our pictures off the wall. Are we supposed to take all the nails and hooks and raw plugs out and fill the holes and repaint? It would be hard as there are different colours and we would need to go buy lots of different paints.

Help! What's the protocol here?

OP posts:

specialsubject · 23/02/2016 10:06

what did you say on the fixtures and fittings form? You decide what you are leaving/taking on that.

don't remove hooks/nails etc - they allow pictures to be put somewhere until redecoration.

Floggingmolly · 23/02/2016 10:09

Of course you're allowed to take them. Any damage to the property (!) will be neatly covered up with their own curtain poles, when they buy them and have them installed...

Original poster

JoyofSpring · 23/02/2016 10:14

Thanks! That's what I thought.
We had put "TBD" on the form as we wanted to see if the house we are moving into will have curtain rails or not first. We were going to update the form this week but they came back in the meantime saying "you will leave the following" and then giving a list of the things we had said "TBD". Some of it we had now thought to leave but it was rather high handed!

So consensus is to take poles and leave all hooks and raw plugs etc in the wall?! Of course if a bloody great chunk of plaster came out of the wall then we would fix that!

OP posts:

SoupDragon · 23/02/2016 10:16

Faced with a rude demand like that, there is no way on earth I would leave them behind. I would possibly fill the holes from the poles but I think leaving picture hooks is par for the course.

origamiwarrior · 23/02/2016 10:18

Whether you can take them or not depends on what you stated on the fixtures and fittings form. That is a separate matter.

If you do take them, the protocol is that you should make good the damage (though they're hardly going to sue you if they discover you haven't when they move in). Remove the rawl plugs and polyfill the holes, wiping away the excess.

HSMMaCM · 23/02/2016 10:19

Check if they will fit the windows in your new house anyway

I agree with leaving picture hooks in the walls. We just hung our pictures on the hooks available until we worked out where we wanted them.

origamiwarrior · 23/02/2016 10:20

Yes, and leave picture hooks in the walls where they are - I can't imagine anyone who would prefer the alternative.

Original poster

JoyofSpring · 23/02/2016 10:40

They are extendable poles so will fit in our new house for sure!

OP posts:

WonderingAspie · 23/02/2016 10:59

The wording alone would have got my back up and even if they didn't fit the new house, I'd take them on principle, given what you put on the F & F form. How rude!

Our solicitor twice told us to make arrangements to go into rented accommodation. We had to pull out of our first purchase and we're nearing exchange on our second one (was probably a week away) and hetold us to make arrangements when I had specifically said before we wouldn't do it. I immediately got back to him and said it wasn't going to happen, as we already said and if it was an issue for our buyer then let us know and the house would go back on the market. He didn't mention it again. Sometimes I think they think they are bloody God or something with the way they talk to the little people!

Hufflepuffin · 23/02/2016 11:04

Is there any chance they thought 'tbd' meant it was up to them to say if they wanted them or not?

origamiwarrior · 23/02/2016 11:11

Good point Huffle - and anyway, it would solicitor being high-handed rather than the buyers (they might not even be aware of the wording - it could be the solicitors standard letter) so give the buyers the benefit of the doubt!

Frostycake · 23/02/2016 11:15

You are under no obligation to leave them unless stated in the fixtures and fittings form (can you remember if you ticked 'yes' or 'no'?

For this reason though, I left all mine up, including blinds as I thought it would be one less thing for the new owner to have to deal with (fine if she wants to put up her own at a later date).

Old fittings never fit new houses anyway and I think it's a bit like leaving a bottle or wine/champagne - it makes the moving process a little more pleasant for all involved.

Frostycake · 23/02/2016 11:17

As for picture hooks, again, I'd leave them unless specifically asked to remove and fill the hole.

SoupDragon · 23/02/2016 11:33

Old fittings never fit new houses anyway

Yes they do. Especially when they are extending poles like the OP has.

specialsubject · 23/02/2016 11:35

you need to clarify this by resending the fixtures and fittings form with no 'TBDs', but with YOUR decisions.

ignore the email and orders to do anything. Follow the standard procedure for communication.

re picture hooks - just going by my experience, when you move in you want to get boxes empty. Throwing pictures on to hooks, even if they are all in the wrong places (they will be) does at least get them out of the way, so I was grateful that they had been left.

TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams · 23/02/2016 12:12

Leave the picture hooks. PITA to do that much "making good".

Yes, you do need to make good. Be prepared for a fight by the sounds of it, your buyers have taken a shine to your curtain poles. Put down the full replacement cost on the form and say that they are welcome to purchase them but it's not a negotiable price and see what happens. Best case they cough up because they can't be arsed with putting up new poles and you don't have to do any making good. Either way you are putting up poles in your new place.

wonkylegs · 23/02/2016 12:21

We took some of ours (they were expensive and fit fine in the new house), we did offer them at cost price but the new owners declined them. Picture hooks I left.
I kinda wish that the owners here had removed and filled the ones in the kitchen because removing the nails / screws (they hadn't used proper fittings just what was handy) filling and sanding the 98 (yes 98!) holes in that room alone was hard work.
As long as you are upfront about taking them then it's perfectly reasonable.

RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog · 23/02/2016 12:26

Agree with pp that generally speaking you would need to make good anything that you do remove. We once had over 200 picture hooks in one space alone - there's no way on this earth we'd have had time (or inclination!) to make all those good

We usually take our curtain poles from house to house - expensive chunky ones that are extremely hard to source/v expensive/discontinued - and either make good the holes or leave the rawl plugs depending on the situation. At our last house our buyers did ask us in person if we planned to leave the poles and as we had some that would not fit the new house (and were not such good ones!) we said we'd leave those. As we were also leaving some curtains - again not the expensive ones that we've had in the last three houses - we offered to buy (basic wooden) poles for those rooms. Our buyers were delighted with that proposal.

Unfortunately some buyers do dig their heels in and despite thinking you've made things perfectly clear on the fixtures & fittings form confusion can arise.......like the time a previous set of buyers confused our actual Aga with the Rangemaster oven which she referred to as "the Aga"

PigletJohn · 23/02/2016 15:35

wandering away from the topic, some people think you have to pull Plasplugs out of the wall. This is quite wrong and will wrench out huge lumps of plaster.

If the person who fitted them did not know that they should be slightly recessed below the surface, you wind out the old screw, put a large screw on the hole in the plug, and tap it lightly with a small hammer so it sinks in. You then wind out the big screw, and use a tiny spot of filler to cover the neat hole.

Cressandra · 23/02/2016 16:28

You should make good if you remove the poles, including removing any protruding bits of rawl plugs and touching up. Picture hooks are ok, but curtains are much heavier bits of kit and you normally can't reuse or cover up old holes in the same way.

We moved into a house where they'd taken all the poles and it was a complete PITA. Had to source, transport and fit them before we had any sort of privacy or ability to sleep past 5am (moved in July). Plus of course we had to pay for them all. In retrospect I wish we'd made an offer for them to be left in situ when the sellers' F&F form said they were taking them.

If the poles are that expensive, I think you should offer to sell them at a sensible price and save both parties a lot of faff.

Original poster

JoyofSpring · 24/02/2016 13:37

Thank you all! So I think we are going o offer a price on he fixtures and fittings form and they can decide if they want them or not. That way we can buy new ones exactly the same if they really want to keep these ones. It does seem a bit silly when we are talking about 100s of 1000s of pounds for a house and quibbling about a few £100.

OP posts:

Cressandra · 24/02/2016 16:21

Seems sensible. I agree it does seem silly to quibble over a few hundred, but from the buyers' point of view it's pretty normal for curtain rails to be included in the hundreds of thousands of pounds they are paying. We were a bit miffed they weren't, we left them for our buyers as we always do.

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