Selling a house fully furnished/full of stuff

[BohemianBluebell]

Elderly DP wants to sell large property, full of 50 + years of clutter . Property Developers interested - is jt an option to sell the house WITH the contents ? So the property developers would do the majority of the house clearance , so to speak ? Is this a thing ?

Never heard of this before.

Houses are normally sold "with vacant possession" - your parent would be expected to employ a house clearance company themselves (possibly with help from you or someone else) not leave it to the buyers.

I was thinking if there was any possibility a contract could be drawn for the clearance to be done by the buyers. They are offering well under the valuation price .

I doubt it... why don't you just employ a house clearance company to do it?

Ask them, get them to offer with and without, then compare price with a clearance company.

I viewed an auction property a while ago. Initially advertised with vacant possession. During the viewing the auctioneer advised the elderly owner was unable to clear and it was sold as seen. Description online was updated to reflect this and it duly sold. New owners cleared it out.

We did.
we bought our house from an elderly lady, who didn’t want the hassle or half the stuff accumulated over 60 years there.
She asked if we would be open to buying with her able to leave anything she didn’t want. There was another buyer interested who said they wouldn’t accept, we said we would and she chose us.

was great actually as we moved from a rented fully furnished flat so at least we had some furniture to use until we decided what to do or buy some. We still have the sofa ( it’s a 1960s wooden classic, it lives in hallway now). Kept loads of vintage crockery, some artwork and mirrors etc.

Vacant possession means no people are living there on the day of completion. It is perfectly possible to leave it with the contents fully intact with the agreement of the buyer. I sold my DMs house 2 years ago still partially furnished.

I’m sure you could sell it with all contents included - you could ask an estate agent or conveyancer. I’ve seen auction properties with everything left in.

Yep. I bought my first flat with all the contents included. And DD is buying a flat now with all contents included too

You can negotiate this. Whether you would want to is another matter though - house clearance companies generally charge more than a buyer would want knocked off for the inconvenience clearing it themselves.

Bought 2 - one with everything, one partially cleared.

Kept some things I liked - cleared out the rest

You can only ask and see what they say. But I'm sure for the right price anything is possible.

Ask the developers. It can and does happen. My stepdad sold his house furnished, the lady that bought it was more than happy as it save her a lot of money furnishing it herself. But the developers may not want the hassle of clearing it. It's certainly legal though, if both the seller and vendor agree.

Yes we bought a house with stuff in.
Elderly lady had died, family didn't want to clear it.
We just got a skip and did a couple of tip runs. Nothing worth keeping.

What is vacant possession?
When buying or selling a house, the term vacant possession simply means that the house you’re buying or selling must be empty on the day of completion.
This means that there must be no remaining residents or tenants at the home, and no belongings other than those that have agreed to be left in the contract, on the day that you complete the purchase or sale.

https://myhomemoveconveyancing.co.uk/buyers/finding-a-home/what-does-vacant-possession-mean/

You can definitely do this. I viewed a house where this was the plan but we weren't keen on the place overall. It will definitely limit buyers and reduce the price but is doable. You can also pay a house clearance form then market probably cheaper. There's an interesting tiktoker who bought a house stuffed to the brim of things and it's gradually sorting through and giving things away it's quite entertaining

Houses sold at auction are sold 'as seen' with contents included... its why many seized hoarder houses go to auction.

In traditional sales you will usually be expected to clear the house and leave 'vacant possession' otherwise you may get fined for clearing fees.

Thanks everyone. It is a VERY large property- 7 bedrooms and multiple rooms and spaces downstairs full to the brim of stuff . I suppose it could be regarded as hoarded in some parts. The scale and burden of trying to clear it would be enormous . Do house clearance companies even do this size of property? When I've looked online I haven't found any !

Why are they considering offers from a developer offering under the valuation price?

My late father’s house was like that. It’s taken me nearly two years to clear it. Nearly broken me too!

We bought our elderly neighbour’s house. Most of the furniture and stuff his relatives didn’t want was left in it for us to sort out. It was never agreed, we just did it.

House clearers will do anything for a price. Ask them. Personally I would have it cleared and sell it empty.

Well you could have taken legal action against them for not leaving the house empty, if they hadn’t indicated on the forms that they were leaving this stuff behind & got your agreement.

Not saying you should have done this but you could have done as they were in the wrong re failing to leave the house empty.

You can sell a house with whatever you want still in it. So long as the buyer is made aware when they make the offer, and the contract/ f+f form states that all the junk is staying.

If a developer is keen to get the house it wont be a deal breaker for them.

Thanks @Doris86
Good to hear, we’ll see what happens !