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!

If someone takes cheap extendable curtain poles, it would make me wonder what else they had taken!!!

Never charged and never been charged. Bought and sold three times.

First house we bought the fuckers took everything including light bulbs, toilet seat and flush handle, light switches... Next two we asked about everything and the sellers looked at us like we had two heads.

To try and be a bit generous to those who seem to behave bizarrely and try to charge or remove things you'd really expect are left as standard (basic light fittings, basic curtain tracks, loo seats etc) - instead of them all being totally mean, it could just be that because most people don't move house very often at all, they are just absolutley clueless and unthinking.

It seems obvious that if you take the curtain tracks, the person who gets the keys and moves in at 4pm, will then need to spend their first evening putting up tracks and even going and buying them too, if they hadn't realised they wouldn't be left. Most people can see that's not great....but some people are simply extremely unthinking. The usual expectations are usually spelled out in documents from solicitor about making good damage, removing rubbish/unwanted stuff and basic expectations about leaving workable light fittings and bulbs....but people just don't read it and are a bit clueless.

I agree that it's good to check and double check that the seller is on the same page as you as buyer and is leaving what you expect and also removing what you expect.....just as bad when a load of crap you didn't want remains and you have to arrange to get it shifted before you can use space in the house or garage etc. Assume nothing.

I can’t believe that people rip out fireplaces and take curtain poles, it really does seem unbelievably mean.

Some buyers piss the sellers off and vice versa. In relative terms, things like curtains and carpets have become less expensive which is one of the reasons it can seem petty to try to sell them to buyers. We did a deal with our sellers that they left a piece of furniture in return for us not demanding they cleared the garage. In truth they were never going to get the furniture out and it wouldn't fit in their new place, but at least they got something out of leaving it, albeit not money. They tried to charge for the antique and repro light fittings, but we said we wouldn't pay and they left them anyway, only taking a more modern one with them which they replaced with something cheaper. There was a load of other stuff which got left which was unexpected and a pain as we couldn't get some rooms properly set up, but we sold it or gave it to charity and put the money raised towards the renovations we did.

In our last move we took out all the curtains but left curtain poles and blinds (where we had them). The curtains were nice off-the-shelf ones from John Lewis and we are now using them again in our new house. We were clear on the fixtures and fittings form that we wouldn’t leave them.
If the buyers didn’t want the hassle of having no curtains on move-in day I suppose they could have taken the measurements and then gotten themselves some at John Lewis prior to
moving in.
We did leave all white goods at no extra cost.
Would never even consider taking carpets, they are fitted into the space, it would be ridiculous!

The very first time I was serious about buying a two bed flat in a lovely corner of Crouch End the vendor wanted what was then a lot (about £1300 IIRC) for the curtains, but we negotiated a satisfactory price for both (think £600). They were beautiful curtains, huge, linen, lined, with blackout linings for a vast window (10 ft x 8 ft high) but I bailed on buying because my job suddenly looked very insecure in 1988. I do wish I had had the courage of my conviction. That flat would have be worth £600k or more now. !0 minutes into the City on the overground... huge long garden etc.

When we bought this house 30 years ago the sellers wanted £1000 for their curtains and carpets. Admittedly they were in excellent condition if not what I would choose, but we were already stretched financially so said no thanks, thinking there was no way they would actually rip up all the carpets. We then agreed on £500 but on moving in found they had replaced the curtains with old ones! Cheeky, but the house was immaculate so we just accepted it and gradually replaced them. We used the old curtains when redecorating.

Hi. What happened? Did they leave them? Similar situation happening for me right now. Want to charge us £90 for each blind. Doesn’t sit well with us as are little use to them when they move.

I would include everything we want to leave in the sale and make it clear at the time of offering. Last time the estate agent dragged us into stupid negotiations about every last shelf. Nobody wants to be hit with another unexpected £1k when they have all the other expenses.

Knew someone who was buying a house and paying £30k over asking price then 2 months down the line the vendors e.mailed and listed numerous items such as curtain poles etc for sale with prices against how much they wanted. They even said they wanted £1k for range cooker that they had previously said was included in the house purchase price.
Thought it was such a cheek from the vendors as if £30k over asking price wasn’t enough. Sale fell through in the end for other reasons but I thought serves vendors right for being so so greedy.

It doesn't really matter if you think they can't use their blinds in their next house. It matters more whether you want them or not, and what you'd be prepared to pay.

You could counter offer with a sum you think is fair (the blinds might be second hand but they may be very good quality and custom made for the windows) or decline and expect to buy your own when you move in. What you shouldn't do is have any expectations that the vendors will just leave them anyway, even if you decline to pay for them.

(Personally £90 a pop sounds a little steep given that you can buy new ones from Blinds2Go for not much more, and get your own personal choice of fabric and pattern.)

I'm going to take mine if they don't want them but if they do they can pay for them. They cost me loads so won't just give them away .

Curtains pretttu much fit other windows with some tweaking

When we bought our current place the vendors wanted us to pay for the light fittings. We said no because we weren't that bothered and apart from one we didn't like anyway they didn't take them with them or sell them before they left.