Buying a house, vendor wants £500 for burglar alarm.

charlamine

We had an had an alarm fitted and it was linked to the police and fire etc, it was an expensive system which we paid via direct debit for over 3 years.

When we moved we still had about 8 months left on the direct debit - and we just said to the vendor that we would continue to pay the direct debit for them as at the end of the day it wasn't there choice to have it fitted, I would never have dreamt of saying that they would have to pay for it.

We also left most of bulky furtniture there for free as we planned to buy new with the equity and it saved us having the hassle of trying to move it and get rid at a later date, that including fridge, washing machine and oven. I would bet that they will leave it there if you don't buy it,

System

DRP wrote: »

also remember it is very easy for us to get all militant about this as it isn't our house deal.... negotiation is the key and in the grand scheme of things over-paying a few hundred quid for some useful items is nothing if it means the whole process goes smoothly!

That's my thought process too. I'm very aware that house prices are going up and as they are downsizing I don't want to encourage the "house prices have gone up so you need to pay more" routine.

franklee

I hope you're not near a stamp duty boundary? If paying for stuff takes you over a limit you'd need to make sure you aren't overpaying by second hand prices.

System

I was hoping that this part of the transaction would be seperate to the house price. I'm not paying stamp duty for a fridge!

That said, we aren't near the boundary.

giraffe69

Section 11 of the Property Form which you should get from your solicitor is all about the Burglar alarm including whether it is to be taken and if not a confirmation that all the necessary documentation will be left. I'd look at that first.

dgtazzman

If I was buying it, I'd expect the alarm to be included. I might offer a token price of 50 pounds, otherwise they can remove it and make the mess of doing so good (have it written into the contract). I wouldn't pay 300 for a fridge that is who knows how old and no guarantee on it, would give them 100, tops, 50 for the dining set, can get a new table and 4 chairs of decent quality for that 200 pounds they want...

Worry_Wart

Fixtures and fittings is a grey area in England. I've ended up paying for a fireplace, which I was a bit miffed about, but I couldn't be bothered to deal with the hole in the wall I would be left with (and it was a nice fireplace), and my solicitor said they could take whatever they liked as long as it was clarified before exchange.

I argued a bit with them about it, but at the end of the day, I wanted the house and I was buying from them directly (no EA involved), so I didn't want a break down in relationship.

BillJones

When buying my current place the vendors were ken to sell us all kinds of items, many of which had been custo mbuilt for the building.

We agreed to buy the few bts that we really liked, and passed on the rest. A couple of weeks later they came back to us asking if it was OK if they left the other pieces, too, as they did not want to have to arrange removal.

LisaLou1982

I dont think you are overpaying for fixtures and fittings.

Its all very well saying that £300 is a lot of money for a second hand fridge, but its not very informed if you havent seen the fridge!!! Ive got a large fridge which was almost £1000 new. If someone was offering it to me for £300 and it was in good condition id snap their hand off!!

G_M

Go onto ebay and look at (sold) prices for the things they are selling (eg frisge freezer). They are over-charging. The make an offer for the job lot.

Clearly they don't want these things in their smaller property, so if you don't take them they'll have either

* the hassle of selling (eg on ebay) and getting far less
* or they'll leave them anyway
* or they'll give them away.

Same principal with the alarm - if you want it, make an offer. If you are vaguely interested, offer £50 to do them a favour. Otherwise just say no.