Landlord's furniture in my so-called "unfurnished" flat

red_fraggle_2

Hi there, I wonder if anyone can offer some advice?

I moved into my new flat at the beginning of April, having taking it on as unfurnished. My friend and I got very excited and went straight to IKEA after picking up the keys, filled up the car with a sofa, dining table, chairs and other goodies and headed back to the flat, only to discover that it was already full of furniture :eek:

Now, in fairness to my estate agents, they did call me the week before I moved to say that the bed and wardrobe would be staying in the flat, but that if I didn't want them they could be taken away. No mention, however, of the dining table, three chairs and shelving unit that would also be there. As it turns out, it's quite handy that there's already a bed there and it's pretty comfortable, but I really have no desire or need for the rest of it. Aside from the fact I've spent a small fortune on getting stuff myself because it was advertised as unfurnished, the stuff that's there is really not to my taste and I want to make the place feel as homely as I can, which includes having my own stuff in there.

I emailed the agents the first week I was there to ask about this, then again the second week, then (after no reply to either mail) in the third week I called to see what was going on. Apparently they didn't get my emails :rolleyes: , but the woman said she'd get straight onto it for me. Called me back later that day to say she couldn't get hold of the landlady, but she'd keep trying and I haven't heard from her since (that was 19th April). I'm about to send another email (with delivery and read receipts requested!) to chase them yet again, but what I'm wondering is whether I'm within my rights to threaten to a) chuck the stuff out, b) put it in storage and send them the bill, c) charge them for storage costs, or similar? I really don't want to get off on the wrong footing with my agents or landlady, but I'm sick of climbing around unwanted stuff every time I get home and I just want to get everything unpacked!

Any suggestions gratefully received...?

Sisyphus

Does the contract state furnished or unfurnished?
Send a letter by recorded delivery citing all your calls, e-mails and wasted time. State that after a given time without a response from their part that you will arrange for all the furniture to be moved into storage and that you will deduct all expenses from the rent.
Make sure you use a decent and expensive removal company to do the job as you would'nt want the furniture to be scratched would you?
I imagine thay will act.

pinkshoes

I'd go with what Sisyphus says!

If the contract says "unfurnished", send the EA a letter (recorded delivery) saying that unless you receive a response within 5 working days, you'll be charging a storage fee of £x/day which you shall deduct from your rent at the end of the month (and keep the furniture in the house), OR use a storage and removal company to do the same and deduct the cost from your rent.

If the inventory says there's no furniture in the house except the bed, then i suppose you could sell the furniture and keep the money, because it must've been left as "rubbish".

Lots of people rent houses unfurnished because they can avoid council tax when the property is empty, otherwise a furnished property with no tenants is liable for 90% CT!

lynzpower

Lots of people rent houses unfurnished because they can avoid council tax when the property is empty, otherwise a furnished property with no tenants is liable for 90% CT!

God I never knew that - thanks for letting me know

I had a quibble with my LA who chose to tell the council tax people we moved in a month earlier than we did- toget us to pay the CT on it when we were living there - no chance!

Swishter

pinkshoes wrote: »

Lots of people rent houses unfurnished because they can avoid council tax when the property is empty, otherwise a furnished property with no tenants is liable for 90% CT!

I think its actually 50% they have to pay as you pay 50% for the property and 25% each for the first two people unless all are exempt.

But I understand if the property is empty and unfurnished you can get a 6 month exemption which would cover most void periods. Strictly speaking making a false declaration of this means the LL has actually committed a criminal offence by trying to evade his/her liability to pay the tax!

Melissa177

Very interesting.

Sometimes I wonder what letting agencies do for their money. One of the recurring themes/complaints on this forum is that Tennant calls Letting Agency who says "Um, yeah, we'll get back to you soon - but we can't get hold of the landlady".

This seems to be the standard excuse for everything. My last LA were like this - it took ages to get my deposit back (I threatened court action against the directors of the LA in the end) because "we can't get hold of the landlady to confirm".

Do landlords use LA's to hide behind? Or are LA's just rubbish?


Good luck with your furniture - I'd be demanding a discount off next month's rent for the hassle you've had to put up with.

black-saturn

I'd like to agree with all the above posts and say that any correspondence has to be sent by recorded delivery otherwise they will 'claim' to not receive it. Give them a date as to when you want it removed, say 2 weeks, and if it hasn't gone by then tell them that you have been advised to put the items in storage and taking the cost from your rent. Don't let them know who advised you, just let them presume it's someone legal.

Swishter

I think LA's are rubbish. When my bro and his wife went away they rented there house out through an agency to save our parent the hassle but my parents still had to sort out any problem, and the agency messed up the tenancy agreements. At the time I was a housing officer and offered to deal with the agreements for my bro but he refused as he didn't want to mess things up. The agency mistakenly signed the tenants or 12 months whilst my bro and his wife where only away for 7.

red_fraggle_2

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments so far.

Sent another email this afternoon and got a reply pretty much immediately - said she's not been able to get hold of the landlady, who doesn't answer her phone or return calls (which sounded almost fair enough until I read Melissa's comments above. Humph). She did say that she's tempted to tell me to just ditch the stuff, but as she hasn't seen the inventory (neither have I, they get an independent company to come and do the inventory before you move in, then send you a copy. Or not :rolleyes: ) she doesn't want to say that in case the landlord then kicks off when I come to move out. She suggested I contact their lettings department (which makes me wonder which department she is?!), but then emailed me again to say she's asked that department to forward the inventory to her and she'll let me know what it says.

I think I'll give her till the end of the week and if there's no progress start taking the action mentioned above. Maybe I'll check with CAB in the meantime...

olly300

Red_fraggle have you written to the landlord directly? The landlord's address should be on your tenancy contract otherwise your contract is not legal. I suggest you write to both the landlord and LA, send them the same letter i.e. cc the letter to the LA, and use recorded delivery.

Plus if you haven't seen the inventory make sure you add this information to your letter. So when you move out if the inventory is disputed you can get your deposit back.

Also if you have housing problems contact shelter. In fact if you email them today/tomorrow by the time you take any action you should have their reply. http://england.shelter.org.uk/home/index.cfm

sooz

olly300 wrote: »

Red_fraggle have you written to the landlord directly? The landlord's address should be on your tenancy contract otherwise your contract is not legal.

not true - see this thread for more info on this

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=436841