Previous Owner's Possessions In House Two Months After Sale - Duty Of Care?

Jonesy_McJones

Next week it will be two months since I moved into my own home, yay!

The house was a repossession. On the day of completion, one of the previous owners arrived at the front door asking what I intended to do with the items that had been left in the house - she was concerned I was going to chuck it all away. We exchanged mobile numbers and I later rang her to clarify exactly what it was that she wanted put by - she said ‘the stuff in the front room’ and I agreed to put it in the cellar ‘for the time being.’ I asked if she was living locally and she said she was homeless (I have since found out from a neighbour that it is likely she is living with a friend a couple of streets over).

Now obviously I don’t want to bin somebody’s else possessions (clothes, bedding, wardrobe, small items of furniture, portable TV - although not all of this was left in the front room) especially if this is all they have, but I would like to be able to have full use of the cellar (it’s quite a small space).

I haven’t contacted her since but I am starting to wonder how long it will be before I can reasonably ask her to remove it all - or if it comes to it (for example if the mobile number she gave me doesn’t work anymore) I can legally get rid of it.

G_M

I assume you bought 'with vacant possession', so the property should not have had anything in it.

However there is also a duty of care to other's belongings. Not sure which would take legal precedence.

There's also the moral dimension - this poor person has probobly been through hell and has nowhere to store her stuff.

First, call her and ask if she is able to remove her belongings. Try to get an address so you can write to her too.

If she collects, fine, if she gives reasons why she can't you'll have to decide whether to be kind, or be tough.

If the former, try giving her a deadline: say a month or whatever you feel able to offer.

If you want to be tough, tell her she has a week to collect and then you'll sell her belongings. From the proceeds, take anything to cover your costs/expenses, then pass any profit to her. Write to her with this plan too (that's why you need an address if possible.)

I would NOT just dispose without giving the owner a last warning of your intention (pref in writing) and time to make collection.

pmlindyloo

A link to help:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_world/consumer_affairs/keeping_lost_found_and_uncollected_goods.htm#Uncollected_or_abandoned_goods

LisaLou1982

Being a repossession, the previous owner has 7/14/28 days to remove any chattles in the property, as dictated by the repo notice in the window. After this time, it is up to the repo company to dispose as they see fit. The house is sold with vacant possession.

You are under no legal obligation to keep these items although morally i do understand where you are coming from.

Id call her and advise that you have now kept these items for her for the last 2 months but can no longer keep them so she will need to pick them up by the end of the month and put them into storage if she still wants them, otherwise you'll take them to the tip.

poppysarah

Gosh aren't you nice... I have some stuff needs storing too.

LOL Text her and request she finds somewhere else to store it by the end of the month else it goes to the tip.

SimonMrGreenWard

Tough one. I'd call her and tell her the truth. Say you need the room and you've held on to it for as long as you possibly can. Definitely give her a deadline and stick to it. If she's not a nice person, I'd just give her 5 days to take it or you'll organise for it to go to the tip.

G_M

SimonMrGreenWard wrote: »

If she's not a nice person, I'd just give her 5 days to take it or you'll organise for it to go to the tip.

But if she IS a nice person I'd give her as long as I could. None of us here know why she came to get her property repossessed, but we do know it's a pretty horrible thing to happen to anyone.

Jonesy_McJones

Thank you to everyone who replied :j

G_M wrote: »

I assume you bought 'with vacant possession', so the property should not have had anything in it.

LisaLou1982 wrote: »

Being a repossession, the previous owner has 7/14/28 days to remove any chattles in the property, as dictated by the repo notice in the window. After this time, it is up to the repo company to dispose as they see fit. The house is sold with vacant possession.

The house was bought with vacant possession, but there was also a condition in the contract that stated that the chattels didn't belong to the vendor (the mortgage company) so therefore they weren't being sold to me.

LisaLou1982 - please could you explain what you mean about the notice in the window? Do you mean in the window of the house or the estate agents? Thanks

Apart from the fact that I don't want to be storing someone else's stuff forever, the main reason I need to sort this out soonish is that I need a new boiler and the cellar seems the ideal place for it go. As I said previously, it's not a big cellar, and a boiler will need a bit of 'empty space' around it.

I think I will start off with a text and get a delivery report on it. Then if it never gets delivered, I will have to resort to some other way to try to get in contact. If it does get delivered, then I can ask for an address.

Obviously I have no idea what their situation is at present, but perhaps after the sale of the house there was some equity left over and she may have been able to sort some permanent accommodation out, and therefore have somewhere to put it all now...

PasturesNew

If it were me .... and I'm a softie ... then I'd think how badly the last person must have felt to be repossessed. Maybe they're not sorted out yet, maybe they're too ashamed to face you yet, maybe it's too heart-wrenching to see the house again yet.

What I'd do is accept that I probably got a bit of a bargain when I bought it and I'd carefully remove all of their stuff and place it in cheap self-storage and pay for that storage for 3 months up front. I'd then contact them and make sure they understood what I had done and why and where it was. And to get that information in writing to them. I'd want them to know that I realised it might be hard for them to face the house again, hard to find the storage money, so I'd taken it upon myself to hire a van and place it all carefully into storage for them for 3 months - and enclose all the storage details.

I'd expect van hire, few quid to a mate to help, 3 months self-storage to come to about £100. But I'd hope this would help somebody at a bad time of their life, so it'd be at my cost and pleased to do it.

Then it's up to them.

System

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd expect van hire, few quid to a mate to help, 3 months self-storage to come to about £100. But I'd hope this would help somebody at a bad time of their life, so it'd be at my cost and pleased to do it.

Then it's up to them.

It's not totally up to them. As you hired the storage then it is you that the storage company will start chasing at the end of 3 months to either remove the stuff or pay for further storage.

I can see the ex owner not rushing as somebody is providing storage for their stuff at no cost to them. They must be given a cut off date. They either collect or it gets binned.

Fire_Fox

Houses are not repossessed overnight, whatever the circumstances they have had their chance to sort out storage and collection. I'd give them two weeks and chuck the lot.