How mean are some people??

harrup

Glassannie wrote: »

My vendors want me to pay £100 per room for carpets and to buy the blinds. They are taking the curtain poles, light fittings and even the tv aerial!! I've already said I will leave all of these items in my own house.

I've declined their kind offer I have to say.

Glassannie, I'm going to deviate with the consensus here. Except for the issue with the TV aerial, which I'm baffled by. But for the rest - may I play devil's advocate?

If the carpets are of high quality, in great condition and, most importantly, of a colour/ style you like or would choose yourself.....you might be cutting off your nose to spite your face. Also, there are fitted carpets and there are fitted carpets. Ranging from lush n'lovely to super naff and frightful. For example, £100 would have paid for aprox. 2 sq.meters for most of my fitted carpets and 2 sq. meters isn't a big area. A mere corner of a room! If, say, a buyer were to replace like-with-like, £ 100 x room would be the proverbial drop in the ocean.

What I am trying to say is - given their purchase price and quality, if I was in your vendors shoes, I wouldn't feel that I'm trying to squeeze out more money from my buyer ( unless I led them to believe that EVERYTHING was included in the sale) if I requested a tiny fraction of their cost.

Because for all I know the buyers taste differs vastly from mine and s/he would just dispose of them anyway. In which case I might either have a use for them in my next home....or maybe a friend or family member might make use of them. Or I may even put them on freecycle.

What I wouldn't feel morally obliged to do is to provide the buyer with expensive fitted carpets completely free of charge. If the buyer says "no, not interested, not paying £ 100 per room" I would have truly zero problems with it. Though I would feel rather bemused that the buyer does and feels hard done by!

Obviously, I don't know how big your "furnishing fund" for your new home is. If it is generous and you prefer starting all afresh in your new property anyway, stick to your guns and ask the vendor to take the whole fitted, unwanted kitncaboodle away as they move out.

But... if new carpets aren't on your urgent "to-do" list AND you actually like the carpets that are there AND it would leave you some financial wriggle room to address/ buy other things you want or need first...think carefully whether saying and sticking with "no" is in YOUR best interest. There is something deeply depressing about moving into a house where fitted carpets have been removed and not yet replaced. Especially so if funds for replacing them might be (temporarily) scarse.

All the best

ukcarper

I last moved in the 80s and then it was fairly normal to pay extra for carpets I have taken carpets myself but things seem to have changed and I would leave them now. But I can’t understand the aerial unless it is a special one of some kind I never heard of it myself . When I moved into my present house the previous owner had taken a large kitchen cupboard I didn’t do anything about it as I was intending to refit kitchen.

Contessa

When we moved in the early 80's it was still the norm for carpets to be an "extra". Ours were only a couple of years old and very good quality=expensive. We wanted to sell them to our buyers but they refused so we took them with us. Very useful they were too as we used them in three rooms for a several years.
Nowadays it seems mean, but that was how things were then.

Contessa

robatwork wrote: »

I would never live with anyone else's old carpet for more than about a week in any case so they are doing you a favour.

That's made me think-I've just had a room redecorated as part of my "getting ready to sell" campaign and intended to replace the carpet as it's old and faded (very obvious in places now that furniture has been moved)
But perhaps this would be throwing money away if buyers would replace anyway? Opinions please? Thanks.

Ames

I was always told that selling carpets as an extra was used to avoid stamp duty? You'd sell the house for just below the limit, then sell the carpets for an extra few thousand, regardless of their worth.

harrup

Contessa wrote: »

robatwork wrote: »

I would never live with anyone else's old carpet for more than about a week in any case so they are doing you a favour.

That's made me think-I've just had a room redecorated as part of my "getting ready to sell" campaign and intended to replace the carpet as it's old and faded (very obvious in places now that furniture has been moved)
But perhaps this would be throwing money away if buyers would replace anyway? Opinions please? Thanks.

I wouldn't bother. As long as the carpet is clean and free from bad odours ...the vast majority of buyers will want to live with furnishings they choose themselves. And those who'd quibble and haggle over the cost of replacing a lived-in carpet, will quibble over every single tiny detail. If people like the house, they happily buy it with an old carpet. Save your money.

Ellie83

Contessa wrote: »

robatwork wrote: »

I would never live with anyone else's old carpet for more than about a week in any case so they are doing you a favour.

That's made me think-I've just had a room redecorated as part of my "getting ready to sell" campaign and intended to replace the carpet as it's old and faded (very obvious in places now that furniture has been moved)
But perhaps this would be throwing money away if buyers would replace anyway? Opinions please? Thanks.

To be fair, as a buyer, I wouldn't mind an old dated carpet, as long as it's clean and I can live with it while I arrange for my own carpet/wooden floor to be put down.

Maybe you could just rent a rug doctor and give it a thorough clean? It would give your carpet a new lease of life and you could rent it for the day and do the whole house

paulmapp8306

Agree.

Having just bought a house and replaced all the carpets with new ones. Some needed it - some didnt BUT none really fitted in with the colour scheme of our furniture (front room/dinning room) or bedrooms (kids choices).

Save the money, and be prepared to take a reduced offer to offset the cost of replacement. Ultimately it will cost you less that way as the vendors may not ask for a reduction, and if they did it wouldnt be as much as new ones would cost you anyway.

tbs624

m0bov wrote: »

I would ask for £1000 off the price to pay for carpets and the fittings, did they tell you these would be removed during the sale?

I don't think they can remove these items without some sort of price reduction, stand your ground and prepare to find another property

Yes the vendor absolutely can remove them , provided that this is made clear on the pre-contract forms, and any holes etc are "made good".

If you're prepared to lose the purchase of a property you really want over a grand's worth of second hand furnishings then you're foolish m0bov.

tbs624

picklepick wrote: »

That's shocking! What are they going to do with the carpet if they take it with them?? It's just odd!

I don't think it is shocking. Perhpas the carpets may be useful in same/smaller sized rooms at the vendor's new home? Perhaps they'd like to sell them on ebay to raise some extra cash, assuming the buyer does not want to cough up?

Vendors will of course want to maximise all potential profit from the sale of their property and this will be especially the case when house prices have been falling and buyers are haggling hard over house purchase prices.

picklepick wrote: »

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that if they take the light fittings from the centre of the ceiling, they are required to leave behind a cable with bulb holder ceiling light doodah so you can attach a shade.

That bit is right:)