Unwanted fixtures and fittings

[mrsbeetonsbottom]

I know that I can ask my solicitor this on Monday but I'm too impatient to wait.

Just received the fixtures and fittings list for house we're buying and listed on it are kitchen items (e.g. free-standing cooker) and furniture (e.g. beds) that we don't want. Some are listed with a price and some are just listed as included. The people we're buying from are moving abroad and I guess they are probably hoping that we will take everything off their hands to save them having to remove things (items are generally quite old and not in great condition).

How do I make it clear to our solicitor and therefore to their solicitor which items we don't want? It's about 15 years since I last went through this process and can't remember how it works.

Just annotate the list with a highlight or yes against those you want. You may not want things like cooker long term but they may do in the short term.

Definitely make it clear if you don't want things. Our sellers left us things with no warning and had fudged descriptions and it was a pain in the neck - our movers couldn't put our wardrobes together as there wasn't room in the bedrooms. We ended up giving things away to charity and a friend and have sold some stuff on eBay and Facebook, but it's hassle we could have done without.

Yes legally the seller has to remove anything not included in the sale. However our house had a lot of junk in the garage, shed, the whole area at the end of the garden, and greenhouse. Technically we could have got someone to clear it out and billed the seller, but we didn't bother.
Anything you can make clear through your solicitor in writing before exchange is worth a thousand times more then having to claim afterwards, so just make sure the solicitors discuss it.