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Carpets Included in House Sale Price

Tommo781
Tommo781 Posts: 95 Forumite
in House buying, renting & selling
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.
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Comments

  • evoke
    evoke Posts: 1,286 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    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.
    Everyone is entitled to my opinion!
  • CloudCuckooLand
    CloudCuckooLand Posts: 1,905 Forumite
    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...
    Act in haste, repent at leisure.

    dunstonh wrote:
    Its a serious financial transaction and one of the biggest things you will ever buy. So, stop treating it like buying an ipod.
  • pinkteapot
    pinkteapot Posts: 8,038 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic First Post
    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
    Tommo781 Posts: 95 Forumite
    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
    tamarto Posts: 832 Forumite
    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
    F_T_Buyer Posts: 1,139 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Combo Breaker
    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
    Jackinbox99 Posts: 429 Forumite
    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
    Doshwaster Posts: 6,135 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
    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
    Tommo781 Posts: 95 Forumite
    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
    Doshwaster Posts: 6,135 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
    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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