taking furniture from leased out property.

sequence

There's no harm in asking, tenant might not be happy with the furniture and want something different ?

There's always freegle ?

GDB2222

If the tenant is over two months late with the rent, you can get the housing benefit paid direct to you.

As others have said, you have no right to your bed back. However, if you ask the tenant, she may agree. In practice, that may not be a great move, though, for the reasons outlined above.

r3becca

GDB2222 wrote: »

If the tenant is over two months late with the rent, you can get the housing benefit paid direct to you.

The rules in our area are different for some reason as we have questioned the council on this. They have said that they no longer offer this service as they only advice the benefit receiver what to spend the housing benefit on and can't actually force her to spend it on what it is intended for. Seems a bit backwards to me but ho hum..

geoffky

Another one........far too many of them for my liking...ps..the market always wins.

Tiddlywinks

r3becca wrote: »

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).

So you think that just because your tenant has failed to abide by the contract that you can go in and take furniture away (albeit as a swap for a cheaper variety)? Do you think that might look like you are trying to make her life difficult? Might it look like harassment?

r3becca wrote: »

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.

So, why leave it behind? Why not place the precious items into storage?

r3becca wrote: »

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...

Complete this well know phrase... "Prior planning prevents ..."

elsien wrote: »

I think some of you are being a bit harsh in your replies.
The OP may well be an accidental landlord who isn't fully up to speed with the legalities, but that's why they're on here asking the question instead of marching in and doing as they please.
We all make mistakes at times, give them a bit of leeway for heavens sake.

Becoming an "accidental landlord" does not negate the need for them to familiarise themselves with the law regarding the business contract they entered into with their tenant.

thegirlintheattic

Why did you leave your furniture in your property? Surely you should have considered this? What furniture are you using where you are currently living?

You have no right to take the furniture from your tenant no matter what they have done, you could ask nicely, maybe she will agree but otherwise you have to wait till the end of the tenancy. How about buying some Ikea stuff till your tenant moves out.

How much longer have they got on their lease? It might be an idea, especially as you don't know what you are doing, to serve a Notice 21 as soon as possible before you get yourself in more difficulties.

Can't believe the amount of people who go into being a LL with their eyes closed.

RobertoMoir

r3becca wrote: »

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.

Totally irrelevant to what you're asking here but probably a superb reason to serve notice at the appropriate time if that's how you wanna roll. At which time, once she's moved on you can remove what you wish and then rent the place to someone new.

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..

Irrelevant once again. Still nothing that gives you the right to take stuff from your tenant.

As for the snide comments about the furnishing standards of the LLs here, the issue is not the quality of the furniture but that you cannot take bits of it part way through the tenancy unless your tenant agrees.

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...

I understand your issue but this is still on the list of things that are not your tenant's problem.

Now that you're a LL, you need to understand that you're running a business and that you have certain rights and responsibilities which you didn't have to worry about beforehand. This means, on top of all the stuff like certificates, agreements, etc that I'm sure you know about, also not allowing emotion to bind together a lot of little issues which are annoying, but separate, and instead proceed with each issue on its own merits in a professional manner.

r3becca

RobertoMoir wrote: »

Now that you're a LL, you need to understand that you're running a business and that you have certain rights and responsibilities which you didn't have to worry about beforehand. This means, on top of all the stuff like certificates, agreements, etc that I'm sure you know about, also not allowing emotion to bind together a lot of little issues which are annoying, but separate, and instead proceed with each issue on its own merits in a professional manner.

This is exactly why I came on here and posted a simple question which I assumed would get a simple yes no answer. Nowhere in the contract does it say anything about the contents of the flat etc & it was something I was unsure about. This has clearly been answered & I don't feel there is any more need to keep posting.

Clearly I should have known that it was not a simple thing which could be done but I didn't...

So many people on here need to get off their high horses, there are ways of helping people and giving advice without being so rude! Everyone starts out somewhere when becoming a LL be it accidental or planned.. obviously there are things I should have done differently in the beginning and I now know that.

Yes I def need to learn how to seperate my feelings from it and remember to be professional but at 22 and 30 weeks pregnant feelings kind of rule the roost!

Thanks for all of your responses

GDB2222

R3becca, people read just the first few posts on this thread, then decide to have their say, despite that having been said a dozen times already on the thread. It's not personal.