Assets seized without my consent

Partner-in-debt

I recently found out that my partner has a problem with debt. As I am starting to work my way through her finances to unravel the true position (she lies about everything), I found something devastating. We downsized from a detached house into a flat 3 years ago and placed our furniture in storage. My partner had signed the paperwork for the storage, but I have now found out that she was not making the monthly payments and had ignored all communication from the storage company. The storage bill had racked up to £20,000 and a debt recovery company was called, who repossessed all our furniture from the storage crates and sold it all. 99% of the furniture was paid for by me, but we had to split our outgoings while we looked for a new home and the storage was one of the things she was paying. The furniture was accumulated over the past decade but was certainly over £100,000 in value. Is there anything I can do?


If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply!

[threadbanner]box[/threadbanner]

DCFC79

Wow the storage fees were £20k jeez, i could be wrong but I dont think theres alot you can do, I am basing that on the fact your partner was the 1 meant to be paying the storage co and I presume in her name.

JCS1

Do you have the paperwork from the storage company from when it was first used? I suspect there will be a clause that says if rent not paid they can sell any items inside.

Thrugelmir

There's no requirement for your consent. The contract will clearly state the terms. Any dispute is between you and your partner. Nothing what ever to do with the storage company.

Tigsteroonie

Surely she realises that she would have had to tell you at some point that the furniture had gone? Does that not help her face up to the reality of her situation?

Partner-in-debt

Yes, she signed the paperwork, but to be honest I didn't think anything of it as it was just one of the many things we did between us during the move. Yes, the £20k included the original moving costs into storage and then £450 per month. It turns out she didn't even pay the original moving cost and then paid them sporadically to keep the debt alive. I am sure you are right that they can repossess the contents, but I just had no idea she had not made any payments. I just don't know why they allowed so much debt to accrue before doing anything. They sold my stuff for pennies in the pound.

daytona0

WOW. Just wow...


I'm glad you didn't ask "Is there anything we can do?" because there may yet be hope 4 you.....


Just wondering btw, why didn't you sell the 100k urniture to buy a relatively cheap house and live a bit more modestly? Sod storing it! The mere phact that your partner ran up a 20% value bill is a testament to how stupid that probably was... and possibly how stupid you have been (sorry bro)

Partner-in-debt

Tigsteroonie - I don't think she knew the items had been sold or even that they could be, she had just buried her head in the sand and thought the debt was still just sitting there waiting to be paid. There has been no communication between her and the storage firm for over a year it seems.

redcard

So you basically gave £100K of your own furniture to your partner to look after?

Thrugelmir

Partner-in-debt wrote: »

They sold my stuff for pennies in the pound.

Shows how much second furniture is really worth.

I furnished a whole office for a company start up once for £200. That included mahogany desks, chairs, screen dividers, filing cabinets and large storage cupboards. Cost me more to hire a crew and a van to collect and delivery it!

The £200 went to charity I should add.

Partner-in-debt

Daytona - we sold a quite large house and moved into a flat with the intention of buying again very soon, and just couldn't find something suitable. She has a good job so the £450 shouldn't of been an issue, but I had no idea of the true extent of her debts. Debtors are good at covering things up and lying. It was all supposed to be short term and I had wrongly assumed that had there been any issues she would come to me for help. There is a big difference between £450 a month and a £20k debt. If you add up a lot of things we all pay monthly is becomes a big number over time. So I think 'stupid' is a bit harsh, especially when I trusted someone implicitly with no reason no to until now.