Stuff left behind by the last owner

baskerville_2

Its your property now so they can't just enter at will. [/QUOTE]

When i said "property" I mean't the house, not the table and chairs.

I'd still use them, what are they going to say - oh, you sat on my chair:eek:!!

its not like you're gonna chop them up into fire wood is it? well i assume not!:rotfl:

G_M

DRP wrote: »

i imagine 99.9% of people wouldn't worry for a second about doing absolutely nothing.

I certainly wouldn't bother making contact with the old owner and would continue to use any stuff that i wanted.

I would probably wait a month before binning the rubbish stuff that I didn't want.

Despite my post above, and the link to legal obligations I provided, I tend to agree with DRP.

His recomendation is pragmatic. I would hang on to unwanted items a bit longer than a month just to be sure, assuming you have the storage space.

To some extent it depends what items we are talking about. A few pot plants, paint, even a garden table - I'd take the view they abandoned them/left them for you.

If you came across an Old Master tucked away and forgotten in the attic, then selling it at Sutherbys might not be quite the same!

phill99

The chances of the previous owners wanting them are probably zero. They would seem abandoned as opposed to having forgotten about them. What I was eluding to in my previous post is that people (eg cheeky monkey in #6 above) make statements which are clearly wrong. Chattels left in a property don't "now legally belong to you". You haven't agreed to buy them and they haven't agreed to give them to you free gratis. So they sren't yours and to clarify the position, you need to offer them the opportunity to recover theirs property.

If you keep them it can be classed as 'theft by finding'.

BitterAndTwisted

You're not appropriating their nice valuable £450 table and chairs as presumably they're still outside where they left them. They could decide to pop back and take them away when you're not in, but you didn't want them, so what's the diff?

If you're in any doubt about what you should do, but I'd do nothing in your situation, you could ask your conveyancer to contact them on your behalf to ask them what they want done about them, especially that not-fifty-quid's-worth of manky carpet it's probably going to cost you money to get shot of.

marliepanda

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

You're not appropriating their nice valuable £450 table and chairs as presumably they're still outside where they left them. They could decide to pop back and take them away when you're not in, but you didn't want them, so what's the diff?

If you're in any doubt about what you should do, but I'd do nothing in your situation, you could ask your conveyancer to contact them on your behalf to ask them what they want done about them, especially that not-fifty-quid's-worth of manky carpet it's probably going to cost you money to get shot of.

I think the OP wants them, but not to pay £450 for them

maninthestreet

Surely that 'nice table and chairs' are ruined by now if they are outside?

girl_withno_name

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

...They could decide to pop back and take them away when you're not in, but you didn't want them, so what's the diff?....

Personally I wouldn't relish the idea of someone entering my property (even if it is the garden) as they please!

fluffymuffy

maninthestreet wrote: »

Surely that 'nice table and chairs' are ruined by now if they are outside?

It's cast aluminium garden furniture.
There was a BBQ on the list too - it seems to have fitted in the van though

phoebe1989seb

In our last couple of moves there have been one or two large, heavy garden items - stone jardiniere on stand, antique planters etc - that we/the removal co were unable to fit in the removal lorries. We informed our buyers that we would be calling back for these within a few days (on both occasions we were moving some 150-200 miles, so not a quick trip!) and this is what we did.

On the last occasion (last year) our buyers, despite having been informed of this verbally and by email, seemed reluctant (and disappointed) to hand the items over on our return - presumably they had hoped we would forget in the excitement of our move

On the other hand on a previous purchase we discovered a whole ton of stuff left behind - inside and out - and on attempting to contact the previous owner he made it clear he had washed his hands of the lot (50+ pieces of furniture :eek:) and it was up to us to dump them..............unfortunately none of it was worth keeping

If it were me, as much as I'd like to keep the garden furniture, I would be trying to contact the sellers first - either directly or preferably via your solicitor......

GDB2222

I would not bet that the outgoing owners have abandoned all hope of getting their garden furniture. I had some tenants in the flat above my office who purchased one of those cheap A-frame picnic tables. When they moved out, they left it behind. I thought they had abandoned it, and people from my office had their lunch at it in the summer. Over 10 years later, the tenants came and collected it!