Q: I recently sold my house. I agreed to also sell the sofas and dining room set to the buyer for an additional cash payment. Can I retract on the furniture sale and take the furniture with me instead of accepting the payment?

A: If the sofas and dining room set were set to be sold along with the house, it is not permissible to retract. This remains true even if they were not paid for yet and no other kinyan was made on the furniture. This is based on the concept of kinyan agav. Kinyan agav means that when one is selling real estate, it is possible to incorporate the sale of movable items along with the sale of real estate. The kinyan finalizing the real estate transaction also affects the sale of the movable items (C.M. 202:1-2).

If, however, the understanding was that the sale of the furniture would be a separate transaction unrelated to the sale of the house, the sofas and dining room set would require their own act of kinyan to make the transaction binding.