Selling house - what exactly constitutes 'fixtures and fittings'

antilles

Hi

I am in the process of selling my house and the buyer has insisted that I leave all of the light switches behind . Not sure exactly why I would remove these anyway but I've told my baffled Estate Agent that this is fine! I presume the buyer has previously bought a house where someone removed the light switches...crazy!

Anyway this raised another thought, what exactly am I expected to leave behind? Just wanted to get people's thoughts? I would expect to take any furniture, and leave all fixtures and fittings that are screwed down - curtain rails, loo roll holders, fireplace etc, basically anything that would cause damage to remove.

But what about fixtures that would leave behind things like screwholes, for example I have big mirrors in the hallway and living room that I want to take to the new house...removing these would obviously leave behind the screws sticking out of the wall. Would I be expected to leave these 'as-is' or would there be any expectation to 'make good', i.e. remove any screws/plugs, fill and paint? I don't even have the original paint to be honest...

Just wondered what people had done themselves?

googler

Selling in E&W or Scotland?

It's fairly clear in Scotland, and most often outlined in the standard contract clauses. Anything which has become 'heritable' by virtue of being attached to the house, essentially.

The general rule of thumb is anything which would stay in place if the house were turned upside down should stay, unless specifically excluded by stating as such in missives.

chris_m

antilles wrote: »

I am in the process of selling my house and the buyer has insisted that I leave all of the light switches behind . Not sure exactly why I would remove these anyway but I've told my baffled Estate Agent that this is fine! I presume the buyer has previously bought a house where someone removed the light switches...crazy!

Are they "fancy" switches, maybe with metal fascias? Sometimes people change the switches, taking their nice ones and leaving the buyer with ordinary plain plastic ones.

G_M

Yeah th general rule is what would happen if the prperty was turned upside down.

Loose things would fall, so are not F&Fs. eg a fitted carpet is a F&F but a loose rug is not.

However I believe pictures (and your mirror) on the wall would not be F&Fs even if screwed to the wall rather than hanging loosely on a hook.

Yes, when you empty a property it never looks as great as it did when the buyer viewed. there'll be markes on the capets left by furniture. Shadows on wall where pictures were, and ....... holes left by picture hooks.

If you're really nice, fill the holes with plaster or polyfiller and dab on a splodge of the paint you kept last time the walls were painted...........

stator

Might as well leave the hooks and screws in the wall, they will look worse if you take them out and the buyer can do so if they wish.

There's a standard fixtures and fittings form you will have to fill out as part of the sale, so might as well do that and send the draft copy to the buyer.

I do remember some bad stories from when I was a kid about people ripping a house apart when they leave. I think the law has been clarified since then. I've only seen it done recently where the house was a respossession and they were clearly upset (shot themselves in the foot though as it's still their money they are losing by trashing the place)

dgtazzman

I know when I sold last year, the buyers actually insisted multiple times that all holes in the walls from screws etc. be made good, even went to the solicitors with the request...

Luckily I still had bits of the original paint used, so it wasn't too much of an effort or costs, but found it funny they were so fanatical about it...

bigfreddiel

G_M wrote: »

Yeah th general rule is what would happen if the prperty was turned upside down.

Loose things would fall, so are not F&Fs. eg a fitted carpet is a F&F but a loose rug is not.

However I believe pictures (and your mirror) on the wall would not be F&Fs even if screwed to the wall rather than hanging loosely on a hook.

Yes, when you empty a property it never looks as great as it did when the buyer viewed. there'll be markes on the capets left by furniture. Shadows on wall where pictures were, and ....... holes left by picture hooks.

If you're really nice, fill the holes with plaster or polyfiller and dab on a splodge of the paint you kept last time the walls were painted...........

He said he doesn't have the paint!

Anyway, if in doubt, and to avoid any problems, provide the buyer with a list of things you are taking, like this mirror.

Cheers fj

matttye

When courts are asked to decide what is a fixture and what is a fitting, they use three tests:

1. The degree of attachment - if an item is attached to the land/building by something apart from its own weight, it is likely to be a fixture;
2. The purpose of attachment - if an item is attached to the land for its own benefit, it is likely to be a fitting, but if it is attached to increase the owner's enjoyment of the land, it is likely to be a fixture;
3. The permanence of attachment - light fittings etc. are likely to be permanently attached whereas things like curtains will not be attached permanently. The courts will consider whether an item is likely to remain attached permanently.

FYI, I'm only explaining briefly the law behind what courts use to determine whether something is a fixture or fitting. The fact that you're using the fittings and contents form removes any ambiguity. You can put whatever you intend to take with you on there and then argue the toss with the buyer before you exchange.

konark

Even if you still have the original paint , the paint on your walls will have faded to a different shade!

Mocha61

If you wanted to fill in any holes but didnt have spare paint could you try a tester pot of paint think they are only around £2 and would help to cover the filler . Not necessary a perfect match but better than nothing.

pinkteapot

Assuming you're in England/Wales rather than Scotland, during the solicitor's process you'll be asked to complete a Fixtures and Fittings form. This is legally binding and has tick-boxes. For each room, you'll be asked if you're leaving or taking the carpet, curtains, light fitting, and probably some other things that I've forgotten.

If you take anything you have to make good. Eg if you take a light fitting, you can't just leave a dangling wire - you have to replace with a basic pendant fitting.

With our current house, I stupidly forgot to say that our offer included the curtains, and we only found out from the F&F form that the seller was taking most of them. They were lovely quality made to measures and we have a lot of windows that we've had to buy curtains for! (Seller wouldn't negotiate on it and it wasn't worth losing the house over). In the future, I'll probably make any sellers think I'm weird by having a detailed discussion to establish the curtain situation!

As you say, I suspect your buyer has been burned in the past by a vendor that took everything! When the time comes, just complete the F&F form honestly and the buyer will query it if they're not happy about anything.