Fixtures and Fittings

[iambouddica]

We are trying to get our house ready to sell and I have been wondering how it works with fixtures and fittings? We have a lot of wall mounted (mostly two slot) shelving around the house, would it be expected that this stays or can we take it with us?

Also lamp shades and curtain rails - we have some that are fitted to the shape of the alcoves but others are decorative and adjustable? Would it be acceptable to take with us?

I don’t want to be a CF but I honestly have no idea how this works?

As a foreigner, I don't know the norm here; however, my family has been in residential real estate sales for generations.

Their advice is always to show the house how you wish to sell it.

If you want to take items with you, take them down and pack them away now.

Also, de-personalize and de-clutter. Take down family photos, kids' art projects, anything particularly personal. Remove any extra (unattractive) storage, such as freestanding clothing bars, cube storage, etc. It goes without saying that any piles of anything must go. Rent a storage unit if you must. The closer you can get to an interiors magazine (without spending a fortune), the better.

A well-staged house allows buyers to picture their things there. Also, if it looks like you have no clutter, it gives the illusion of copious storage, even if that isn't the case. This helps you get the most ££!

Good luck in selling your home!

I would expect shelving and curtain rails to stay. Lamps are are fine to take with you.

It's up to you. We left some curtains and lampshade and took others with us.
Curtain poles stay.
I wouldn't take down photos as advised above - it'll become an empty box on viewing if you take too much away!
Once sold you complete a form so the buyers know what you're leaving behind.

If you are in the UK, you will receive a pack from your solicitor asking for you to tick said box, etc. This will determine if you are taking the items.

You’ll have to complete a fixtures and fittings form so as long as you specify exactly what you’re leaving / taking, it’s up to you. We moved recently and we left curtain poles behind (only ikea cheap), but took all light shades and some shelves

@MrsBlondie , I agree for sure that empty isn’t good! Just depersonalized and decluttered.

Here’s a great example picture I found online. They didn’t buy a ton of new things, but it’s a great example of how a neutral paint colour, removing some of the furniture, changing heavy draperies for light sheers, de-cluttering, and bringing in a more up-to-date (green) accent colour, updating the throw rug to a more room-appropriate size and plain colour.

All the things they had before make complete sense for living in a home. Furniture upon which to set down a cup of tea next to your chair, plenty of chairs for guests and good conversation, extra light for reading, heavy drapes to retain heat/block sun. For staging a home though, they hinder rather than help.

I love antiques, art, Persian-style carpets, and heavy, luxurious draperies. I love coloured walls in my homes. I love to see framed pictures of my family as I go from room to room. I find my home to be beautiful and I get lots of compliments on it; But if I were selling my home, I would absolutely pack my lovely things away (the less to pack later for moving anyway) and provide a beautiful, neutral, bright and airy setting for buyers to envision themselves and their beloved things in.

At best, collections and personal items would also be interesting to the buyers, but I want them interested in the house, noticing the bright bay window and the lovely garden, not distracted by my rock collection or my series of 18th century architectural prints or my WAY too many pairs of shoes.

At worst, an excess of stuff will draw attention to the tiny closets and nearly unusable loft attic, items on the kitchen counter will make it look like there isn’t enough kitchen storage, and granny’s collection of slightly creepy porcelain figurines will just send them running.

If they remember my stuff more than my house, they’re less likely to offer at all, and much less likely to offer top dollar.

Just specify things you want to take. As stated, there is a legal firm where you list things (most are included on the firm but you can add) and whether you might be willing to sell sone things. Gone are the days when people would try and list carpets etc separately - who is going to bother to remove fitted carpets?
Normally things fixed to a wall (shelves for example) would remain, and non fitted items (like a free standing bookshelf) would go. But you can say up front if you are planning on taking something with you (a special light fitting, even the door knobs! But you would be expected to replace these with something functional).
Do not let the estate agent mention these in the property description. No good saying 'kitchen with feature Aga' if that's not included. And to be fair to any viewer they should mention if something normally expected to stay isn't.
While I don't think one needs to make good on picture hooks when removing paintings, if removing the shelves does create damage, I would repair that prior to sale.

Anything mentioned in the advert is meant to stay so for example 'there's a range master oven in the kitchen' should be staying versus 'there's space for a range master oven'.
You can take things like shelves is you can make good any holes or damage but you need to be clear in the fixtures and fittings form. Lamp shades are yours to take, lamps fixed to the wall you should probably replace or make it clear to viewers they're going. We took our expensive light bulbs but left cheap bulbs in every socket. Our seller did the same. She also left some white goods and curtains at our request which was negotiated as part of the offer. We left all the integrated white goods but had made it clear that these were included in the advert.
It's odd because if you leave to much you can be charged for the disposal (people leave lofts or sheds full of rubbish) if you take stuff you shouldn't that can also cause issues so I would make things very clear (I've heard of someone taking the kitchen cupboards).

You also need to consider if you take curtain poles when you move into another house it will likely already have curtain poles then you have to dispose of your ones or ones in new house. In most instances people leave curtain poles and shelving and light fittings but you could take a special light fitting but you'd have to replace it with another one. You can't leave no light fittings. If you remove anything you have to make good any damage to walls.

Completed last week.

It's basically up to you as the vendor to declare on the fixtures&fittings form. So you can take anything you like (even the carpets!) but the main thing is to be careful about your EA description and tell the EA who is doing the viewing if something that's clearly an asset is coming with you.

My vendors took their curtain poles with them but left some horrible lampshades. I wasn't bothered by it - I might do the same when I leave! - but they have left holes in the walls absolutely everywhere from mounted TVs, shelves - 2 rooms have double socket sized holes behind where things were which is a right pain to fill well. They also hadn't painted behind some of these mounted items - I was expecting to be able to live with it all and improve over time but nope! I didn't specify 'make good' so there's really not much I can do and will learn from it.

They also left the place pretty filthy (horrific stained loo, one of the dirtiest ovens the professional cleaner had ever seen, dog shit in the garden!) which really shocked me as when I viewed in 3 months prior it seemed spotless (though was a whizz-round 10 minute visit to be fair so I didn't do a lot of close inspecting). They'd obviously got cleaners in and not done anything since! Again- it's a pretty rubbish to behave like that but in reality there's really no recourse so it's just down to your level of decency!

You do need to be extremely careful both with the property description when marketed and in any viewings as otherwise confusion can occur. So, as @cupofdecaf says above, there's a difference between stating "kitchen with " and "kitchen with space for ".

I had first hand experience of this when back in 2011 we were selling a house that had both a plumbed in Rayburn and a freestanding Rangemaster oven in the kitchen. We had purchased an 'Aga' metal logo that we'd stuck to the metal splash back between Rangemaster and matching extractor hood (because Rangemasters are made by Aga 🙄).

We listed the kitchen mentioning the Rayburn but don't think we referred to the Rangemaster at all, not even "space for.....". The second people to view hinted to us that they'd be making an offer and she admired the rangemaster but made no mention of whether it was going to be included. A few days later we were away and - having left keys with our EA - the couple returned for a second viewing at which they made an asking price offer through the EA. This was to include the 'Aga' which we took to be a reference to the Rayburn as to some people the terms Aga and Rayburn are synonymous, so we agreed.

Later it transpired they'd meant the Rangemaster (thanks to that pesky logo!) and there was a whole load of aggro as a result, culminating in the EA taking responsibility for the misunderstanding and offering us a token £250 (iirc) towards a new range cooker. We accepted this as we didn't want to lose the sale.