Making good walls when selling

Ktaylor86

Hi all, 

 I’m struggling to find a definitive answer on this. 

We are in the process of selling our house and buying a new house. 

We are fairly near exchange and have indicated on fittings form we are leaving wall shelves and curtain poles etc. 

BUT we have some wall mounted display cabinets, units/chest of drawers that are anchored to wall, wall mounted TVs that we are removing. 

I keep reading contradicting information about how we should leave the walls? In terms of our obligations. 

A.) Do we leave the rawl plugs in and leave as is? 

B.) Do we need to take rawl plugs out and poly filler? 

C.) if removing and filling holes do we then need to decorate and paint where filled? I’m particularly concerned with our lounge TV which is mounted on a wallpapered wall! Don’t want to have to wallpaper whole wall! 

To clarify I have no worries going round with filler if necessary, but particularly concerned with wallpapered wall. I will ask solicitor where we stand legally but can’t see anything specific in our draft contracts 

Many Thanks for your help 

Nebulous2

It is more a moral issue than a legal one in my view. Try to leave it as you would wish to find it yourself. 

We moved out early February, the new owners move in late March. We took down a wall-mounted TV, filled the holes, sanded it down and painted. Fortunately we had kept some matching paint. We have also touched up some other paint in the house. To be honest it was partly to prepare it for selling, we had the luxury of being able to move out before marketing it - and it worked, it went quickly for a decent price. 

It isn't perfect, one of the bedrooms we didn't have paint for is in need of a refresh, but it is better than it was 3-4 months ago. 

wannabe_a_saver

Its up to you, it would be nice of you to fill the holes, but there's no obligation and buyers shouldn't be upset if you don't.  
I certainly wouldn't expect someone to be re-papering! 

Ktaylor86

Thanks very much both 

Will definitely fill the holes in the walls where we can, was definitely worried about matching paint and papering though, so hopefully our buyer would be happy with that. I wouldn’t expect different for our new place to be honest. But I guess every person’s expectations are different. So wanted to make sure we are doing everything we are meant to. 

DRP

I wouldn’t fill holes or paint or wallpaper. You don’t know the news owners’ plans, and for example pre existing holes have turned out to be quite useful for us in our new place. 

SaverRate

When we moved into our first house last year there were rawl plugs everywhere. (Literally everywhere!!) I wasn't bothered as we were skimming all the walls anyway. If they had pulled the rawl plugs out it would have been one less job but it would have been a waste of their time if they had then filled and painted over them. 

maxsteam

Ktaylor86 said:

I will ask solicitor where we stand legally

Why not ask your solicitor to ask the buyer's solicitor? At the end of the day, it's the buyer that you want to be happy. As long as the buyer doesn't ask for a redecoration of the whole house or for you to leave the TV, I would be inclined to go with whatever they want.

If you have white walls, then white filler won't be very noticeable but I could understand a buyer being upset if they viewed a pristine house then moved into house with lots of white spots on dark coloured walls. Normally a few rawl plugs are to be expected but I'm wondering if you are asking the question because it's more than a few.

Gentoo365

If a hole can't be filled and made to look good (e.g. the wallpaper one) I would personally prefer the anchor point is left there.
At least then it can either be used for the same purpose and it's a choice for the buyer.

davidmcn

There's unlikely to be any definitive legal answer, because nobody will have taken a dispute about rawlplugs to the higher courts. Just ask your buyers if you want to know whether they have any precise expectations (or at least give them advance warning of what you're proposing to do).

AdrianC

Take the TV, leave the bracket fixed to the wall.

Ktaylor86

maxsteam said:

Ktaylor86 said:

I will ask solicitor where we stand legally

Why not ask your solicitor to ask the buyer's solicitor? At the end of the day, it's the buyer that you want to be happy. As long as the buyer doesn't ask for a redecoration of the whole house or for you to leave the TV, I would be inclined to go with whatever they want.

If you have white walls, then white filler won't be very noticeable but I could understand a buyer being upset if they viewed a pristine house then moved into house with lots of white spots on dark coloured walls. Normally a few rawl plugs are to be expected but I'm wondering if you are asking the question because it's more than a few.

Thanks I have emailed the solicitor to ask our buyer their preference. Absolutely want the buyer to be happy which is why I asked the question to ensure I meet with their expectations or what is typical and do everything I should as a seller. 
We have lived here 7.5 years and was FTB when we moved here so now first time sellers! 
Most of the walls are white so polyfiller shouldn't be too noticeable hopefully but I'm asking their preference anyway. 
As to more than a few, how do you quantify that? We have stated on our fixtures and fittings we are leaving everything possible in situ so floating shelves, curtain poles and a cabinet in bathroom, we've not asked for any extra money towards this. But we (like most households surely?) have wall anchored chest of drawers and bookshelves, 3 lots of drawers, 3 lots of bookshelves. Plus the two TVs that are wall mounted and 3 display cabinets that are wall hung! Is that more than a few?