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Sellers Removed Fixtures/ Everything "broken"!


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HOLA441

Im going through a purchase and one of the issues holding it up is that my solicitor has raised further queries with the vendors solicitor. One of which is relation to the inventory list. Hopefully the result will be clear about what is going to be left in the property to avoid situations like this

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HOLA442
  • 3 weeks later...
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HOLA443

Back in the depths of the 1989-85 crash I bought a house. The vendor was planning on using the money to downsize and fund his retirement (nothing changes!). He was angry and bitter because the timing of the crash meant he had to scale back his plans considerably.

The property had sat on the market for some time, it was a big detached house in a great location, but he'd let it become run down as he didn't want to spend any money. And in the depths of a crash only spruced up properties tend to sell. Because he was selling himself to avoid EA fees I negotiated with him personally. Inevitably instead of being angry with the market he then became angry with me personally! I explained that there were several houses in the area that I was interested in and the very most I would offer him was £X thousand, which was far far below what he wanted. Eventually he accepted, but instead of being just angry with me he was clearly now incandescent with rage.

I expected problems on completion and wasn't disappointed. Original arts and crafts parquet flooring was gouged, the boiler was sabotaged, fittings were crowbarred off walls, and most petty of all, he'd dumped a pile of dog shit into the swimming pool.

Hey ho, the best revenge is to live a good life.

The market duly recovered, I spent a lot on refurbishing and extending the house, and ten years later sold the place for about triple what I'd paid.

Then who should turn up on my doorstep one day during the sale but the original vendor.

He started off reasonably civil but soon began wheedling for some extra money and when I told him where to go and reminded him about his "leaving presents" he started shrieking that I'd reduced him to destitution and his woes were all my fault. He was a wizened old man by now so I didn't feel particularly threatened by the incident, but it was one of those defining moments that shapes your views on the madness of the UK property market.

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HOLA445

One possibility, if you suspect anything might be removed (or not) or damaged, is to inspect the property literally just before completion and refuse to complete if there's anything amiss. And of course it have in writing beforehand what you have agreed, this or that to be left,, rubbish to be cleared, etc.

I did this several years ago since I had a fair idea that the vendor was going to leave piles of crap and and manky old furniture for us tp get rid of. I had made clear to the EA that we would not complete until the property was completely clear. I was not prepared to have to pay someone to take it all away. Vendor tried it on anyway, leaving a load of rubbish, and a filthy old sofa that was only fit for the tip. There was a delay of about 24 hours while he had it cleared - he was not at all happy but tough sh*t.

I learned the hard way many yrs ago after we bought our first house. Mr B was working in the Mid East and I was doing it all on my tod, with a very young baby. We had agreed to pay for various curtains etc. but the bitch vendor took down every single other curtain rail, and various other fittings and light bulbs. I would gladly have paid for the wretched rails -had to put up all new ones on my own. And this was after I had let her stay 4 days after completion (my solicitor had a fit) because her new much bigger house wasn't ready.

Truth was, she was mightily p*ssed off with Mr B for driving a very hard bargain. When he made the offer in person she said (she was German,please imagine a heavy accent - 'You are not in an Arab marketplace now!' And he said, nicely enough, well, take it or leave it.

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