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Original poster

Did your vendor try to sell furniture to you

51 replies

Dinkleberrys · 16/10/2023 19:57

Gosh, some of the prices are extortionate, is this the norm for vendors to try and sell furniture, will I look rude for declining?

OP posts:
SaracensMavericks · 16/10/2023 19:59

Don't worry about looking rude! If you don't want it or think it's overpriced, it's fine to say no.

DrySherry · 16/10/2023 20:06

Are you buying an ex rental or from a vendor that is downsizing ? Otherwise people would normally take everything.
I wouldn't worry too much - just refuse if you don't want it, you won't cause offence.

JosieRay · 16/10/2023 20:08

We were offered furniture but it was overpriced and we didn’t actually like it. The vendors didn’t seem bothered, just a case of offering to us first before they sold it on. We did sell a house where our buyers asked to buy about half the furniture which we agreed to as we knew it wasn’t right for our new house.

Doggymummar · 16/10/2023 20:09

We bought nearly everything last time as it was a Victorian house with tricky room shapes, but it was too our taste and reasonable price. Didn't want the beds but other than that we bought the lot inc white goods for £1500 quid which included garden furniture and ornamental plants outside. They were moving abroad and just wanted rid. We were FTB moving from a houseshare so it suited us.

gotomomo · 16/10/2023 20:10

I offered lots of furniture as we didn't need it (divorce sale) and buyer wanted it all, I threw in for free other bits not good enough to actually sell because she wanted as much as possible

LovelyBranches · 16/10/2023 20:17

When we moved into our house we had absolutely nothing. We had rented before but it was a furnished house. We bought the vendors Fridge freezer for £50 which we thought was a bargain……..until it broke on Boxing Day. Dh (then DP) was out with his friends on a night out, so I spent the night trying to eat the contents of a full Christmas fridge by myself.

FallingAutumnLeaf · 16/10/2023 20:18

I said I would either leave the dishwasher, or put it out for scrap. I couldn't remember if it was bought for DS1 or DS2s arrival, but either case made it over a decade old.
Otherwise, we took everything, and then marketplace sold the wardrobes as they got left by our vendors - but said they were taking them.

SpiderJohn · 16/10/2023 20:35

Our vendors offered to sell us all their furniture but we declined as it wasn't to our taste. When we got to the house on moving day, it was like the previous owners had just popped out to get milk. Literally everything was still there, down to the dishes in the cupboards 🤯 Absolute nightmare to sort out. They claimed they thought we'd said we wanted it but it was pretty obvious they just couldn't be bothered to shift it and were hoping we'd deal with it because why on earth would anyone else want your collection of souvenir espresso cups in a display case, or 8 vases of dusty artificial flowers?! Needless to say, we didn't, and our solicitor was on the phone to theirs pretty sharpish to get it cleared away. Still caused havoc with the move though, in terms of storing our stuff, getting the house properly cleaned, etc.
Absolute CFs, the pair of them.

Original poster
Dinkleberrys · 16/10/2023 20:45

@DrySherry I'm not too sure about their situation. Just leaves a bad taste when you've already paid over the asking price, feels like your being squeezed.

OP posts:
Seas164 · 16/10/2023 20:46

Looking rude isn't a factor. You either want to buy what they're offering to sell you, or you don't. You don't need to give a reason.

Inca22 · 16/10/2023 20:49

Our vendor tried to sell us everything. We said no. Extortionate pricing. They left it all - so we got it for free. When I sold my flat, the guy bought it all as is, as he couldn't be bothered to furnish it himself and he liked the look!

LibertyLily · 16/10/2023 23:16

We previously had buyers asking to purchase our furniture (and artwork etc), which as we were downsizing slightly from a six to a five bed house we agreed to sell them a few things (wine rack, bookcase, sofa and some vintage prints). It was an extra £5k in our coffers!

Otoh, we once had a similar situation to @SpiderJohn whereby the vendors - who lived in the USA - left furniture in every room plus all kinds of other cr@p they obviously assumed we'd appreciate. We didn't and it all went to the tip as even the charity shops weren't interested.

That was 20+ years ago and - being young/naive - we didn't think to contact our conveyancing solicitor about it, but just sucked it up.

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 16/10/2023 23:26

Someone tried to sell us the stair carpet as an extra ( it was fitted, not a runner, and almost threadbare). We didn’t buy the house .

OTOH, I did sell the dining room rug to someone who really liked it and thought it ‘ made the room’.

DrySherry · 17/10/2023 07:26

If you are paying over asking price in a falling market then yes, I can see why you would feel squeezed and have a bad taste. Especially if they try to sell you the furniture, again at an inflated price... smacks of greed.
Did you have a full structural survey done ? Did that not show any issues that might be able to help you get the price at least back down to asking ?

TheYear2000 · 17/10/2023 07:32

It's really not you being squeezed, you're being given the option to buy and you can decline! As others have said on the thread, sometimes it suits buyers to acquire some furniture along with the house. It's not like the sale won't go through if you don't buy the furniture!

mondaytosunday · 17/10/2023 07:33

It's normal. But normal to say no thanks too.

MrsNandortheRelentless · 17/10/2023 07:35

They sold us the 1960s cooker.
we had nothing so figured it would do until we saved for one. It blew every fuse and stopped working the week we moved in.

Twiglets1 · 17/10/2023 07:37

Dinkleberrys · 16/10/2023 20:45

@DrySherry I'm not too sure about their situation. Just leaves a bad taste when you've already paid over the asking price, feels like your being squeezed.

What furniture are they trying to sell you?

ChipAndMiss · 17/10/2023 07:38

Yes. They wanted £25k for their battered couches and ikea bookshelves.

They were really put out when we declined.

Wrongsideofpennines · 17/10/2023 07:41

Our vendor offered furniture but didn't charge us. Parents had died and they didn't need drawers, wardrobes, dining table, tumble drier. But we did say no to some things so you don't have to buy it if you don't want to.

KeepForgetting · 17/10/2023 07:42

I had no furniture when I bought my first house and I asked the vendor if they would sell any of theirs and they said no.

My current house was fully furnished and even the cupboards and shelves were full as it was set up as a holiday home. The deal was to buy the house complete with contents.

It’s not usual though so if you’re not interested just say no.

alwayscrashinginthesamecar1 · 17/10/2023 07:44

Our vendor asked if we wanted to buy the fridge freezer for $500, it was 6 months old and she had paid $2500 so we said yes, which was just as well as ours didn't fit! So we now use ours as very fancy beer fridge in the garage. She also asked if we wanted the gas bbq and fire pit, and replaced the dishwasher which had stopped working a few weeks before. We were very grateful.

Brendabigbaps · 17/10/2023 07:53

Ours offered us the American fridge and huge wardrobes, we declined to pay for them so they left them anyway. We were happy with it as we did need them but they wanted loads for them and weren’t worth it,
we realised at the time they left the wardrobes as it would be a nightmare to remove. Turns out it was the same with the fridge.
They’re unlikely to be doing you a favour by offering, just trying to make their own move easier

Lovelydovey · 17/10/2023 07:55

When I sold my parents house we offered a lot of the furniture free of charge as we'd have otherwise paid for it to be removed. We asked for a small fee for the white goods but realistically we'd probably have left them too.

Daffodilsandtuplips · 17/10/2023 08:00

Dinkleberrys · 16/10/2023 20:45

@DrySherry I'm not too sure about their situation. Just leaves a bad taste when you've already paid over the asking price, feels like your being squeezed.

If you don’t want it or think it’s over priced then say “no thank you”.
Our previous house was 2k over the Stamp duty exemption at the time. The vendor suggested reducing the house by 2.2k to take it under the stamp duty band but pay him the difference in cash for “carpets and curtains”. This way he got the price he wanted and we’d save on the Stamp duty. I wasn’t sure if this was legal, our solicitor said it was so we came to a deal with him. Later on, talking to friends about it, we found that several of them had done the same thing to stay under the next stamp duty band.