tenant won't remove his stuff from my house

BitterAndTwisted

The reason why he hasn't returned the key to the garage is most probably because he has no transport at the moment and he's expecting you to store his stuff in there, where he can access it at his leisure. The sack of Christmas presents is a sure sign that he hasn't abandoned his stuff.

If your ex wanted to get nasty and really cause you trouble you could get your @rse spanked in court if you dispose of his belongings. Move them out of the property to somewhere safe, cross your fingers that the tenancy has actually ended. Or send him an email or letter to request confirmation from him that it has and ask him to contact you to make arrangements for his things to be collected. Meanwhile get that lock on the garage replaced pronto.

Yorkie1

Can I just ask the OP - is the property jointly owned by both of you, or just by you?

ezmerelda

Hi, thanks for all the responses
The house is entirely in my name. When I bought it, he signed a document at the solicitors saying no matter how much he paid in, he has no claim on the house, so no problems there. The bank still has that paperwork, I've made sure of that.

No, I don't think HE would sue me, but I think he could be talked into it by others. We spilt in 2009, fairly amicably, he moved in a place he couldn't really afford so when I wanted to move in with my OH (we're getting married in May ), offered the ex my place. Saved him money, saved me having to mess about selling.
We've been fine with each other until now, He only started to get funny when he moved out and wouldn't move his stuff, now he's being a complete @rse and I've no idea why.

The last money he paid was at the end of Dec, he told me in Dec he'd be leaving 13th Jan so was only paying 2 weeks. It wasn't until about that time he said he'd actually paid the full month and needed that time to get moved (again, my bad for not checking bank acct often enough) Fair enough, but after asking time and time again he still won't shift his gear.

He has transport and various friends and family to help him move, but I think it's a mixture of laziness and wanting to wind me up for whatever insane reason it is. Hes bought his new place with his GF so I don't think it's a jealousy thing, I don't know what's going on.

He won't give me his new address either. Which causes no end of problems with child care!

I'm so stressed with this and trying so hard to keep it under wraps for the child's sake, she's almost 7 and not daft, she knows something isn't right. I'm really getting to my wits end and just don't know what to do.

Sorry for the moan, if you've stayed tuned this long thanks for letting me have a rant

shop-to-drop

Is there a chance he doesn't want to completely break contact with you? Maybe even just subconsciously. You would have thought his new girlfriend would be encouraging him to have nothing more to do with you.

skintmumof2

Hi
I moved into my property last year.
The previous tenant left the house a right mess and left a lot of crap here too.
She moved out after giving notice.
We moved in.
Our landlord told us to chuck anything we found that we did not want that was hers left behind.
I suppose as your ex has gone, if he has not communicated to you about his stuff id just throw it. There was no tenancy as such to me (im no expert) you just let your ex live there while he had nowhere and now he has somewhere he has left yours. So clear everything out and let your new tenant move in! Depends what is left? Can it be bagged up and dumped at his new place?

Uk_Lover

I bet he would not know the legal side of things anyway otherwise he would have asked for a formal contract. Box it up, tx him telling him the locks are being changed on friday, colect his stuff otherwise it will be left in the garden for the bin men.

amiehall

skintmumof2 wrote: »

Hi
I moved into my property last year.
The previous tenant left the house a right mess and left a lot of crap here too.
She moved out after giving notice.
We moved in.
Our landlord told us to chuck anything we found that we did not want that was hers left behind.
I suppose as your ex has gone, if he has not communicated to you about his stuff id just throw it. There was no tenancy as such to me (im no expert) you just let your ex live there while he had nowhere and now he has somewhere he has left yours. So clear everything out and let your new tenant move in! Depends what is left? Can it be bagged up and dumped at his new place?

Your LL left junk from a previous tenant in your house?! I'd be billing them for your time in getting rid of it.... How did they complete a check-in inventory with random stuff in the house that's not supposed to be included? I'd be seriously worried about a LL that didn't at least check the place was empty and clean between tenants.

rentergirl

You're calling the stuff rubbish. Tell them in writing you're putting it in bin bags and leaving it on the pavement if it isn't collected in 7 working days. Recorded delivery of course. Unless you have transport and can just drop it off at his place as the person above says.

sonastin

ezmerelda wrote: »

Look, I know I've been stupid and done everything wrong and I admit I don't understand fully how all this works. My stupid mistake and now it's all backfired monumentally. All I wanted was a bit of advice as to whether I could bin his stuff or not, not an inquiry into my landlording practices.
He was living there with a vague verbal agreement that he'd pay me some money every month, its not like I'm some major property developer or anything

You've had an informal arrangement up to now and ignored the legalities of the arrangement. So as I see it, you have 2 options:

1) Continue with the informal arrangement, do what you think is right and keep your fingers crossed that it continues to work out OK; or
2) Unravel the legalites of the earlier arrangement so you understand where you are in law. And then understand where your legal position puts you in relation to this new problem so you can address that within the law.

If you want to go down route 2, you've got a bit of research and learning to do. There have been lots of useful links posted in this thread so you should make sure you've followed and read all of them. And read some of the other LL threads on this forum as well. You need to make sure you've done everything by the book (or at least brought the book up-to-date) before you take any more steps.

I think route 1 would be my choice. Write him a letter and hand it to him when you next see him. (I assume you meet him to "hand over" your daughter?") Make sure you have a witness with you to see you give him the letter. In it, set out a) what you would like him to do with his stuff, b) when you want him to do it, c) what you propose to do with it if he hasn't done a) by b), and d) by when he must contact you to make an acceptable alternative arrangement if he can't accept your proposals for a) b) and c).

It might not be the strictly legal route out of this mess but if he did decide to sue you, he isn't entirely blameless in letting the informal situation roll on and you have demonstrated that you have made reasonable efforts to resolve the situation so it should help. And keep your fingers crossed.

Oh, and make sure you understand how to do it properly with the next tenant. Don't rely on the agent to tell you as it is you as LL who ends up in court if the agent screws up.

shop-to-drop

Trouble is he won't let her have his new address so she can't dump it at his new place or send him a recorded letter. I think the text or call (or both) with notice that you are leaving it outside is the only option left without being walked all over.