diff --git a/fluent-hc/pom.xml b/fluent-hc/pom.xml
index e6004cd967..16db9a9c6e 100644
--- a/fluent-hc/pom.xml
+++ b/fluent-hc/pom.xml
@@ -73,15 +73,6 @@
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
-  <properties>
-    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
-    <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
-    <maven.compile.source>1.5</maven.compile.source>
-    <maven.compile.target>1.5</maven.compile.target>
-    <maven.compile.optimize>true</maven.compile.optimize>
-    <maven.compile.deprecation>true</maven.compile.deprecation>
-  </properties>
-
   <build>
     <resources>
       <resource>
diff --git a/httpclient-cache/pom.xml b/httpclient-cache/pom.xml
index c93f6db40c..273e6d8c51 100644
--- a/httpclient-cache/pom.xml
+++ b/httpclient-cache/pom.xml
@@ -88,15 +88,6 @@
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
-  <properties>
-    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
-    <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
-    <maven.compile.source>1.5</maven.compile.source>
-    <maven.compile.target>1.5</maven.compile.target>
-    <maven.compile.optimize>true</maven.compile.optimize>
-    <maven.compile.deprecation>true</maven.compile.deprecation>
-  </properties>
-
   <build>
     <resources>
       <resource>
diff --git a/httpclient-osgi/pom.xml b/httpclient-osgi/pom.xml
index cb265711e7..8a6844d6ce 100644
--- a/httpclient-osgi/pom.xml
+++ b/httpclient-osgi/pom.xml
@@ -74,13 +74,6 @@
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
-  <properties>
-    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
-    <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
-    <maven.compile.source>1.5</maven.compile.source>
-    <maven.compile.target>1.5</maven.compile.target>
-  </properties>
-
   <build>
     <resources>
       <resource>
diff --git a/httpclient/pom.xml b/httpclient/pom.xml
index 15710a7d61..8fefdfe036 100644
--- a/httpclient/pom.xml
+++ b/httpclient/pom.xml
@@ -68,15 +68,6 @@
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
-  <properties>
-    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
-    <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
-    <maven.compile.source>1.5</maven.compile.source>
-    <maven.compile.target>1.5</maven.compile.target>
-    <maven.compile.optimize>true</maven.compile.optimize>
-    <maven.compile.deprecation>true</maven.compile.deprecation>
-  </properties>
-
   <build>
     <resources>
       <resource>
diff --git a/httpmime/pom.xml b/httpmime/pom.xml
index 2b40268413..d659658574 100644
--- a/httpmime/pom.xml
+++ b/httpmime/pom.xml
@@ -60,15 +60,6 @@
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
-  <properties>
-    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
-    <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
-    <maven.compile.source>1.5</maven.compile.source>
-    <maven.compile.target>1.5</maven.compile.target>
-    <maven.compile.optimize>true</maven.compile.optimize>
-    <maven.compile.deprecation>true</maven.compile.deprecation>
-  </properties>
-
   <build>
     <resources>
       <resource>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index fabb6b685d..7442132f01 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -65,8 +65,6 @@
   </scm>
 
   <properties>
-    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
-    <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
     <httpcore.version>4.3-alpha1</httpcore.version>
     <commons-logging.version>1.1.1</commons-logging.version>
     <commons-codec.version>1.6</commons-codec.version>