Q. I agreed to purchase the property I am buying with all the furniture included in the purchase price. However after receiving the fixtures and fittings list from my seller’s solicitor most of those items are now excluded from the sale, what can I do, surely this is unacceptable?

A. I’m afraid it may be a little late in the day to argue this now, as at the very beginning of any purchase it is imperative that everything agreed at the time of negotiation to purchase the property is put in writing, as later on it will cause exactly the kind of problem you seem to be experiencing. On the memorandum of sale that the agent sends out to both the seller, the sellers solicitor and the buyer and the buyers solicitor such things as inclusions in the sale should be added to the ‘special conditions’ section of the memorandum. If this is not set in stone at the very beginning of the agreement it will be very difficult to ague your case later on along the transaction, and unfortunately, it will simply be a case of your word against theirs.