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Original poster

Commercial treadmill left in the home we bought...

28 replies

Cornishqween · 09/10/2019 22:09

Can anyone advise what to do when you move into a home and it's not been left in vacant possession?

In our case we moved in last week and when we arrived we found the previous owner has left loads of stuff here, the main thing being a commercial size (over 400lbs) treadmill that's taking up our entire utility room .
They've also left an exercise bike, loads of weights, a huge rusty iron lawn roller, a lawn mower, 10 footballs, a strimmer, a broken plastic garden storage unit, tonnes of other bulky items and garden equipment.
I've got our solicitors involved and they've contacted the sellers solicitor. They came back today and said she's happy to pay for a skip for us to remove it all but I feel that it's unfair to expect us to try and move a treadmill that should be a 4 man lift.

Anyone have experience of this before? Should we just get on with it? Am slightly gutted we've moved into a property that's still full of their thingsSad we left ours completely clear of rubbish and belongings and expected the same.

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wowfudge · 09/10/2019 22:13

Vacant possession means no one is living there.

I'd try to sell the decent stuff - cash on collection only on eBay and take them up on the skip. I sold most of the furniture our sellers left.

BlackCatSleeping · 09/10/2019 22:19

It's crap but these things happen. I'd advertise it on Facebook or Gumtree pick up only. I bet it will get snapped up.

I know you shouldn't have to but it's a minor thing to happen.

Owlsintowels · 09/10/2019 22:32

You can probably make quite a few ££ seeking the items, or if you want them gone pronto and want to help someone out then put them on freecycle in a few bundles - must take every item in each bundle. Someone else will collect, dispose of the junk and earn cash selling the decent stuff.
Lemons into lemonade...

loutypips · 09/10/2019 22:33

Stick them on eBay as buyer to collect make some £££

mangocoveredlamb · 09/10/2019 22:35

What does your solicitor say?
Maybe ask the solicitor if you can get a house clearance/junk removal company to come and do it as that would be much more convince for you. I don’t know whether you could pursue them for that amount though.

Original poster
Cornishqween · 09/10/2019 22:37

Thanks

So frustrating, the treadmill doesn't even work so can't flog it, that's obviously why they've left it Angry

Am thinking of getting a house clearance company to quote for all the stuff left and will ask the sellers to pay for it to be removed. There is just so much of it. We found 3 ladders in the garden, a chest freezer that's gone mouldy, the list goes on. It's breach of contract in my opinion.

Am raging about it just can't belive someone would leave all that for another family to deal with when they've just moved in.

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Original poster
Cornishqween · 09/10/2019 22:38

Cross Post mango that's what we were thinking.

Lovely idea about freegle/freecycle I use them regularly to get rid of unwanted items, hadn't thought of that!

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Original poster
Cornishqween · 09/10/2019 22:39

Oh and our solicitor has been in contact with theirs today to advise the cost of a skip isn't enough as well need man power to remove an item as bulky as the treadmill

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Countrylifeornot · 09/10/2019 22:46

Have you a local Facebook page? We have scrappies aplenty on ours and they'd practically fight over that lot. Worth a load of cash to them, and they'll do the lifting / collection.

Original poster
Cornishqween · 09/10/2019 23:01

Yep am posting a few items at the moment actually.

Just didn't imagine anyone would want a broken treadmill Grin will give this a go too if they refuse to get the items taken away!

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user1487194234 · 10/10/2019 20:52

It can be really difficult to get the seller to pay in these circumstances
If they won't pay you would have to take them to court

rslsys · 10/10/2019 21:18

When we bought our house, we cleared a congested hedge and found a Clay Pigeon launcher in the middle of it. Gave it away, three years later and the previous owner’s son rocked up and asked for it back and got very upset when we told him it had gone, apparently he had borrowed it!

lashy · 11/10/2019 00:12

When my Husband and I bought our first property together years ago, the house was supposed to be vacant possession and frankly was left full of the previous owners shite. Every room full of tat. I'd taken a fortnight off work, supposedly to clean and paint etc. but ended spending most of the time emptying the house of his crap / taking it to the skips. Reading your post made it all come flooding back. We were young and naive but we should have gone straight back to our solicitor and kicked up a stink. Good luck getting sorted!

Original poster
Cornishqween · 11/10/2019 14:08

rslsys I really hope you laughed in their face!

Lashy that's exactly how we feel, weve taken a week off work and don't want to spend it throwing away someone else's junk at our expense! We only knew to raise this with them because when we left our home we emptied and cleaned it out completely, and the previous owners had left 2 skips worth of stuff Sad we spent a whole weekend with dust masks removing all their old junk just so our buyer would have an empty loft. We were determined not to do that in the new home.

Has all gone quiet for the moment but our solicitor is in touch with theirs and asking for her to pay for the cost of the removal and manpower to get the bulky items gone.

Such a p*ss take!

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GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 12/10/2019 08:40

Too late for you now, I know, OP, but stating that the place must be completely clear before completion may often be necessary. You then have to check before the money's handed over.

I once suspected that a vendor was going to leave a load of rubbish and manky old furniture - despite my stipulating that I needed the cleared completely. And sure enough, he did - I went with the EA to check shortly before completion. Which was then delayed for about 24 hours, but I was buggered if I was going to pay someone else to take all his junk away..

Disfordarkchocolate · 12/10/2019 08:43

You need to go back to your solicitor. The vendors need to pay to have these items removed and disposed of not just you hire a skip and we'll pay. We bought a house once and the vendor left everything, that was not fun but they came the next day and removed it all after my solicitor got involved.

MaybeDoctor · 12/10/2019 08:48

Be very careful moving the treadmill. We have one and the instructions came with lots of warnings about the risk of trapping fingers in the area between the belt and the base (at the top end).

VanillaSugarr · 12/10/2019 08:49

We found a load of concrete erotica in our garden which our sellers left behind. It was as if the White Witch had found an orgy in Narnia. They didn’t realise that we moved to be closer to school and we are now school parents together. I laugh every time I see her.

stucknoue · 12/10/2019 08:55

Lots of stuff left in our house including several years worth of grease in the oven. Solicitor advised (for free) that the cost of pursuing them would be more than the cost, he wrote a letter (no charge to us) but anything more would mean legal costs. They didn't respond. (Got my own back, stuck all the mail in the post box "not known at this address" but when the bailiff came round looking for the son I gave them the new address!)

Original poster
Cornishqween · 12/10/2019 09:14

The concrete erotica did make me laugh (sorry) although can imagine that would be horrid if you have kids that want to play in the garden.

Stuck that is excellent! A little bit of karma. We were lucky I suppose that the house was clean, it was just a load of junk was left behind.

Well our solicitor advised she cannot legally make the seller come back and remove the items and cannot MAKE them pay anything. She's again emailed the sellers solicitor reminding of them of their obligation to leave the property vacant, but as she is a conveyancing solicitor she doesn't have much power legally. Apparently its a litigation matter and by the time we've paid legal fees to another solicitor it would be cheaper to pay for the stuff to be removed.

Im thinking we'll give it till next week and if she doesn't come back we'll just pay to get the stuff removed, and will chuck the smaller items ourself Sad never moving again!

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Djimino · 12/10/2019 09:16

Grrr that's so annoying. I wouldn't be racing to forward their mail.

user1487194234 · 12/10/2019 18:25

The difficulty is if the sellers won't be reasonable and sort this out the only way would be to take them to court and obviously it is not worth the time and money to do that
And if they were reasonable they would not have done this in the first place

LoyaltyBonus · 12/10/2019 18:32

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER how do you check it's empty before handing over the money? You don't get the keys beforehand.

Aposterhasnoname · 12/10/2019 18:43

When we bought our house the vendors left a hideous bright orange pine dresser which was wedged solid into an alcove on the equally hideous fake stone fireplace. The only way to remove it involved a sledgehammer and a skip.

The day after we removed it, and the fireplace, (about a month after we’d moved in) the previous owners came hammering on the door, outraged that their “beautiful” dresser was in bits and demanding we paid for it.

Original poster
Cornishqween · 12/10/2019 19:38

Aposterhasnoname I've come to the conclusion people are actually batshit! If you loved something why would you leave it behind? Makes no sense.

Our lady just knew it would be a pain and couldn't be bothered to go to the trouble of removing the stuff. It's the sheer size of the treadmill that's winding me up, she must have known all along she wasn't taking it Angry

She obviously also knew legally there wasn't much we could do.

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