First-time buyers' horror as owners even take skirting boards from new home

Elise Wassell moved into her new home with her partner, George Larder, 23, and their now eight-month-old daughter Sofia Larder on 5 June.

All was well until the 22-year-old realised the skirting boards in the downstairs of the house were missing.

Photos and footage show the bare walls from where the skirting boards have been ripped away from them.

The confused mum-of-one said the seller had only left half of one skirting board in their kitchen - the rest were gone.

Elise, who works as a claims advisor, said her solicitor has been back and forth with the seller's solicitor, but that the seller has refused to comment or reimburse them.

According to Co-op Legal Services the way to work out if something is a fixture or a fitting is to imagine tipping the house upside down and seeing what falls out.

Their methodology would suggest that skirting boards are usually considered a fixture or fitting since they would not fall out and are securely fixed to the house - however it appears a grey area.

When Elise shared their fury on TikTok, commenters were split, with some branding the snatching of them as 'extreme'.

However others suggested that if the previous owners had bought and paid for them then they were 'theirs to take'.

Elise, from near Southampton, Hampshire, said: "We bought a house, we'd viewed it three times previously so it's not like we'd just bought it from a photo.

"Obviously we get the keys, turn up. There's no skirting boards. We were like, 'what the hell?'

"It wasn't ever communicated.

"I just laughed because I was like, 'surely not.' I was like, 'is this a normal thing? Do people take skirting boards?' Do you know when you're just so confused?

"And then I was like, 'were they even there?' But they definitely were.

"It was the day we moved in and the worst thing was it was really bad weather as well. It was all rainy and you know when you're like, 'this has really tipped me over the edge.

"They left half of one in the kitchen. If you needed to take them all, why didn't you take them all?

"You don't understand how dusty it gets without them. It was so bad what was left behind. It was all plaster. Everything was disgusting.

"The baby is on the floor crawling, we needed them.

"It's still annoying when I think back to it because I met them in person, they were so nice. They knew we had a daughter and things like that."

The couple were left for six weeks without skirting boards but thankfully a family friend fitted them some new ones on July 18 for £300.

Elise said her ideal outcome would be to be reimbursed for this cost but is not confident she will see the money.

She posted a video about the ordeal on TikTok and users have viewed it more than 1.6 million times.

Elise said: "My ideal outcome would be getting what we paid back. [But] I feel like that outcome is long gone.

"Everyone was saying look through your contract. Apparently the skirting boards are classed as a fixture and fitting which is automatically included in the house.

"I think they say if you tip a house upside down, anything that doesn't fall out should stay. Obviously skirting boards aren't going to fall out.

"I think it's quite normal to leave them but a lot of people were saying that it's very normal to take them. I was like, 'wow, you're a horrible person then."

TikTok users left more than 2,700 comments and were divided in opinion.

One user commented: "The amount of people saying it's cool to take the skirting boards are off their nut. Clearly you would leave them."

Another said: "Skirting boards are literally so cheap and usually filthy in old houses. Just replace them and move on."

A third commented: "I'm all for removing some of the stuff I put up, but skirting boards are a bit extreme."

A fourth said: "I mean, if they are skirting boards they paid for with their own money then they absolutely have every single right to take them?"