Would you charge your buyers for curtains and blinds?

[ESpressoNotEXpresso]

Hi,

Just that really.

Our sellers are asking quite a lot of money for them. Because the windows are bigger than average and were custom made, rather than declining, we counter offered and they came back, I think, still too high.

Would you charge?... Did you pay?

Thank you!

When we sold we took what we could use and left what we couldn’t. Our blinds, shutters, and curtains cost thousands. Some beautiful light fittings came, but some bespoke pieces in the kitchen stayed as they were made for the kitchen.

I do think this is a change. My first house 30 years ago involved buying the curtains!

I left the curtains as the vendor of our new house left theirs. I am gradually replacing them though as fast as I can sew as they are hideous so I wouldn't have paid for them. If you don't have curtains though and would choose similar then negotiate, otherwise buy/ make your own.

Wouldn’t charge and didn’t charge and have never been charged

We sold our washing machine for £50 but not dishwasher as was integrated and I’m not a c**t. Carpets are usually included but I would sell our custom made blinds, they cost about £2000 but I’d probably ask £100? I’ve a couple of light fittings that i’d take but would leave bulbs. Can’t be arsed pulling up carpet so would leave it.

I think ours left them in for free, at both houses. But in both cases they were fairly ratty old curtains useful as a stop gap, as the windows were odd sizes and I'm no seamstress.

If they're quite new, good condition and custom made, however, they can be worth quite a lot so you can see why a seller might want to charge. We had all ours custom made (John Lewis etc) for weird and large windows, and they were £500+ each per pair. (Whereas I've just bought ready made curtains for our holiday house, standard size, in the sale for £25/pair!)

Nothing

Why does everyone assume custom made curtains only fit one specific house? If I take the curtains in one bedroom, for example (3m wide French doors), there’s 18m of fabric. That’s easily 2 or more roman blinds on most other size windows IME.

I’ve never offered to sell curtains in houses I’ve sold, but have always been asked by sellers. I’ve named a price and it’s been a yes or no from the buyer. I’m not being cheap. It isn’t a convenience to me when I can use them elsewhere.

Our vendors didn’t leave curtains, which was good, as we had different taste. But they did replace all of the light fittings with fairly standard ones. I’d only been expecting just bulbs, so that was very nice and looked nice whilst we were sorting our own own ones being fitted. They also left the house was beautifully clean and all of the warranties/plans etc for building works and integrated appliances.

Never heard of someone buying the fitted carpet or toilet roll holder though!! That does pretty mean.

If my curtains / blinds would fit the new house (with adjustment) then I would take them with me. I would take expensive kitchen equipment and fireplaces too (and replace with something more basic).

How can people remove fitted equipment from a kitchen? I would never accept this even if I was ripping out the kitchen fairly quickly. If an item is fitted, it’s part of the sale. So hobs, ovens, fridge and feeders, dishwashers etc if integrated they form part of the sale, surely?

In our current house, the previous owners had installed shutter blinds throughout.
When we viewed the property we was told they was staying as they had been fixed into the frames and the property they was buying had large windows so wouldn’t fit.

Once all was accepted (we offered above asking price may I add) we had a letter from the solicitors to say that they wanted £500 per window for the blinds. We declinddd this offer but the seller said they would take them out and would not be liable for damage caused by taking them out. Had already fell in love with the house and didn’t want the expense of repairwork so offered to pay £500 for all (begrudgingly) and was excepted. They also wanted £750 for a shed and offered us their old washing machine for £100!!!

The absolute cheek!

Accepted**

No we don't charge. Our first house the lady asked if we wanted to buy various items of furniture, we said no but she ended up leaving them anyway so we had to mess around getting rid of them. She did leave the lovely curtains free of charge though.

We have always filled in forms to say to the agent what’s in the house that’s staying. That is the basis of the sale and an offer is made by the buyers based on that. I would never expect fitted shutters to be charged for.

I've always left them as I always get made to measure , one seller tried to sell us the integrated fridge freezer , oven , hob, microwave and dishwasher. That did piss me off, rang the estate agent who then had stern words with them and it wasn't mentioned again.

It’s a whole new world, all this! We’ve just recently bought our first property but in the back of my mind, I know we’ll out grow it within five years. So sometimes I’m already kind of thinking about when we sell. The property was completely empty and had no carpets or curtains or light fittings or anything when we moved in. I’ve spent a lot on lush floor length curtains, Venetian blinds, new carpets, light shades, new appliances in the kitchen etc. I would never dream of thinking the carpets shouldn’t be left but I’d want to take everything else with me. Would some buyers expect things to be left?

GorgeousLadyofWrestling as long as you are clear what is and is not included then it is fine. Just be clear from the start. You might though consider that many appliances only have a 5-8 year lifespan. Washing machines are heavy and temperamental to shift. Ours were all old, we were clear with the buyers that they weren't new, but they didn't have any, the house we moved to had appliances left. I guess we could have swapped them to keep 'our' appliance but too much moving and hassle. We did though keep them separate from the sale. We didn't charge, but at the same time we negotiated through the estate agents as to what they wanted to be left as we didn't want to commit to leaving a working fridge only for it to break down the day before completion and then need to provide another working fridge because it was in our contract.

Good communication from the start helps. So being clear as a seller what you are planning to take with you - and bearing in mind it's all your stuff, you are perfectly entitled to take anything with you that isn't fixed. So no-one has a right to your curtains or even to feel peeved that you aren't offering them for sale. Things like fitted appliances and fireplaces, in my view should be included. If you plan to take them, you should say so very clearly from the outset and also that you will replace them and make good any damage.

So I don't think it is acceptable to take out a fireplace and leave a gaping hole, or remove the Aga in the kitchen and leave a huge gap in the wall.

No one should have to move into a house and face serious work because a seller has ripped out fitted items and not replaced and made good.

Bearing in mind the fact that ripping out fireplaces, range cookers and often fitted applicants causes damage and replacing even with cheaper versions can be expensive, most sellers will opt to leave the items. However, they can choose the alternative but being clear they will do that is important - there should be no surprises late in the day re the sale or on moving in.

I was told with one house that the seller planned to remove their favourite plants from the garden and some light fittings (replaced with simple ones) and most curtains and even poles/tracking. I was fine about the plants and light fittings and curtains. It's not very nice moving in and having to put up curtain tracking that first evening before you can go to bed - so I think basic curtain tracking should be a requisite in bedrooms too.

Most of these things are laid out in solicitors papers of what is included in the sale, plus the points about the requirement to make good and leave light fittings and bulbs in each room. However, some people don't read the stuff or just ignore it. You often only find They haven't been left as required when you move in - and at that point few people want to get into a wrangle via the solicitor, so just feel really pissed off and go out and buy some light fittings at 10pm at night, rather spoiling the first evening in the new property.

Common decency seems to elude some people when they move. They think it's okay to leave the sheds or garage sor lofts full of rubbish they couldn't be bothered to get rid of, to leave bare wires hanging from the walls or gaping holes where fixed items have been ripped off - and swan off to their new home, probably expecting it to be professionally cleaned, a bottle of wine and everything beautiful. It is a pressurised time when you move, but I think you can tell a lot about people by how they leave the houses they are selling.

Our sellers took the door handles and light bulbs with them...

I bought a house in the 1980s and the seller took the light bulbs - so unbelievably mean and so annoying to have to go and get some at 7pm on a Friday when we realised they had gone! Must admit to a smile when I met seller and she told me of the problems they had had with the roof on the new house - perhaps it is true that what goes around comes around.

I bought my house (London) at asking price - first to view and offer, no chain - on the condition that the seller did not accept any more viewings and offers and to instruct her EA to take the 'For Sale' board down. Secretly I was prepared to up my offer £20K more if push came to shove. She accepted my offer but I was still nervous that I might still be gazumped later on as I really love the house. A few days later she asked if I would like to buy all the chattels in the house for £1000? I needed nothing from the house, most of the stuff were old and not working etc. - e.g. the fridge and cooker could be older than most of your grandmothers! Yet I accepted the offer to buy the stuff just so that I can commit her to sell the house to me and paid her £1000 cash immediately. I'm still trying to get rid of all these old stuff today.

Unusual to pay for the chattels direct and before completion - usually an arrangement via the solicitor.

However, I can see what your thinking was and it clearly helped smooth the path to completion at the good price you'd arranged.

There are probably more of these arrangements about chattels made due to the psychology of proceeding, or accepting the sale price or keeping the buyer/seller happy than we know - it's not always about the items themselves or the value of them.

I moved last year and left a couple of light fittings but swapped out the majority to a basic type. My lights were not in the fixtures and fittings left. The fitted blinds I left and I swapped out curtain poles that I wanted to keep. I was only going to leave the custom made bay window curtains but I ended up leaving a couple of other pairs too.

I also swapped out the fireplace and they had known that I would be taking the fireplace. It looked nice with or without one anyway. I left the range cooker but I regret that now as it was not in the specified list to leave. It's a standard size so they would just go get there own.

I would never leave my light fittings, I have a collection that took me years to build and I have a thing for unusual ceiling fittings.

I would also take freestanding kitchen appliance but not fitted ones. Mirrors I'm not sure why people would expect these to be left unless they are the electric ones fitted into a bathroom.

People used to reuse their carpets in their new house, common in the 80s and 90s when I moved as a child. A lounge one could be reused in two smaller bedrooms and saved money. But I know it's not the norm now.

When I bought last year I had to practically beg to have all the carpet removed. I wouldn't sign the contract until they agreed as they would not agree. I was going to reno and I could not have coped with removing all the carpet that were everywhere including bathroom and conservatory and then taking them to the tip. I wanted the house to be clear and this includes the carpets.

We took all the curtains and curtain poles when we sold our house, it never occurred to me to leave them?

The poles are those extendable ones so fit most windows. Our curtains were all fairly new and we really like the patterns, even though they're just normal high street ready made ones we spent ages choosing them.

5 years later we are still using the curtains and poles in our current house. We don't spend much on home decoration or furniture and they're all in good condition, so if we move again I would bring them with us as they could be reused again.

If you take curtain poles, you leave holes in the wall and I would not like that. As for taking cheap extendable ones, that’s a bit mean! Fixtures that leave holes in walls if removed should be left in situ.

We took all the curtains and curtain poles when we sold our house, it never occurred to me to leave them?

Did you make good the holes and inform your buyers that they would need to bring theirs with them or buy new? If so then fine, although your buyers might have had an eventful first evening trying to get something up at the windows so that they could sleep!