Moving house. Carpets and curtains advice!

[magsbags123]

I haven’t moved house for about 20 years and I’m panicking about the small things. I’m happy to leave the carpets and curtains and wonder if it’s usual to make a charge for them. My partner is insisting we do, whilst I’m thinking that if the buyers don’t want to pay we’ll end up having to take them all with us. We still have unused curtains from our old house in the attic!

You plan to lift the carpets and pay for their disposal if they don't buy them?
I'd call your bluff on that one.

Curtains are more moveable, but again I would not pay you for them.

Carpets I’d leave for free - what are you going to do with them otherwise? If they’re quality curtains you could ask for a small fee, but if the buyers say no it’s easy to take them with you. We sold our custom blinds to our buyer.

I’ve never lifted up carpets!

Curtains are a personal choice, and I wouldn’t expect them to be left, if they are new and bespoke maybe offer to sell them but if they are bespoke could you reuse them anyway?

The thought of pulling up carpets when I move house is utterly ridiculous to me. I would never consider this in a million years, nor would I ever ask the buyers to pay for them! This would surely put off any buyers if they have to either pay extra for your old carpets or have to re-carpet the house themselves! Curtains on the other hand are completely different, I'd either take those or leave them but again would never think of charging for them!

What are you talking about regarding the carpets? They are a fixture of the home. They are part of the purchase, you can't charge extra or take them with you. You can leave the curtains if you want to but nobody is going to pay you for them.

Ah, I didn’t make it clear that the carpets are staying, sorry!

I'd class a carpet as being part of the fixtures and fittings.

Curtains aren't and can have a resale value if you take them with you.

Your partner thinks you can charge for the carpets? Is he daft?

No you didn't as you asked about a charge for them!

Of course they stay.

Curtains don't usually stay but you could discuss with buyer. If they don't want them, you need to take them.
I wouldn't be asking for a payment - and wouldn't give it as a buyer.

OP you sound like the type of seller who takes the lightbulbs.

You can’t charge for carpets. Our sellers left their very expensive curtains for us (no charge), they weren’t to our taste but handy to have for a the first week or two. Your partner is being ridiculous.

I was asked for £4000 for carpets when we bought our very expensive house a few years back. I felt that given the money we were paying this was really grabby so I just said no, they could take them with them. They left them anyway.

They had to leave the carpets. Carpeting is a fixture, and it could only have been removed if you agreed, and you would usually get compensation for it, and it would have to be declared on the TA10 form.

Have you not done the paperwork form your solicitor yet? It will have to list what's staying and what's not, and what other things are available to the buyer for a fee, and how much.
If I couldn't use the curtains in my new house, I'd just offer to leave them and not ask money for them, unless they were every expensive like lined velvets. Doesn't cost you anything and can create useful goodwill. It's helpful to at least have bedroom curtains up the day you move in. By and large, if you ask for money for them, most buyers would just politely decline- unless, again, they were very posh ones and to their taste.
Curtains you'll never use are just a nuisance to store.

We are leaving all carpet and all curtains/blinds. They won't fit the new house and I don't want the hassle of removing for the sake of it. We aren't charging for them either.

Our sellers said they were taking the carpets. We were annoyed but had they tried to sell them to us we’d have said no anyway. Literally not worth the bother, getting rid of carpets is a huge hassle. Especially when you won’t use them again.

Curtains is a different matter, if they’re decent and you want to keep them then just put it down on the fixtures and fittings. I wouldn’t expect a house if bought to have the curtains left by default.

You have to leave the carpets. You're not choosing to!

You could take them I guess but would have to replace them with alternative carpets (which would make no sense).

When I bought my house, the vendors removed all their light fittings and replaced with big standard ones. As they were entitled to do. (I was disappointed tho!)

Carpets are left as standard unless really bad then disposed of. Curtains you could take if you need them but you say you have ones you took last time, never used them and just dumped them into the garage. Surely better to just leave them. It's mean and petty to charge unless they are very expensive but then the purchaser of the house might say no to buying them anyway. I'm buying a btl house at the moment. The vendor is leaving a fridge freezer and all blinds. The carpet is being left in the sitting room, bedroom carpets not too good and she asked me if I wanted them or not so I said no and she's disposed of them.

No one charges for carpets these days and it was always unusual. Just tick that they are staying when you fill out the fixtures and fittings form.

Curtains are another matter but if you haven't moved in 20 years I'm guessing your curtains weren't bought in the last 5 years? If that's the case they aren't worth much and won't fit a new property anyway so I would tick to say they are staying too. You should expect the same in the property you are moving into.

IF your curtains are fairly new, high end, not faded/marked etc etc, then potentially you could sell them to a shop that re-sells them- or trying selling them yourself. You'd need to make it clear they are not included though.

If I was the new owner and you tried to sell them to me- I'd tell you to jog on. They might not be my style/colour and I'd personally think you were a CF for suggesting it. 😁

Unless you know that the curtains will be used in your new house just leave them. We are leaving all our curtains and blinds for our buyers as they won’t be of any use to us in the next house and I think they’ll appreciate having them for the first few days/weeks until they replace with their own taste. All of our curtains/blinds are custom made so weren’t cheap but neither were they especially expensive. The curtains on the two large bay windows were definitely not cheap but we’ve had them in place for nearly 8 years. There’s little to no resale value in any of them and I didn’t think there was any point charging the buyers.

The sellers of the house we are moving into are also leaving all the window dressings for us, free of charge. We will replace them all but it’s very nice to know we will have some that will make do in the mean time.

I left my carpets but took my curtains when I moved a few years ago (I left the Venetian blinds in the bedrooms, so the buyers had some privacy).

Most of the curtains are hanging in my new house, along with curtains from previous houses which I'd kept. You never know when they'll come in handy!

I wouldn't want someone's secondhand carpets - that are filled with skin flakelets, hair of all types, grime and dust.
Certainly wouldn't be paying for them.

The carpets need to stay, and not be charged for.

The curtains are less certain. Will they fit your new house?? We left most of the curtains. Told the buyers that's what we were intending, but we would take more if desired.
We were left blinds and some curtains in the house we bought.
No charge on either.

I wouldn't pay for carpets unless they were brand new and good quality.

And unlikely to pay for curtains either because I usually redecorate when I move somewhere new.