Removing Nameplate After Sale

Expert, localized Los Angeles answers provided by Heather Roy

Removing Nameplate After Sale
	We sold a family estate home with closing this week. There is a 4 generations nameplate on the front door and the buyers insist that it stay. It isn't there name! Can I replace the name plate with an almost identical new one? It was not written down on an amenities list, either ours as not included or theirs on their offer asking for other items not listed on the amenities list.

	The rule is that an item becomes a fixture and must remain if it is permanently affixed with the intention of its remaining permanently, if it is adapted to the use for which it was intended, and a few other legal tests. I'm not a lawyer, and I have no idea what would happen if you ended up in court about this, but it strikes me that there might be a good argument that it is not adapted to use by a different family. You may have to talk with your own lawyer about this. Too bad you didn't remove it before the buyers saw the property. That's what I always advise with cherished dining-room chandeliers (a remarkably common bone of contention.) What they don't see, they can't want.
	Edith Originally published on June 4, 2007

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