friend so upset re renting

facingthefuture

I called to visit a friend who has jus moved house. I found her in tears. She had just received an email from the ll of the house she just moved out of. When she had first moved in (over a year ago) they had told her to get rid of 2 pieces of furniture to the charity shop. She managed to get rid of one but actually used the other and left it there when she left. They have now come backing asking for the first piece of furniture saying it belonged to someone else and it shouldn't have been given away and can she tell them the no of the charity shop?
Friend is fuming, she knows they told her to get rid of them but they did it verbally. They also have her hefty deposit.
What really horrible people.
What is her legal situation?

poppysarah

Legally she's stuffed. Don't spose there'd be a picture of the item so it could be valued?

tranmereforever

I was in a slightly different situation but had problems with my previous landlord and it can be a nightmare, we managed to reolve it in the end though (with some help from people on here)

Was it listed in her inventory when she moved in and what condition did it say it was in at the time?

morg_monster

yes surely the inventory is the key here - if it is on there, and there's no record of the LL asking her to get rid, she is probably a bit stuffed. If there's no inventory, or the particular item isn't on the inventory, how can they prove it was ever even there in the first place?

going2die_rich

As someone above has pointed out, legally it would be her word against theres, so she wouldn't have anything to back her claims up.

My suggestion, use a bit of "gentle persuassion" on her ex landlords... they'll soon remember what they said, drop the matter and pay up the deposit. Don't let your friend get walked over.

facingthefuture

Hi there, she actually gave it to this guy who had suffered a breakdown and was just recovering, he had hardly any furniture. She could ask for it back but she just said it would be really lousy.
Incidentally, there was no inventory. The last 2 months she had no shower and the heating was broken so you could only turn it on for an hour.

tranmereforever

If shes not had an inventory then I believe she has nothing to worry about because legally they have to do one, im sure someone will comfirm this (or say im completley wrong lol)

sandra_nz

No signed inventory means the landlord has no evidence that the furniture was provided with the flat in the first place.

GDB2222

poppysarah wrote: »

Legally she's stuffed. Don't spose there'd be a picture of the item so it could be valued?

Legally, she's not stuffed. If it goes to cout, the judge will hear the evidence and make his mind up on the balance of probabilities. Probably uppermost in his mind will be the thought that no tenant would be foolish enough to give something away to the charity shop unless told to do so by the landlord.

Bogof_Babe

Why not explain the situation to the friend who now has the item, and try to obtain a replacement for him on Freecycle? If it's furniture I bet it won't take long to find one that someone no longer needs. All it will cost is transport to collect it.

Sazzyukrafc

We had the same problem. When we moved in they had a black leather sofa, which they were throwing out, we said we'd take it off their hands as we were going to the tip anyway. We ended up keeping it, as it was in too bad a condition. When we moved out they said they wanted it back and knew we had kept it, as a neighbour saw us moving it. We gave it back anyway because we wanted a new one anyway.

This was never written down, so was out fault. We are now in dispute anyway over the deposit because they failied to respond for nearly three months about the deposit.