Homeowners stripping houses of fixtures and fittings

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by Kay Murchie

A study by online conveyancers, Convex.net, has established that homeowners are increasingly stripping their houses of fixtures and fittings when they sell up, as fears of a moderation in prices grow.

The research showed that sellers have drastically reduced what they are including in a house sale.

Fixtures and fittings such as curtains and lights are either being taken away, or charged separately, while fewer sellers are prepared to include white goods such as fridges and freezers in the advertised sale price. Furthermore, sellers are likely to take away garden sheds and even tree houses.

Duncan Samuel of Convex.net, said we are finding that people will declare that they are taking everything possible and then try to squeeze more money out of the buyer by asking for extra to leave them.

Mr Samuel added we are getting more questions from sellers about what they could and could not take and looked back on our records. They showed people were certainly getting tighter about what they were willing to include on the fixtures and fittings form, probably because they were not getting what they hoped for the property.

We are finding people will declare that they are taking everything possible and then try to squeeze more money out of the buyer by asking for extra to leave them, concluded Mr Samuel.