Contact your lawyer, this is completely unacceptable. Most purchases are
stated in the contract as for the home and "fittings". While you may take
lampshades and mirrors, removing the actual lights themselves is just not
on! If you want to do that, you switch them to other fittings before put the
home on the market.

That of course would be the most "up front" course of action, however,
typically when a sale is initially agreed the first thing the seller
gets from his solicitor is a tick box style fixtures and fittings
form. You then specify what you are and aren't leaving. This goes to
the buyers, if the buyer is happy they go ahead if not, they can
complain and some agreement can be made. Therefore if the sellers
said they were leaving the lights then you have a case. However, even
if they took the lights I think they are still obliged to leave the
electrical fixtures in a safe and usable state.

We just moved house & we had some very nice and very expensive
lighting fixtures, we stated we wanted to take them, the buyer didn't
blink a proverbial eyelid (although they were first timers) and I
replaced them all with brand new single light pendants and a bayonet
style wall mounting.

As the original reply said contact your solicitor, if nothing else the
sellers
deserve a legal scare to point out the error of their ways.

Ross