Sale agreed: what kitchen appliances included?

hibby

We accepted an offer last week and the buyer lodged a booking deposit with the estate agent, so now the sign outside our house says "Sale Agreed".

We got a letter from the estate agent today. It explained that we were sale agreed, stated the amount of money agreed, and stated that this included: fitted carpets, curtains, light fittings and kitchen appliances.

Fair enough - we never specifically said that our kitchen appliances were included with the house but we're not going to make a fuss because it saves us the hassle of moving and storing them; we feel lucky to have sold so quickly and we are happy enough with the price.

So the other thing is, the buyers are coming to look at the house again next week and to "discuss the contents". So I'm wondering, what's to discuss? What's up for grabs?

If the sale includes kitchen appliances, does that mean:
washing machine, cooker, dishwasher, fridge? What about the microwave? I presume things like coffee maker and food processor (which were on display during the viewings) are not included?

Diddler1977

Congratulations on the sale!

Ask your Estate Agent what "appliances" generally means.

I wouldn't have thought coffee maker & food processor would be included. Microwave possibly could be.

Marcusm

Generally you cannot remove fixtures, ie anything which is so affixed as to become part of the fabric of the building. All of the other items (and particularly the counter top ones) are not necessarily included. Most people would leave behind installed or fitted appliances as to do otherwise might be to cause damage to units or would have little value unless an identical kitchen existed in a new property. A smart buyer will seek to set out a list as otherwise they are on shaky ground afterwards.

StillWaters

Fitted appliances would normally be included, so cooker, hob, extractor, fridge and maybe dishwasher. Nothing else would be expected.

hibby

Marcusm wrote: »

Generally you cannot remove fixtures, ie anything which is so affixed as to become part of the fabric of the building. All of the other items (and particularly the counter top ones) are not necessarily included. Most people would leave behind installed or fitted appliances as to do otherwise might be to cause damage to units or would have little value unless an identical kitchen existed in a new property. A smart buyer will seek to set out a list as otherwise they are on shaky ground afterwards.

Thanks for that. Maybe that's what they are coming to do next week - to agree a list of what's theirs and what's ours.

By the way, none of our kitchen appliances are "fitted" - they are all stand-alone appliances, if that's relevant.

odds_on

hibby wrote: »

Thanks for that. Maybe that's what they are coming to do next week - to agree a list of what's theirs and what's ours.

By the way, none of our kitchen appliances are "fitted" - they are all stand-alone appliances, if that's relevant.

You should have agreed with the estate agent what was included in the sale when you were putting the house on the market.

If the buyer now finds that certain items are not in the sale they may be disgruntled and ask for a reduction in the price or worse still, they could pull out of the sale.

jameshayes

Just to flip this around slightly, they may want to meet to ask you to take them away so they dont have to...

robd

hibby wrote: »

Thanks for that. Maybe that's what they are coming to do next week - to agree a list of what's theirs and what's ours.

By the way, none of our kitchen appliances are "fitted" - they are all stand-alone appliances, if that's relevant.

Technically appliances that are stand-alone are not included unless specified in the contract. The estate agent may have verbally agreed something. In other words the buyer may have state that the offer was to include kitchen appliances.

It's something you should seek to clarify as it's one of those things that can leave a very sour taste in either party's mouth if there's different assumptions going on. Some people have never bought or sold a house before so don't know what's normal.

You're probably best to then agree with solicitor to specifically name included appliances as an addendum so there is no misunderstanding.

Ray Palmer

Get them listed in the sale. The only thing that matters is this. One place I bought they removed lots of things I expected to stay. Curtain rails, light fittings and door handles. Very annoying as it was a period house. Maybe the stuff was worth a total of €1000 but time consuming to replace. I managed they to give back some of it after some very frustrating calls.They claimed that they bought them so they owned them

I would say anything requiring a screwdriver to disconnect is a fixture/fitting but you would want you solicitor to make this point.

hibby

I don't expect we'll fight over anything. We're leaving the country for a while so if the buyers want some of the furniture or appliances they can have them - it saves us the trouble of storing them. We have specifically mentioned to our estate agent certain items of furniture that we are happy to leave behind.

We were mainly worried that "kitchen appliances" would be interpreted as including some smaller items such as food processor, coffee maker or microwave that we had not intended to be included in the sale.

Victor

hibby wrote: »

We were mainly worried that "kitchen appliances" would be interpreted as including some smaller items such as food processor, coffee maker or microwave that we had not intended to be included in the sale.

I would not consider these to be part of a property sale.

Dades

hibby wrote: »

We were mainly worried that "kitchen appliances" would be interpreted as including some smaller items such as food processor, coffee maker or microwave that we had not intended to be included in the sale.

Nope - that shouldn't be a worry.

Only white goods in the kitchen really count - especially fitted stuff.
When we advertised our house I had our EA specifically include the fitted stuff in the kitchen but exclude a standalone (but fitted into a space behind doors) washer-dryer we'd just spend €500 on.

I doubt you'll have issues. It's more often the buyer has issues with the vendor taking mad stuff out.