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Original poster

House seller left lots of crap

29 replies

happychange · 25/05/2019 21:07

So we completed a couple of weeks ago and the house seller has left varying bits of furniture, eg a book case, a side caddy, garden rubbish, compost bin, etc etc

It's a pain to get rid of this, we will have to make trips to the tip.

Is there anything that I can do about it or am I stuck with this?

OP posts:
WBWIFE · 25/05/2019 21:11

What did it say in the fixture and fittings?

ohblahdee · 25/05/2019 21:15

A friend did 17 trips to the tip after buying a house, quite a well-to-do one at that.

Original poster
happychange · 25/05/2019 21:17

All this stuff isn't listed in the fixture and fittings list
Feel like contacting my solicitor but not sure if it's the norm to be left with crap

We left our place when we sold completely empty!

OP posts:
GiantKitten · 25/05/2019 21:18

I don’t suppose you know where they’ve moved to?

I’d be tempted to rent a van & drop it all off at their new address

Fantasisa · 25/05/2019 21:20

Sadly it would cost more to pursue this than to just get rid of it yourself. We had to start our first day by clearing out after our vendor. Which was particularly annoying as I had left our old house spotless.

Napqueen1234 · 25/05/2019 21:21

It’s supposed to be vacant possession. We had this issue once and we managed to get them to pay for a skip for us to Chuck all the stuff.

spugzbunny · 25/05/2019 21:22

I think you can ask your solicitor to request they pay the costs of moving stuff but in reality they won't pay and you won't bother taking them to the small claims to get the money.

chrisrobin · 25/05/2019 21:24

When we sold/bought our houses there were clauses in the contract that said the houses had to be clean and empty. If you had a similar clause you may be able to claim off the vendor.

We agreed that our vendor could leave things she found too difficult to move, she left a few wardrobes and shelves. We got rid of them through freecycle. Even the really tatty shelves went as someone wanted them for his shed, as did the broken fence panels which someone had to fix their own fence with. It may be worth try for you too.

Original poster
happychange · 25/05/2019 21:29

I do have their new address and would be so tempted to hire a van to drop it all off there!! But unfortunately they've moved miles away Sad

Sigh will probably just leave it then, guess it will cost us about £50 to get rid of it all

I'm slowly getting rid via Facebook but it's timewasting and annoying to have to get rid of random crap

OP posts:
PaintBySticker · 25/05/2019 21:35

Our vendors left the recycling wheely bin full of rubbish including broken panes of glass. We had to pay the council to take it away as it was ‘contaminated’. I was raging but it wasn’t worth the hassle trying to claim from the vendor. Also house was filthy.

rslsys · 25/05/2019 21:36

We had this, every bike his kids had ever had, loads of furniture in various outbuildings and found a clay pigeon trap in the middle of a load of brambles. Three years later his son showed up and demanded the clay pigeon trap back as it was not his, he had borrowed it! Not impressed to learn we had disposed of it.

Original poster
happychange · 25/05/2019 21:38

Eurgh so annoying! Do you think I would be able to claim of a small claims court? Not sure if worth the stress but they treated the estate agents really badly so I don't feel like giving them any favours!

OP posts:
BarrenFieldofFucks · 25/05/2019 21:41

Get your solicitor to contact them. We had this once and she emailed them and said they owed £50 or whatever for a council collection. They paid up straight away, if they hadn't we wouldn't have gone small claims court or whatever.

Sassifrass · 25/05/2019 21:43

I once bought a house from a young man who seemed to have no idea he should have moved his stuff. It was ALL piled in the hallway and he seemed quite surprised that we thought it unacceptable. On top of that - his cat still lived there! He did ask if we could keep the cat, and as I recall, managed reluctantly to shift his stuff in a week or so. Luckily, it was our first house and we didn’t have much stuff of our own. Incidentally, he was an actor, I think in a relatively successful programme. Artistic temperament maybe?

firstimemamma · 25/05/2019 21:49

We had this problem, it was very annoying! We just had to get rid of the stuff ourselves then we got professional cleaners in.

CatAndHisKit · 26/05/2019 01:05

Sassi I'm now anxious about the cat's fate - where did it go? Grin

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 26/05/2019 01:08

Our seller wanted us to pay him £300 for the knackered shed. Obviously we said jog on and funnily enough he never came to collect it. It went in a skip.

MinnieMountain · 26/05/2019 06:43

Clearly out all your crap is a standard part of the contract.

Contact your solicitor on Tuesday and ask them to have a word with your seller's solicitors. It probably won't get you anywhere but at least you'll have tried.

Sassifrass · 26/05/2019 10:21

Sorry Catandhiskit, at the time I had no experience of cats so said no. I remember that it seemed really hungry and in need of cuddles. He did take it with him eventually - so hopefully it had a good life. Now you’ve made me think about it again after all these years! Since then I have had cats of my own so now wish I’d said yes....

moonrises · 26/05/2019 17:27

We bought last year. On the whole it was fine but they left a massive pile of bricks, old decking boards, random wood, compost bin.

The bricks went on Freecycle but we are just arranging to get rid of the rest.

dudsville · 26/05/2019 17:33

I bought a house with an old outhouse structure at the bottom of the garden. Previous owners used it is a shed, understandably, but they'd left all their stuff in it. They left the house thoughtfully immaculate so I found it hard to believe they forgot.

NotMeNoNo · 26/05/2019 18:24

We bought one house we had to get a rubbish clearance company in and it was two truck loads. Solicitor recovered the cost from the vendor, it would be a good few hundred pounds now.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 27/05/2019 06:53

It's probably too late to do anything about it now.

I once bought a flat where I had a fair idea that since the vendor was apparently returning to his native country right after completion, he was going to leave a load of old crap. I was damned if I was going to have to pay anyone else to take his junk away, so I specified no completion until the place was completely clear.

Visited with the EA shortly before, and sure enough, he'd left plenty of rubbish, , inc. a manky old sofa, for me to get rid of.
Completion was delayed for 24 hours until he cleared it properly. He was royally passed off, but tough.

It's an extra PITA hassle, but IMO this is what you have to do.

TheRedBarrows · 27/05/2019 07:01

I would have complained immediately to the Estate Agent the day you moved in and asked them to get the vendors to take it away immediately.

Decormad38 · 27/05/2019 07:05

My seller kept trying to sell me things by calling them vintage- vintage curtains (tatty and stained). Then left everything! Bizarre.

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