Vendors taken light fittings agreed included in sale

meanmum

We've just taken possession of a house where we agreed that curtains & light fittings were included. The vendors have removed most of the light fittings & replaced with a ceiling rose & bulb, and replaced a nice set of curtains with cheap & nasty ones. The originals are recorded in the agents photographs, so we do have a record of what we agreed to buy.
Do we have any come back on this? Who should we contact - the estate agent?

bigfreddiel

You've just spent probably a few hundred thousand pounds, and you're worried about a pair of curtains and a few light fittings?

Well just take them to the small claims court and go for what you estimate you have lost.

Getting your solicitor involved will just cost you as much if not more than the value of your missing items.

But it's your choice.

Merry xmas fj

PasturesNew

Check the fittings sheet that's signed. Does it specify exactly WHICH fittings/curtains, or just fittings/curtains.

If it just says "we'll leave curtains" then they could be any.

marksoton

bigfreddiel wrote: »

You've just spent probably a few hundred thousand pounds, and you're worried about a pair of curtains and a few light fittings?

Well just take them to the small claims court and go for what you estimate you have lost.

Agreed. But there's a principal at stake here.

As a vendor you shouldn't sign the fixtures and fittings list and then be disingenuous.

chappers

marksoton wrote: »

Agreed. But there's a principal at stake here.

As a vendor you shouldn't sign the fixtures and fittings list and then be disingenuous.

Absolutely.
If your happy to live your life by semantics and the letter of the law, rather than have some integrity about how you live your life then go ahead and be prepared to be treated the same.

Turn this on it's head, is it worth being sued for the cost of the fittings/curtains and costs plus all the hassle for the sake of leaving the fixtures and fittings you had already agreed to sell to the buyer.
Something comes to mind how a friend of mine got his own back on someone who welched on a deal they had made. He clipped every coupon asking for information he came across for over a year and got it sent to this persons home, he even got friends involved doing the same. I dread to think of the amount of junk mail that poured through his door for years after that.
Just saying like.

bigfreddiel

marksoton wrote: »

Agreed. But there's a principal at stake here.

As a vendor you shouldn't sign the fixtures and fittings list and then be disingenuous.

I agree, small claims court it is then

Actually, I would get the items back no matter the cost, shred them and pack in a box and then courier them back to the vendors so they have to stay in all day and to sign for them

Let us all know how this goes, costs no object, cheers fj

marksoton

Wow.

Let's hope no one buys from your pool of friends then.

And never under estimate how far people will chase this sort of thing.

meanmum

I don't want to get nasty with them about it, but they were good quality fittings & curtains, & I just feel they've been a bit sneaky doing this - there was a definite verbal agreement of what they'd leave, & the offer letter just specifies "curtains & light fittings". We don't have in writing specifically which items were to be left, it just never crossed my mind that I needed to specifically put this in the contract to stop them doing this. It just leaves a bad feeling.......

[Deleted User]

Yes this is morally wrong.

But if you want the bad feeling to last and get into arguments along the lines of:

Q."Why didn't you leave your curtains and light fittings"
R. "We did"
Q."You didn't leave the curtains and fittings we agreed you would leave"
R. "We left the curtains and fittings we agreed to"
Q. "No you didn't"
R. "Yes we did"
and on and on.., expensively, paying for solicitors time, getting more and more frustrated.

If they are the sort that will do this, they will argue. And unfortunately, as it wasn't specified which curtains and light fittings would be left.., they probably will get away with it. Your solicitor will delight in an extra Christmas bonus if you don't.

So cut your losses.., you won't win this one.., buy the curtains and light fittings YOU want, rather than get them according to someone else's taste. Christmas sales are days away!

househuntingmad

As far as I can see they've done as they agreed - left curtains and light fittings. Photos, verbal agreements and all that are really irrelevant.

Chalk it down to experience and move on - have fun choosing new curtains and fittings in your new home, and forget about fighting a losing battle.

lincroft1710

What is the value of secondhand light fittings and curtains?

Because that is what the vendors agreed to leave. If you go down the MCOL route, all you can claim for is the value of the secondhand light fittings and curtains which the vendor had agreed to leave.