Tenant moved out but not emptied house.

hermum

alunharford wrote: »

You may have just technically committed an offence under the protection from eviction act. If she later says she was just going away for a month or so and left you the key in case of emergency, you could in theory be looking at 6 month prison sentence and a criminal record (in reality, you'd probably get a slap on the wrist and a criminal record, but even so...)
You need to get legal help.



This could be unlawful eviction. Again, 6 month maximum sentence (and likely to be treated much more seriously by the court).

You're in serious need of legal help.

Worse than that would be a fine, I could do with an all expenses break right now.

hermum

G_M wrote: »

OOHHHH! I just hate it when posters give us half the story, wait for advice and then finish the story!



AAgh!

Sounds like a really nice tenant! Paid rent up to date (what's a few days late? Insignificant). Gets served notice and leaves on time! What's not to like?

I'm sorry that I didn't explain that fully.
1st November to end of January isn't a few days.
The amount of stuff in the house isn't just a bag full it will probably be about 3 skip fulls. Most tenants would I'm sure expect to have a conversation with the agent & due to the amount of stuff still there I don't know whether legally I have to keep it. I also would have expected somebody to at least make an effort at wiping their filth off the place.
Maybe I expect people to treat things with a little more respect.

lizzielondon

if you intend to charge her for bringing the house back into the condition it was in at the start of the tenancy (save wear & tear etc) then i believe you need to get multiple quotes for cleaning/work etc, you are not allowed to charge for your own hours worked (or your daughter's rather)

you can then take this from the deposit if you took one ( which i assume was protected i can't see anything about it in the thread) or if the deposit doesn't cover the total persue her via the county court- if you don't have her forwarding address it might be possibel to use a work address for an attachment of earnings? i don't know about the last bit i'm sure someone will clarify

hermum

lizzielondon wrote: »

if you intend to charge her for bringing the house back into the condition it was in at the start of the tenancy (save wear & tear etc) then i believe you need to get multiple quotes for cleaning/work etc, you are not allowed to charge for your own hours worked (or your daughter's rather)

you can then take this from the deposit if you took one ( which i assume was protected i can't see anything about it in the thread) or if the deposit doesn't cover the total persue her via the county court- if you don't have her forwarding address it might be possibel to use a work address for an attachment of earnings? i don't know about the last bit i'm sure someone will clarify

No deposit, a bond was in place for the first 6 months & she was supposed to be paying a little extra a month but as it was hard getting the actual rent that never happened. If we had lodged money of hers I'm sure she would have left it in a better state. It will be me cleaning & redecorating as my daughter's not in the UK, hence me being the agent. I was just concerned about her stuff & whether I could dispose of it legally. The cost will be less than the court case & bailiffs warrant that she had said we would have to get if we wanted her to leave.

G_M

Jowo and I have given you links explaining your rights / obligations re 'her stuff'. Don't know what more you want.

Jowo_2

lizzielondon wrote: »

- if you don't have her forwarding address it might be possibel to use a work address for an attachment of earnings? i don't know about the last bit i'm sure someone will clarify

To take a tenant to court to recoup the storage costs for the belongings and any arrears, a residential address is required to serve the court papers. This claim can be done through the Moneyclaim online website.

As for any damage/cleaning, the landlord's legal action tends to fail if there was not an inventory/schedule of condition in place as this is key evidence to prove the changes were due to the tenant's behaviour.

If a landlord wins the court case against the tenant and it remains unsatisfied, the landlord then has to enforce it through numerous ways, including by sending bailiffs to their next place or an attachment of earnings. The landlord has to go back to the court to get it enforced and pay an extra sum to do this.

There should be plenty of info on the HM Court website for how to take a person to court.

Jowo_2

hermum wrote: »

I don't know whether legally I have to keep it.

If you look at the Landlordzone link I gave earlier, you will see that you are obliged to look after abandoned belongings for a period of time but can try to recoup the removals/storage costs from the tenant.

hermum

G_M wrote: »

Jowo and I have given you links explaining your rights / obligations re 'her stuff'. Don't know what more you want.

On my later posts I wasn't actually asking anything if you read them, I thanked all posters for responding.
I really appreciate all the advice I was given & I still don't want anything more.

clutton_2

if she left the property with the back door open she is lucky that all her belongings were not stolen........

rl290

clutton wrote: »

if she left the property with the back door open she is lucky that all her belongings were not stolen........

OP, what was the address.............