Fixtures and Fittings Etiquette

[Montifer]

Moving towards completion of our house sale (we hope) and currently filling in the fixtures and fittings list for the solicitor.

Not planning on taking the light fittings with us and have decided to include some blinds, bathroom mirrors / cabinets in the sale price.

Not sure what the etiquette is for carpets though.
Our house in open plan and carpeted throughout the main living areas with fairly new (less than 2 years old) reasonable quality carpets in the 2 main bedrooms (approx £400 worth)

We don't particularly want to take them to our new house but wondered if it is usual practice to put a cost on leaving them.

Any advice gratefully received.

I would say it is normal practice to leave them and not cost them. If you do include them as something that can be purchased for X, you need to bear in mind that people won't pay what you originally paid for them and in all probability would then tell you to take them with you (they would think that you would find it too much hassle to take them up and just leave them anyway).

In the big picture it's really not worth worrying about recouping a couple of hundred pounds.

On the few occasions that vendors have said that they want money for the carpets (at the viewing stage), tbh we have taken this as a bad sign and not wanted anything to do with them.

Unless you really would be prepared to have the carpets taken up and refitted in your new house, why bother ?

I was bloody furious when the woman who was selling me my flat suddenly announced she wanted £3k for her carpets, particularly as there is only concrete underneath. So I told her I wouldn't pay and she could take them with her. She didn't.

I think 2 year old carpets that cost £400 are only worth about £200 anyway so it's hardly worth the sour taste - certainly made me not want to give her an inch after that.

Normal practise is to leave the carpets, with no extra charge. I'd be very wary of a seller who wanted extra for them!

we were charged £500 for carpets on our last house. it was about a year old. they only asked for it very last minute. we really wanted to say no thank you, but they seemed the type that might have pulled them up just for the sake of it! so we paid up

When people view a house they see it as a whole package and will take the style/standard of 'fixed decor' items like carpets, light fittings and doors into account when making their decision to buy your house over another. So unless you tell viewers that these things aren't included (either in the sales particulars or in person during the viewing), I don't think it'd be fair to ask for extra money for them.

Actually I think you'd be legally obliged to include any flooring that is featured on your sales particulars (either in writing, e.g. 'Bedroom 2 - carpeted floor' or in a photo) unless you have a disclaimer at the end stating that they're not included in the price and would need to be purchased seprately. It's also worth remembering that when the estate agent values the property, they take things like this into account when they set the price - if you had manky carpets they would reduce the asking price a bit to account for this. So in a way you're already being paid for them

That's unanimous then.

Thanks all