Are our possessions worth nothing?

carlislelass · 19 July 2016 at 10:30PM

Nargleblast wrote: »

The British Heart Foundation has some shops that take furniture and electrical system, if there is one in your area they will collect it from you. And as others have said, womens' refuges and charities for the homeless are worth a try.

Can also be fussy, my s I l had to dispose of his late m I l stuff. They came to view, said they only wanted up to date items. In he end he used an auction.

elly68 · 19 July 2016 at 10:55PM

I had to clear my mums 3 bedroom council flat ..there was no estate so no squabbling about money although i do find the trend to skip a generation and give to grandchildren a bit weird hope u dont mind me saying so u can dispute the will if you yourself dont have kids dont know if thats an issue but im assuming you have split the money already .Anyway the council had scaffolding all round the house so i left a lot of furniture in the first floor flat ...eight months later a bill for £160 landed even though the council had already been told there was no estate .On reflection i wish i had left the lot instead of clearing 30years worth as they would have had to do the lot .local charity took bags upon bags and boxes ...then recieved a gift aid note to say her stuff raised 366 great you think well the letter was really for the purpose of telling me that if i hadntaid enough tax i would be liable for the gift aid amount think its 15% yip cheers marie curie .Once all the letters stop you will feel better i'm almost at the year ..take care x

[Deleted User] · 20 July 2016 at 12:32AM

I'm so sorry that you have had this problem I know what you mean about CS though They seem to be inundated with stuff from people and because there are so many of them its often difficult to find one who will take things.Clothes around where I live are usually refused so I had a couple of bags of things when I sorted my wardrobe out last week and took them to the recycling centre where I got 50p per kilo (£4.25) which went into my holiday ice cream tin.Better than going into landfill as its sent out to the eastern bloc countries(my DGS's call it taking it to the Russians) furniture and white goods can sometimes be useful to the British Heart foundation or the Sally Army Local women's refuge's are also usually quite happy to take stuff.but the ordinary CS in the high Street can get quite snooty at times.I live in a suburb outside of Sittingbourne I suppose not quite a town more a very large village yet we have a small shopping precinct but we also have around 10 Cs withing five minutes walk Two sense shops almost opposite each other .Sadly these seem to do better than ordinary business's The last fresh greengrocer finally close and has reopened as another Cs a few weeks ago There is an HSBC bank branch that's closed and I heard that too will become another CS Soon my area of Rainham will be nothing but charity shops or barbers or cobblers as that seems to be the majority of shops now.
I'm sure your Mum wouldn't blame you for whats happening its sadly a sign of the times

Lance_De_Boils · 20 July 2016 at 1:47AM

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Bless you OP, you have tried your best and life is too short for regrets.

Our local authority recycling centre rescues any large items they think can be reconditioned. They collect certain things without charge on pre-arranged days, but I don't think they would do a whole house clearance.

That said, anything not pinned down in London disappears anyway! There are plenty of people on Streetlife that seem to think that certain demographics creep round with supermarket trolleys in the middle of the night....

Gotta love the skip faries. They have made many of my unwanted items disappear.

luvchocolate · 20 July 2016 at 6:36AM

I am so sorry for your loss its a very stressful and emotional time for you.
In charities defense they can only accept what they can sell, upholstered furniture and mattress have to have the relevant fire and safety labels on.
In my area we are also charged for the removal of certain things, plastic, crockery, glass, household waste etc etc, we cannot take these items to the tip as we are classed as a business.
This is costing the charity I work for £1000s which should be used for patient care not disposing of unsalable items.
I appreciate turning things away is not always dealt with the right manner and we need to take time to explain to donors.

GreyQueen · 20 July 2016 at 6:59AM

elly68 wrote: »

I had to clear my mums 3 bedroom council flat ..there was no estate so no squabbling about money although i do find the trend to skip a generation and give to grandchildren a bit weird hope u dont mind me saying so u can dispute the will if you yourself dont have kids dont know if thats an issue but im assuming you have split the money already .Anyway the council had scaffolding all round the house so i left a lot of furniture in the first floor flat ...eight months later a bill for £160 landed even though the council had already been told there was no estate .On reflection i wish i had left the lot instead of clearing 30years worth as they would have had to do the lot .local charity took bags upon bags and boxes ...then recieved a gift aid note to say her stuff raised 366 great you think well the letter was really for the purpose of telling me that if i hadntaid enough tax i would be liable for the gift aid amount think its 15% yip cheers marie curie .Once all the letters stop you will feel better i'm almost at the year ..take care x

Charities legally have to tell you, if you are signed up for gift aid, what the goods made, what the gift aid was, and give you a chance to claim that gift aid yourself. The letter or email will say if you are happy for them to have the gift aid, you need do nothing. I have one such in my email box now from the charity I gift-aid to, but they do need you to tell them if you aren't still a tax payer or they (or you) can't claim the gift aid. They certainly weren't suggesting you would be paying anything.

I work for a council which still owns its own stock and I have to say that if you left a 'lot' of furniture in her flat and only got billed £160, you got off very lightly. By doing so, you forced her council's housing department to pay two bills, each liable for VAT. The first part was for uplifting the items, the second part for their disposal. This is money which would have come off their Housing Revenue Account and would mean they had less money to pay for repairs and improvements to other people's council homes. Considering she'd had a secure and affordable home for 30 years with them, it was poor treatment.

Where people have left a lot of contents with us, we've billed up to £2,000 in some cases because that's what it cost us - it's damned expensive for the landord and slows down the re-letting process, which impacts on others waiting for a home.

jaybee · 20 July 2016 at 8:53AM

Julia's House take furniture. I see you are in Bournemouth. I'm near Wimborne and have used then often.

culpepper · 20 July 2016 at 12:35PM

Have you thought of taking the wardrobes apart? The wood would be useful to someone but not many people have a vehicle for collecting whole wardrobes.

THIRZAH · 20 July 2016 at 12:53PM

Also people who fill in a tax return usually have to fill in a box about the amount of gift aid raised by their donations.

worn_out_mum · 20 July 2016 at 1:01PM

You've maybe got yourself sorted out now, but if not have you thought of your local womens refuge? They sometimes take furniture for women they are helping to move into their own place, ours is linked to a charity that offers furniture to people on low income and will give you part of the money raised (or you can donate your part to keep the charity running). I'm in north yorkshire so I'm not sure what there maybe in your area.

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Are our possessions worth nothing?

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