Why Unfurnished Rarely Means Completely Empty

The words furnished and unfurnished are not defined terms, and two adverts using the same word can describe very different properties. What matters is the inventory, not the label.

The labels sit on a spectrum

Unfurnished usually still includes fitted kitchen units, a cooker, and often a fridge and washing machine, because those are attached or awkward for a tenant to supply.

Part-furnished sits in the middle and might mean white goods plus a bed and wardrobes, or it might mean the same as unfurnished with one sofa left behind.

Furnished typically means everything needed to live except bedding and kitchenware, though the quality varies from serviceable to whatever the previous tenant abandoned.

The inventory is the only reliable document

An inventory prepared before you move in lists what is present and its condition. It is the document that determines what you must return and in what state.

Items on the inventory are your responsibility for the duration of the tenancy, including anything you never intended to use and would rather have removed.

Asking for unwanted furniture to be taken out before you sign is usually easier than asking afterwards, and it should be reflected in the inventory rather than agreed verbally.

Appliances raise a repair question

An appliance supplied by the landlord is normally the landlord's to repair or replace when it fails through ordinary use. One you bring yourself is not.

This changes the arithmetic. A furnished flat with an included washing machine transfers a real future cost away from the tenant.

Establishing which appliances are landlord-supplied and which were left by a previous tenant matters, because the second category often falls into a gap where nobody is responsible.

Furnished costs more but moves cheaper

Furnished properties command higher rent, and over a long tenancy that premium can exceed the cost of buying the furniture outright.

Over a short tenancy the calculation reverses, because buying, moving and disposing of furniture carries costs that do not scale down with a shorter stay.

Someone expecting to move again within a year or two is usually better off furnished; someone settling for several years is usually better off buying.

What to check at the viewing

Open the appliances. A washing machine drum, an oven interior and the seal on a fridge tell you their age and condition faster than the exterior does.

Look for the things unfurnished properties frequently lack: curtain poles, light fittings, and shelving. Replacing all of them at once is an unwelcome first-week expense.

Photograph everything you are being given and everything already damaged, on the day you take the keys. That set of images is what settles the argument at the end.