Taking away everything but the kitchen sink

Fixtures and fittings in the house of your dreams may be gone by the time you get the keys. Patricia Kelly reports.

When we sold the house we moved the Aga with us. For the uninitiated this is a hefty cast iron cooker with four ovens (smaller ones have two) which works on the principle of heat storage and it weighs a ton - well, 584 kilograms to be exact. In England an Aga in the kitchen is a selling point and although they enjoy a certain popularity in Flanders, the Belgian family who bought our house was not interested. It was agreed with them that the cooker would go when we did. I later wished we’d taken the kitchen sink as well, because it was a huge double butler sink that I’d rescued from a builder’s yard and I later learnt that they had revamped the kitchen after they moved in and had thrown it out.

As a general rule, however, kitchen sinks cannot be moved and stay with the house. The same applies to fitted kitchens - if the refrigerator, cooker and kitchen cupboards are fitted then they stay, but if they are freestanding then they can go. Fitted carpets are left behind but the curtain rails can come down. Garden furniture goes with the previous owner, but gates and ornamental wells and the like must stay where they are, as must trees and plants. If it is rooted into the ground it stays, while garden gnomes, pot plants and window boxes are usually not part of the sale unless specified.

All this may sound obvious, but a lot can happen in the four months between signing the agreement to purchase (compromis de vente/verkoopcompromis) and the final act (act authentique/authentieke). It is not uncommon for a new householder to discover on possession that the previous owner has taken items that they had assumed came with the house he or she had just bought. I recently heard of a case where fireplaces had been stripped and doors removed and the garden denuded of plants and trees.

Overijse estate agent Nicole Thibaut of Immo 2002 says she learned her lesson the hard way when a seller disappeared with a stone fireplace, but she adds that it has only happened to her once in 17 years. Her advice to buyers is to go back to the house with the owner just before they go to the notary to sign the final contract.

"The excuse can be that you need to check the numbers on electricity, water and gas meters so they can be transferred to your name," says Thibaut. "But this is a good time to check if the house is still in the same condition as before - if it is not, you can refuse to sign."

Thibaut says that the best bet is to leave nothing out of the original agreement to purchase which is there to protect both parties. This agreement is drafted by the vendor’s notary and the buyer’s notary is entitled to amend it before signature by both parties.

If the sale collapses as a result of an infringement by the vendor of the agreement to purchase, the vendor is obliged to refund the buyer’s 10% deposit, usually held in trust by the notary, as well as paying a further 10% of the value of the property in damages. The same applies in reverse - if a collapsed sale is deemed to be the fault of the buyer, then the owner gets to keep the original deposit and may claim a further 10% in damages.

Although estate agents in this country play an increasingly major role in buying and selling houses, previously the prerogative of the notary, it is advisable to line up a notary to act on your behalf before attempting to buy property in Belgium. A good one, preferably recommended by someone who has already been through the process, could make all the difference to the transaction and guarantee a smooth sale.

• Patricia Kelly is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.

Fixtures and fittings in the house of your dreams may be gone by the time you get the keys. Patricia Kelly reports.