Advice on tenant's possessions left behind, please.

paddy's_mum

My tenant, my former son-in-law, is due to leave my property in a week's time.

I am concerned as I can see that he has not made any apparent effort to clear the mountain of his junk from the garage at the property and with so little time left, I suspect that most of it will just be left for me to deal with after his departure.

What is the situation if he does leave things behind, as clearly I want vacant possession but do not want to put myself in the wrong legally by getting rid of stuff that he later claims he wanted or had a value? Any advice from you learned landlords out there would be very much appreciated.

Meatballs

What have you said in your tenancy agreement?

If nothing send him a letter saying he has 14 days to collect his property or you will take the costs of disposal out of his deposit or bill him for it?

If you sell any items then take the costs of disposal/cost of your time for selling the stuff and send him any remainder.

olly300

14 days is generous I would give him 7 days.

Reason for that is when you move out of a property you legally have no rights of access to it or should be storing any of your belongings there, so he should be giving you the keys as soon as he leaves.

Even if there is no written tenancy agreement the tenant has an AST so you can still write him a note telling him to move his stuff otherwise he will be billed for the costs of disposal.

paddy's_mum

I wish it was that easy or straightforward. The AST has a clause 'to deliver up the Premises at the end of the Tenancy in a clean and tidy condition'.

Because he is in arrears of rent (almost £2k) and has had a Section 21 notice served on him, there is no money left-over, as it were, and not much point in billing him in the future for any costs to me. None of 'the stuff' has any real value - broken pc monitors, wrecked kids' bikes etc.

Many of the tenancy conditions were breached and the whole affair, which was an effort to assist him (and so indirectly, my grandchildren) when he and my daughter separated, has back-fired on me very badly. He is annoyed with me for pulling the plug and is being rather unhelpful generally. He is, at the moment, declining to give any forwarding address so should I serve written notice on him now that anything left behind and not collected within 7 days will be viewed as abandoned and then mine to dispose of?

I really don't want to step outside the law on any of this but equally, I don't see why I should be burdened with the responsibility of taking care of any of his things until he condescends to come and collect them or having to take steps to get rid of them.

luckylukey

i believe that if you tell him in writing that if he doesnt take all his possessions with you, then you are entitled to charge him for disposal of it.

If you feel that he wont take everything with him and wont pay, then, I see no legal reason why you cant sell them off. Thats what happens with storage companies if people dont pay.

chugalug

How do you know he'll move out?? Has he handed back the keys? Are you taking court action?

Surely if he has an AST then your only course of action is the courts. Correct me if I'm wrong anyone.............. Surely if he's been served notice but still has his belongings at the property you have to go throught the court process of eviction when the notice expires, then bailiffs then you can dispose of his belongings. Whether he's in the property or not, you can't assume its abandoned - even if it is you have to get a court order to get the property back - which gives you the legal right to enter the property. If the notice expires and he gives you the keys and moves out of the property then the situation is different. Then you can give reasonable notice for collection of his belongings (in writing, keep a copy) and then dispose of them if he doesn't collect. HTH