wait until exchange?

Vikaroo

Hi

We are buying our house privately and all the searches have come back ok but our solicitor is waiting on guarantees for the windows and wants to know who owns the grass verge outside the house. The seller has offered us all the furniture and white goods in the house for 1k. Hes asked to have it now though as he wants to start work on a new extension in his girlfriends house which he lives at now while his is being sold. Do you think this is reasonable or should we wait for exchange?

LisaLou1982

It needs to be written into the contract that he is leaving all of the fixtures etc otherwise whats to stop him taking your money and taking all the furniture too?!

Cheeky_Monkey

Absolutely not :eek:

At the very least, you should wait until exchange as anything can happen between now and then. You may end up not buying the house at all for some reason and then the chances of you getting your money back would be, IMO, nil to zero

questionss

WAIT!!!

What if it falls thru' you'll never get your money back or the stuff!

It needs to be in the contract so you have comeback if he takes stuff!

Vikaroo

I think you are right about waiting until exchange in case it falls through as I guess there is still the potential for things to go wrong. But we agreed earlier that we would do the furniture outside the contract due to the extra work costs etc. I know there is some risk.

questionss

Vikaroo wrote: »

I think you are right about waiting until exchange in case it falls through as I guess there is still the potential for things to go wrong. But we agreed earlier that we would do the furniture outside the contract due to the extra work costs etc. I know there is some risk.

In that case I would pay him in cash on completion day.

Vikaroo

Yes we have decided to meet him at the house on completion day and walk round with him then and hand the money over as he hands the keys over. He seems happy with this.

Yorkie1

Are you near the stamp duty threshold?

£1K sounds a lot for F&F.

Cash in hand without it being declared to your solicitor sounds very dodgy.

Agree with everyone else about not touching this with a bargepole unless the payment is on completion (and your solicitor is informed).

Jenniefour

Do you want/like the furniture you're being offered? White goods - if this is integrated fridge and so on normally would be included in the sale anyway, unless specified otherwise on sale details and inventory. Check this before you agree to anything.

Vikaroo

1k is for practically everything in the house. This is:

2 sofas
1 dining table
2 side tables
1 tv cabinet
1 coffee table
1 microwave
1 dishwasher
1 washing machine
1 fridge freezer
1 condenser dryer
1 double bed
2 wardrobes
1 mirror
1 32 inch lcd tv

The stuff looks all pretty new is to our taste and he says are all less thn 18 months old. I think its a bargain to be fair. I think we pretty safe handing cash over when we collect keys from him. If furniture not there he gets no cash. Hes not particularly a stranger either hes a friend of friends but we didnt know this until we first visited the house. If I explain a bit more his house has been empty for 18 months as he moved in with his gf so he now doesnt need the furniture but doesnt want the hassle of trying to flog it or store it. Yes the house is 140k so hit stamp duty. Would cost us far more to buy all this stuff new.

And no its not integrated

Jenniefour

Then it's a good deal for both parties. Good luck!