Wear and tear after moving - inform buyers?

[Sfex]

Currently in the process of selling/moving to our dream home.

Our current home is a new build which we have lived in for 5 years since being brand new. We’ve done a lot to it even up until recently, and our buyers (first time buyers) have said numerous times that the thing they love about it is that it’s move in ready with nothing to do. However, it occurred to me that this isn’t really going to be the case. We have a lot of fixed furniture which will leave marks at best/holes and damage at worst when moved. Examples are -

TVs on the wall, with holes drilled out behind to feed the wires through so they aren’t trailing down.
Floating TV cabinet fixed to the wall.
Light fittings which will need to be removed.

The big one is then the wardrobes. One room is a dressing room, and Ikea PAX were installed to look like fitted wardrobes. This included removing the skirting board so they sit flush to the wall and having the carpet installed around. They have already said they don’t wish to keep them or buy them off us, but when they’re removed they will have half a carpet and missing skirting boards. Same in the nursery - the skirting board was cut out so the wardrobe sits flush in the corner.

Do we need to say something to our buyers about it? DH is of the opinion that they should realise that stuff will need doing once furniture, at least fitted furniture, is moved. I’m not so sure.

Any advice please!

What's on the "fixtures" list?

Last time I bought there was a long list of exactly what the seller was taking/leaving.

Hmmm.

Fitted furniture generally stays put - I'm thinking about the wardrobes in particular. If they are described as fitted in the estate agent details I think you're on rocky ground - you don't remove furniture that is built in ie has skirting boards or carpet fitted around it.

That said, if the legal fixtures and fittings list them as being removed and NOT INCLUDED IN THE SALE then you should be ok

Are you going to rebuild them in the new house op? Is it really worth the faff of removing and rebuilding?

I think it would be very unreasonable and fairly unusual to take things that are fixed like light fittings and furniture (floating TV cabinet).

I think you do need to say about missing skirting boards and carpets. You’ll be signing a form saying you’re leaving a carpet for each room. Maybe you could put in 3/4 carpet to make it more honest.

But this is the case for all houses.

And yes, fixtures list.

I'd be pretty annoyed to discover missing skirting boards and half a carpet. Do you still have the missing bits, at least?
The drill holes are to be expected.

I always thought that if you removed something you were supposed to "make good" any damage.

I've been wondering about this, particularly in terms of pictures on walls. It's going to look terrible when they come down and there are just hooks everywhere. Is that OK? But I can't see what I can do about it - especially where they are hanging on wallpaper. I could hardly fill holes and repaper!

I've bought and sold about a dozen times and it's highly unusual to remove fitted wardrobes and light fixtures. Was that detailed on the listing before they made an offer? Or at least on the fixtures list before they exchanged?

You need to make sure they are aware of all this and still want to go ahead. If so, you need to repair holes in the walls and reinstate missing flooring and skirting boards. Hardly seems worth it for some IKEA wardrobes that will probably get damaged in transit.

Well, the OP says the buyers don’t want to buy the IKEA units from them. But I agree they may well not know that two rooms are missing half their carpet and a good area of skirting board without them.

When I moved last week I made good any holes- ie put in a bit of filler. Any light fittings I removed I left cheap ones in their place (so didnt leave like wires hanging down). I think all of that is okay.

As for the wardrobes... I agree I'd be pretty miffed to find half the skirting and carpet missing. I think a lot of people leave Pax behind for this reason.

Did you offer to sell them the IKEA units or did you say they would be included? I would be really pissed if the house I bought was full of holes. Just leave the wardrobe and make good the holes in the wall.

It's unusual to ask buyers if they want to buy wardrobes that have been fitted. They are normally just left. Hopefully the OP didn't just ask if they wanted to buy 'any furniture'.

its very usual to take light fittings with you and only carpet up to furniture, did you not mention that? The holes in the wall from TVs is normal.

My mother made this exact decision - to tell her buyer that he could buy a row of PAX wardrobes in the bedroom.

Of course he said no.

So then muggins here had to take down four PAXs and dispose of them. Then we had to repaper a feature wall because there was a gap and she didn't have any paper left.

Had she just have not mentioned the wardrobes and left them none of that would have happened.

I really, really don't think you can hand over a house with missing skirting boards and insufficient carpet.

OP it is normal and fair for a buyer to assume that something fixed to the property has effectively become part of the property and so stays . If you remove fixed items you need to make good .

Lots of people don’t .

Treat other people how you would like to be treated .

We inherited PAX from our vendors, certainly didn't pay for them. It would have been more of a ballache for them to take them down.

Removing pictures and scuffs on walls is wear and tear. Holes where you’d expect carpet and skirting board to be is not and if I moved into a property like that unexpectedly, I’d be looking at recourse through my solicitor.
It is different if you have told them though that there’s no carpet or skirting once the wardrobes are removed. It isn’t easy to just patch in a carpet.
Given your post, I think you know this is the case

I wouldn’t say anything at this stage as they should be aware the house won’t look as perfect after things like the TV is removed & if they are being naive, that’s on them. I would always leave the light fittings behind though.

I would feel bad about the situation with the wardrobes. So after exchanging contracts I would ask again if they are sure they don’t want them left behind. This time I would stress that if they are removed, the room will look bad due to a missing piece of carpet etc.

Does it not specify on your contract what kinds of items are included? It is usual for fitted items like wardrobes and light fittings to follow with the house, in my experience.

Do they not want the wardrobes or not want to pay for the wardrobes? Fitted wardrobes should have been included in the price, if they have to pay extra, but they are intrinsic to the fabric of the room, which it seems they are, I think you would have to make good.

You either make good the area covered by the wardrobes or you leave them behind.

I’d check your contract because with some you are legally obliged to fill in any holes left behind. I would be very annoyed to go into a room to find a large area of the carpet missing if I thought the house was ready to move into and didn’t need any work doing

Slightly off topic, but when you remove your TV cables through the walls, attach a length of spare cable/rope as you pull them through and then leave this running through the wall.
This will make it so much easier for the new owners to thread their TV cables through the wall... And definitely earn you some brownie points!

Thank you for all the responses so far. To clear up a few of the questions:

The light fittings - I’m referring to our bespoke fittings which will be removed and replaced/made good with the standard white plastic rose and wire. Some of the light fittings were £200/300+ and there are 7 in total so would not be including all of those. They are obviously bigger than the standard one it will be replaced with though and could have potentially marked the ceiling/will at least flash up the difference with the paint.

TV unit - was bespoke and expensive, so again not just going to leave. It’s not fitted, just floating so attached to the wall. We can easily fill the holes from where it has been fitted but again will leave the paint to flash (as the surrounding walls will have had a couple of years exposure).

Wardrobes - I agree regarding them being more trouble that it’s worth to move them (we’d likely rip them out and skip them for that reason), however they have specifically said they don’t want them as they want to use that room as a bedroom/office which wouldn’t fit with the wardrobes. So we’re in a catch 22, as if we remove them there is then the issue with the skirts/carpet. We didn’t indicate either way on the fixtures and fittings form regarding the wardrobes, we left it to ask them what they wanted to do and they have specifically asked us to take them.

Edit to add - sorry, it wasn’t worded clearly in my op. I’m terms of buy them off us, we were happy to just leave them but as above they have explicitly stated they don’t want them and should be removed. They are not fitted as such as they don’t cover the full length of the walls, the carpet/skirts were just removed so they sat flush.

I completely understand not leaving it a mess which we’ll try our best not to do, but on the other hand the entire house would need redecorating in theory if we ‘made good’ every bracket/picture/clock/tv that will have to be taken off the wall so I’m just trying to ascertain what is reasonable/expected.

I think the general rule of thumb, is that if you tipped your house upside down and shook it, anything that stays in place should be left.