Q I’m in the process of buying a property and while making an offer via the seller’s estate agent, I’ve specifically mentioned in the email that I need a range cooker and that it was part of my offer. After a day or two my offer was accepted by the seller.
Now, while doing the conveyance process and looking at the fixtures and fittings form that the seller has filled in, it says that the range cooker is not included. When I checked with him again via my solicitor, the seller said that he had no idea that the range cooker was part of my offer and he won’t leave it.
I feel cheated because of the miscommunication from the property agent to the seller, and I’ve already spent a good amount of money on surveys and solicitors’ charges. What are my rights here and how should I approach this?
BS
A I was surprised to find that there is no law that specifies what a seller should leave in a property and what should be removed. According to the property specialists OurProperty.co.uk “legally, the vendor is not obliged to leave any fixtures or fittings in a property”, although the onus is on the seller to specify exactly what he or she is going to remove. This is typically done by having the seller fill in the Law Society’s form TA10 as part of the conveyancing process. This is a room-by-room list of what is staying and what is going, including built-in things such as range cookers and removable garden items such as sheds and compost bins.
So, although it may not feel like it, your seller has done the right thing by you by warning you – via the TA10 fixtures and fittings form – that he is going to be removing the range cooker. If it makes you feel any better, doing so is not going to be cheap. The least a near neighbour of mine has been quoted for removing her Aga is about £600 but other quotes were well over £1,000. Her reasons for wanting rid of it are principally that it is inflexible and costly to run, so maybe your seller has done you a favour. Not that that means that you can’t go back to him with a lower offer for his house minus the range cooker, given that replacing the cooker could cost you upwards of £10,000 plus VAT.
