FFS! Vendors want to take cooker with them - is this normal?

[WestMeerkat]

We have just received the fixtures and fittings form and discovered the vendors are excluding the fancy double-width range cooker in the kitchen from what is included in the sale.

Is it normal practice for people to take their cookers with them when they move? I know technically it's free standing and not like a built-in oven and hob, but since it's connected to the gas supply which can only be disconnected by a qualified tradesman, it feels like it should be classed as a permanent fixture. It's not like a fridge that you can just unplug yourself and walk off with!

I am a bit shocked to be honest. The range cooker is the centrepiece of the kitchen, and the units and surfaces on either side have been built perfectly up to the edge of the range, and there is large double-width extractor hood above it. To be honest I wouldn't have chosen anything so fancy myself, but it's not like we can replace it with any old cheap cooker, it has to be something that perfectly fits the large hole that will be left behind, otherwise it will just look odd, and ruin the really rather nice kitchen.

I feel a bit robbed as we offered on this house partly on the strength of the lovely kitchen, and now it feels like its heart is being ripped out.

Is there anything we can do? If not, we are now going to have to budget to buy a fancy double width range - which I know aren't cheap! Also we are going to have to deal with the stress of trying to get a brand new range installed and fitted to the gas supply on moving day, before we can actually cook any food for ourselves! Really not what I need.

We were that seller!!! Had a very lovely Smeg range cooker you could buy in John Lewis (and many other place) but I loved it and I wanted to take it with me so I said it wasn't part of the sale. Buyers went mental and said they would pull out of the sale if it wasn't included, didn't want to pay for it but expected us to leave it. We cracked and left it but I hated them for it, no bottle of wine and list of where everything like stop cock was! Don't suppose they worried too much as they got what they wanted!!

If it's not built in then I wouldn't expect it to stay having said that they may wish to sell! We sold our range cooker, FF and dishwasher plus all blinds when we moved out!

Raising Nope! When we had the boiler changed the BG men (3 of them) struggled with it. It is fucking heavy and you really can't just lift it a little and roll if forward. Honest! It's mine, in my kitchen, we have tried... sorry OP, we digress

Mine's a Britannia and I wish I could roll it out of the space for a quick clean too! No can do, it's staying firmly in situ unless several people manhandle it

Despite that, it is technically free-standing so, as such, range cookers are definitely not part of F&F and should be subject to separate negotiations. If you have to come to an agreement about curtains and light fittings, you sure as heck have to negotiate over a range that cost upwards of £2000, surely?

I've left integrated ovens and hobs in previous houses but they were part of the kitchen furniture and obviously couldn't be moved, so fair enough.

I was gutted when the cooker was left here! They said they were taking it but instead left the filthy old thing and I had to pay my boiler man to disconnect and the council to take it away.

I would far rather have my own cooker that I've bought and know the history of. A cooker can cost loads, I would never leave it for free and you'd be bloody lucky to get a decent price for it from the people buying.

Maybe their vendor is taking their cooker and it's forced their hand? Either way I would never expect it to stay unless it was inbuilt or said so on the FF form. That's what it's for.

Oh the joys of house moving!

Our vendors wanted ££££ for fugly pelmetted curtains in the lounge that would've maybe been OK at Chatsworth but that looked wanky in a bog-standard 3-bed house

Of course a cooker isn't part of the fixtures and fittings! Unless it's built in of course.

If work tops have been built to the very edges of the cooker and tiles and/or splash back have been built around the cooker and if the flooring has been fitted around it so the kitchen has a finished/fitted look then I consider it to be built in. You won't find another cooker with exactly the same dimensions all round so it will never look like finished/fitted like the old one did.

Our vendors left the range cooker. I had a Britannia in the house before last. Not what it was cracked up to be.

Yes very normal for people to take free standing ovens esp ranges.

They are standard widths and come in 900, 100 and 120 normally. A standard oven is 600mm.

Try Boots appliances - they had a good range of ovens at good roofed, quick delivery and you get Boots advantage points!

Post before should have been 90cm, 110cm and 120cm.

it's a 1200mm one and you would prefer a smaller standard I've then you can do so and then get something else to go next to it perhaps - price up a matching unit for the kitchen. That may be cheaper too.

We took ours.

We'd made it clear in the missives that we were taking it but somehow our buyers' solicitor missed this and they moved in expecting it. I felt mad for them but we just kept our head down and left our solicitor to deal with theirs.

Unfortunately we only Moved half a mile away and regularly bump into our PA buyers.

I still feel bad about it even tho it was totally not our fault

(and I'd have sold it but only for full replacement value as we'd have bought a new one for our new house).

Range cookers come in 90/100/110 cm as far as I am aware. Never seen other sizes.

But it isn't built in. Most cookers are standard dimensions so you can just measure it then slot one in the place.

I still think its redic to take a cooker. You wouldn't take a freestanding bath would you?

We left our range cooker (and lovely American fridge freezer). They wouldn't fit in our new kitchen and the cooker really was part of the kitchen so it seemed wrong to take it.

Our new house has a really crappy hob (and ok oven, but it was filthy) and a fridge and freezer that are too small. I really miss the fridge and the chilled water it dispensed. But without putting in a new kitchen there is nowhere to put the fridge so it would just be sitting in the garage until we got round to doing the kitchen.

You might think it's "redic", but you cannot assume anything beyond the fabric of the house will be left. This is precisely why the Law Society forms are used.

I think part of the reason buyers are surprised that vendors want to take certain things is because, in relative terms, the costs of many of them have come down. Some people change their decor with their mood and things which were once seen as investments are now almost disposable.

In our house there is a carpet in a plain colour, which while it isn't what we would choose, is excellent quality and fairly new. Rather than spend around £3k replacing it straight away we will live with it until it needs replacing.

You might think it's "redic", but you cannot assume anything beyond the fabric of the house will be left. This is precisely why the Law Society forms are used.

I am fully aware you can't assume and that is what the F&F form is for thanks.

Most people are agreed its petty to take carpets with you - exactly the same situaiton.

I have to disagree - the forms pre-warn you of what is going to be left and what will be removed. Some people move into houses and rip out everything which has been left by the previous owners. Others actively want some or all of things the vendor has.

A major purchase like a cookerz staying in the house should not be assumed.

Oh and the word is 'ridiculous' so shortening it to 'redic' is 'ridic'.

Cooker obviously.

Oh and the word is 'ridiculous' so shortening it to 'redic' is 'ridic'.

Jesus you got out of bed on the wrong side today or something?

I am fully aware you can't assume and that is what the F&F form is for thanks.

I thought it was you who got out if bed the wrong side.

Ask the vendors to remove the cooker. Chances are they'll leave it because of disconnection hassle. IME vendors have tried this.

Personally I would not want somebody else's cooker with all the grease and gunk from their cooking.Yuk.

When we bought our home the vendors wanted to sell us their range cooker for a lot of money. We said no as we'd rather get a new one if we had to spend that much – they left it anyway, and it's still going strong 11 years later.