Buying house - old furniture, rubbish, carpets etc

TheKeymeister

Hi,

Had an offer accepted on a house, it's empty as in nobody living there, but full of old knackered furniture etc. In my first offer I said I would be willing to help them move/get rid of it, but withdrew that when I had to increase my offer.

My solicitor said, "If there are any items in need of repair or if you are concerned whether or not certain bulky contents will be removed by the Seller please let me know so that I can address any such matters at this stage", but how far does this go? There's beds in all the rooms, a 3 piece suite, and various other furniture that I definitely don't want, and it would wind up costing me much time and money to get rid of.

Also in the garden is a large pile of rubbish from changing the roof on the car port, and to be honest all the carpets will be going in the skip as well. I know usually people ask for the carpets & curtains to be left behind but 70s style isn't my taste!

Can I insist that they take it all away?

vuvuzela

You can certainly insist they remove it all, and your solicitor will assist you with having this written into the contract.
However when they move out and leave everything because they can't be bothered with getting a skip, enforcing this will be difficult and potentially costly.

phill99

Vuvuzela is right. You can have a clause in the contract, but getting them to comply with it may well be difficult. The cost of a skip and a few hours labour will be a much quicker solution!

martinsurrey

You can get it written into the contract and a £1,000 retention held by the solicitor to cover the costs in case of breach (similar to how there are service charge retentions on flats in case the buyer gets stung by a higher than expected charge).

if you turn up and its full of junk, pay someone to come and take it (with evidence!) and send the bill to your solicitor who will pay you it, and release the rest of the retention.

if its fine, you tell the solicitor, who releases the retention to the vendor.

Simples

If the vendor refuses, you can also say you won’t exchange until you’ve done a pre exchange inspection and the house is empty (with exchange immediately after inspection).

If they refuse both of the above, they clearly have no intention of emptying it, so you either accept that you’ll be doing it and paying for it, revise your offer, or walk away.

tim123456789

martinsurrey wrote: »

You can get it written into the contract and a £1,000 retention held by the solicitor to cover the costs in case of breach (similar to how there are service charge retentions on flats in case the buyer gets stung by a higher than expected charge).

if you turn up and its full of junk, pay someone to come and take it (with evidence!) and send the bill to your solicitor who will pay you it, and release the rest of the retention.

if its fine, you tell the solicitor, who releases the retention to the vendor.

Simples

If the vendor refuses, you can also say you won’t exchange until you’ve done a pre exchange inspection and the house is empty (with exchange immediately after inspection).

If they refuse both of the above, they clearly have no intention of emptying it, so you either accept that you’ll be doing it and paying for it, revise your offer, or walk away.

+1

(waffle waffle to make my post long enough)

tim

gavinh1175

Have a word with the estate agent?

My late father's empty house was full of furniture when viewings took place. The property went to auction. The auctioneer asked me whether the contents would be cleared. I confirmed that the contents would be cleared by the completion date.

I left carpets, curtains & cooker. These were listed as being left in the fittings & contents form. So the vendor knew exactly what was being left behind.

Mozzanov

One man's junk is another man's treasure, as the saying goes. Have a check around for second hand furniture shops and see if they will not only take the furniture at no cost to you, but also give you a bit of cash.

EDIT: Also, you can ask your local council about removal of furniture. Some of them do it for free. (Mine does, within reason - as long as the item isn't too big, I've had a chest of drawers and an old wardrobe taken away by them before.)

Contessa

You could also list items on Freecycle-people seem to snap up the strangest things if they're free.

Mozzanov

Contessa wrote: »

You could also list items on Freecycle-people seem to snap up the strangest things if they're free.

Very good point. Also, if any of the furniture is solid wood, a local manufacturer that uses reclaimed wood might be interested.

mrsbmartin

Definately consider putting any wooden furniture etc on freecycle - it's great as make do furniture or even for those who want to upcycle (either for use or resale). Gardeners also tend to want old carpet for allotments and sheds...don't despair...we are now a junk loving nation!!!

phoebe1989seb

We recently sold my parents' house (both had to go into a nursing home) and made sure we cleared the 40-odd years worth of furniture etc that had accumulated prior to completion. That said, the couple buying were in rented and expressly stated they would be interested in some pieces - white goods (couple of years old) and three piece suite (1960s - but not in a trendy way, LOL!) - so we were happy to leave these for them.

Conversely, when we bought a house in 1997 it had previously been divided into four flats and was crammed full of furniture etc. The then owner insisted it would all be cleared on completion, but when we got the keys we found nearly 60 (:eek:) pieces of furniture still in situ as well as various other bits and bods, plus a 65' garden shoulder-height in brambles with garden furniture concealed beneath!

Everyone we contacted wanted cash to remove it - it was all rubbish, no hidden gems. So we ended up rolling up our sleeves and getting busy with lump hammers etc. We skipped some (we were gutting the place anyway) and used some as firewood. We were very young and naive at the time - now we would definitely ensure something was written into the contract to hopefully guarantee this didn't happen!