Carpets Included in House Sale Price

Tommo781 · 13 January 2011 at 2:23PM

I am thinking of putting in an offer on a house. The sale price includes the carpets, which I simply do not want. They are old, manky, and not to my taste at all. My question is this. If I buy the house, can I insist the vendor removes the carpets? I not only don't want them, I don't want the expense and hassle of disposing of them either.

evoke · 13 January 2011 at 2:25PM

No. I'm pretty sure you can't insist they are removed and disposed of. I'd leave them in and decorate the house and then get rid of them yourself. It saves crap going onto the floorboards whilst you're having the place decorated. Treat them as free dustsheets.

CloudCuckooLand · 13 January 2011 at 2:26PM

You can ask. If the offer price etc is to their liking, they may be happy to oblige. If you have screwed every last penny out of them, they might view it as a "last straw" request...

pinkteapot · 13 January 2011 at 2:29PM

How much stuff do they have - furniture etc. If the house is quite full, moving everything to get carpets up and then putting it all back and living on bare floorboards is no fun at all. Plus the gripper rods would be exposed which have sharp spikes on.

Sorry but I wouldn't sell to you if this was a condition of sale. Far easier for you to remove the carpets before you move your stuff in than for me to do it with everything I own still in the house.

Still, you can ask. An offer can be subject to anything you want. Just say to the agent "£XXX,XXX subject to removal of all carpets before completion." Plus anything else you want.

Tommo781 · 13 January 2011 at 2:34PM

pinkteapot wrote: »

How much stuff do they have - furniture etc. If the house is quite full, moving everything to get carpets up and then putting it all back and living on bare floorboards is no fun at all. Plus the gripper rods would be exposed which have sharp spikes on.

Sorry but I wouldn't sell to you if this was a condition of sale. Far easier for you to remove the carpets before you move your stuff in than for me to do it with everything I own still in the house.

Sorry, I didn't make something clear. The house is already empty. It is being sold as part of someone's estate. Everything except the carpets has gone. So the moving of furniture etc doesn't apply.

tamarto · 13 January 2011 at 2:38PM

You can't insist on anything. You can ask if they will remove them, it may be no issue to them or it may be as big a deal to them as it is to you.

F_T_Buyer · 13 January 2011 at 2:42PM

I don't see the big deal in ripping them up and taking them to the tip. Infact, you could offer them on freecycle and someone might do it for you.

Jackinbox99 · 13 January 2011 at 2:45PM

For the cost, removing carpets are neither here nor there really, so why bother risking the purchase on it. In my old house, i did as someone else said, left them there whilst i recorated and got paint / dirt all over them, then when i had the carpet fitters in to fit new carpets they just took the old ones away with them free of charge.

At my new house, i did the same, but this time just ripped them out and took them down the local tip. Cost nothing to dispose of and about 15minutes out of my day to get rid of them. Nice and easy.

Doshwaster · 13 January 2011 at 2:51PM

tamarto wrote: »

You can't insist on anything. You can ask if they will remove them, it may be no issue to them or it may be as big a deal to them as it is to you.

Like almost everything to do with buying a house - it's negotiable. The seller might do it for you - but why should they?

You could threaten to pull out but would you be prepared to lose out on the house over something a minor as carpet removal?

Tommo781 · 13 January 2011 at 3:17PM

Doshwaster wrote: »

Like almost everything to do with buying a house - it's negotiable. The seller might do it for you - but why should they?

You could threaten to pull out but would you be prepared to lose out on the house over something a minor as carpet removal?

It is as much to do with hygiene as anything. Carpets are breeding grounds for bacteria etc, and I don't want to handle these dirty carpets if I don't have to. So I would have to pay someone to do it, and I don't see why I should. My question was really one of legality. Can I insist on them being removed legally?

Doshwaster · 13 January 2011 at 3:30PM

Tommo781 wrote: »

It is as much to do with hygiene as anything. Carpets are breeding grounds for bacteria etc, and I don't want to handle these dirty carpets if I don't have to. So I would have to pay someone to do it, and I don't see why I should. My question was really one of legality. Can I insist on them being removed legally?

I doubt there's anything you can do legally. House buying is a negotiated contract between one person and another.

The owners clearly don't want the carpets - that's why they have included them in the house price. Unless they agree to remove the carpets then you cannot insist. However, it's only going to be an hour's labour for someone. I'm sure you can find someone willing to do it for 20 quid. In the grand scheme of buying a house, it's loose change and I wouldn't be losing any sleep over it or risking the sale going through.

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Carpets Included in House Sale Price

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