Would You Replace A Built In Freezer When Selling A House?

[Evenstar]

My built in freezer has broken down and I am planning to put the house on the market in the next couple of months. We have had a repair man out to it once already and it was building up ice on the fan even though it is frost free which caused the temperature to rise, he freed the fan and we took his advice to defrost the freezer. Unfortunately it has happened again just six weeks later and it isn’t sustainable to keep defrosting it or to spend another £100 to have the engineer out again.

I have had a look and the cheapest replacement I can find is going to cost between £500 and £600 with the installation cost. I have a small freezer in our shed so I can manage without it. What would you do?

You could remove it and have in the listing "space for integrated fridge freezer".
I don't think you could really leave it in situ as you'd need to leave the door open (if you close it it's likely to get smelly & mouldy).
Personally I'd probably replace it if you're not even on the market yet - you could be living there for another year so you'd get use out of it.

Depends on the value of the house. A hole in one costing £1m would look mean.

Just replace it with a cupboard

I bought a house where the kitchen had a tall cupboard. The kind that obviously has the fridge on top and the freezer on the bottom. The day we moved in, we realised there was no freezer in the bottom cupboard (there was a fridge). It was a bit annoying, but as we wanted to replace the whole kitchen, I was glad they hadn’t bought a new one that we’d need to find a new home for, or send to landfill.

My neighbours put in a new bathroom to sell it and the new owners ripped it straight out. Makes me cringe.

I say, sell it without a freezer. It’s not that big of a deal.

Can you get one second hand from Ebay? Get a local carpenter to fit the door (I would charge about £50 for this).

I would replace the freezer. If I was a prospective purchaser, and felt that you were not dealing with normal household maintenance issues, I would wonder what else might have been scrimped on in the property.

I'd remove it and turn the space into a large cupboard. Integrated freezers are unreliable. If there's space for a freezer elsewhere or someone could put one into the kitchen that's fine. I disagree with @ajandjjmum that not replacing it would show a lack of maintenance. Leaving a broken freezer in situ would be a different matter.

I'd remove it and turn the space into a large cupboard

I think buyers would wonder where the freezer was, unless there is a clear alternative space for it (in which case I'd move the freezer from the shed there).

I'd be a bit miffed if I viewed a property with a fitted kitchen, integrated appliances etc and the only freezer was out in the shed. I'd rather see an empty space ready for the appliance than think I'm going to have to remove a cupboard / replace the kitchen to fit one in there.

Still trying to decide what to do, but thank you for all the comments, We definitely would get it taken away and be open about the fact that it was no longer there., as previous poster said I would worry that it might get binned if the purchaser made changes.