taking furniture from leased out property.

r3becca

Hi,

We have been renting out our flat for the last 7 months and have just bought a new house. The new house was very top end of our budget & has left us with very little money to furnish it & all our furniture etc is tied up in our rental property.

What are the rules on taking some of our furniture from our rented out flat if we offer to replace it. We want to take one of our beds & bedside table & that's all really... is there any rules or can we just tell the tenant that this is what we are doing & will replace them so she's not going without anything.

Any info would be great,

Thanks

tizerbelle

so you've rented out a furnished property and no doubt included the fact it's furnished to a certain level in the rent you ask and presumably now you want to replace the furniture with cheaper stuff.

Legal or no, personally I think it stinks. Buy replacement furniture but use it in your new place and leave the tenant alone.

theartfullodger

I appreciate you are a "Newbie" here but really!!!

You have absolutely no right to do this, but if you were to ask the tenant nicely they just might agree..


How would you feel is someone who was already making money out of you wanted to disrupt your life and give a worse service for (presumably) the same price??

If you want to give a message to the tenant that you have no respect for them and run your life in a surprisingly selfish way then try this approach.. and guess what, they'll think it OK to have no respect for you !!!

Rather more importantly, if you are that strapped for cash are you able to cope with a real problem (non-payment of rent by tenant or agent, place wrecked, major repair, whatever..) on the rental property>>>??? These things happen, tenants lose jobs, get new boyfriends/mistresses(or both,,) who move in/agents go bust and run away, roofs start leaking, dry rot is discovered..

Cheers!

Artful

PasturesNew

tizerbelle wrote: »

so you've rented out a furnished property and no doubt included the fact it's furnished to a certain level in the rent you ask and presumably now you want to replace the furniture with cheaper stuff.

Legal or no, personally I think it stinks. Buy replacement furniture but use it in your new place and leave the tenant alone.

What he said.

If you owned a restaurant and served meals to people .... then fancied having a meal yourself, would you go round all the diners' tables lifting a bit of food from here and there to put onto your own plate? No.

And why'd you want your beds - that've now been slept in by tenants - rather than buying new ones?

You're simply ..... bizarre.

tizerbelle

PasturesNew wrote: »

What she said.

Minor correction needed!:p

pinkshoes

Why can't you just have the cheaper furniture yourself then if/when the tenants change over, THEN change it?

Don't even mention it to the tenants, otherwise you're likely to p*ss them off!

G_M

r3becca wrote: »

Hi,

What are the rules on taking some of our furniture from our rented out flat if we offer to replace it.
Any info would be great,

Thanks

I agree with everything said by others above. However you asked a specific question.

The rules are:
1) the furniture initially provided, and presumably listed, described and photographed in the inventory, is what the tenants have signed for and are entitled to.

2) any tenancy agreement, inventory etc can be varied by mutual consent - so if you suggest a change and the tenants agree, then that forms the basis of the tenancy agreement/inventory going forward.

theartfullodger

As GM says... you did do an inventory?? If not you'd be in the tricky position of it being much harder to show that those items (and the rest..) are yours..

Good luck!!

Werdnal

I agree with above. You have entered into a signed contract with your tenant, who has agreed to rent the property as seen and signed at the start of their tenancy. What gives you to the right to demand to take furniture from it? If you have chosen to buy a property outside your means to furnish then tough! Indeed if your are running a rental property on such a tight financial footing that you have no spare cash to buy your own furniture, I seriously question your ability to meet the repair and maintenance requirements of your letting property!

I think you need to seriously review your obligations and responsibilities as a LL. Its posts like this that make me question whether the OP has done their homework and understands what being a LL is all about. What else have you done that is dodgy or underhand? Its LL like you that give the rest of us a bad name!

Sorry, off my soapbox now!

r3becca

Thanks for the replies....

The tenant is on housing benefits & so far has been late with every single months rent, she has broken the terms of her contract numerous times (subletting, having a pet, leaving the property unattended for longer than 3 weeks) however we have given her the benefit of doubt and understand she is a young mum, struggling to make ends meet.

The property wasn't bought to be a property that we would lease it was our home & therefore all our furniture was items we had bought for our own personal use not for rental reasons.. I'm sure as you are all such perfect landlords you all buy extremely high quality, expensive furniture for your rental properties and not cheaper ikea items?? hmm..

We did not anticipate being able to afford a bigger house so soon so did not anticipate that we would need the furniture before the lease was up. It's not so much replacing it with cheaper furniture it's just we have so far been unable to find furniture to our taste for the new house...

theartfullodger

None of that changes the legal position : no you can't!!

It's not your property, it's the tenants!! (Google Landlord law blog urban myths to check) - even if they don't pay, break clauses, have been given notice, are on benefits (what, child benefit?? Old age pension?? Civil list???).

You decided to leave this wonderful furniture in the place, no us!!!

Have you thought of getting educated in Landlord /Tenant law??? It'll save you time & money!!

Cheers!!

Artful - Landlord since 2000