Exessive items left by previous owners on new house purchase

Generali

Life's too short for this stuff. Bung it in a van and take it to the tip. Flog the bikes in the local paper or on Gumtree or something. Any scrap metal (e.g. white goods) might have some value too.

diddlydum

nick22abdn wrote: »

By the way - vacant posession means that there will be no-one living there ie. no tenants, previous owners moved out etc. It means nothing about furniture

Vacant possession does mean free of possessions, and usually the contract of sale will explicitly state that the house should be left in a tidy and orderly fashion.

Unless it's gonna cost £100s to remove everything it's probably not worth going after the previous owner, because you'll probably have to take legal action.

freestyle_3

Thank you for all the helpful replies.

Yes some of it could be taken to the skip, but it's about 3 hours round journey in our london borough ! and crazy opening times.

To be honest this was the straw that broke us really, after a nightmare 4 months. We have written a letter with digital photos.

The next step is to threaten small claims. We were informed that even if we win in small claims, we still need to instruct a balif etc if they don't pay so it's unlikely to be worthwhile.

Just in case anyone else is in a similar position reading this, the Citizens Advice website actually says "there is not much that can be done and it's often not worth chasing"

lisawaters

So it's OK to just accept this, hire a skip or spend a day getting rid of someone else's rubbish is it? It may be easier than fighting it in court, but if it's a requirement under the act that they remove (blah blah) but it's not enforced, let's all do it! Why bother leaving the house tidy and hoovered and paying to get rid of your rubbish? Yea, get the poor sucker who buys it to get rid of it all for you.

Loving your work. Sheesh.

dannyboycey

Pay for it to be removed and send them the bill. File a claim against them online if they refuse - They don't have a leg to stand on.

dannyboycey

freestyle wrote: »

the Citizens Advice website actually says "there is not much that can be done and it's often not worth chasing"

This is at the heart of what is wrong with this country. The decent, moral, hard working people of this country need to grow a big set of balls and fight these kind of situations, however 'petty' they appear. A 'what's the point', roll over attitude send the message that it's ok to act like selfish disrespectful scum, and the balance of power will slowly but surely shift to these people.

Generali

dannyboycey wrote: »

This is at the heart of what is wrong with this country. The decent, moral, hard working people of this country need to grow a big set of balls and fight these kind of situations, however 'petty' they appear. A 'what's the point', roll over attitude send the message that it's ok to act like selfish disrespectful scum, and the balance of power will slowly but surely shift to these people.

That's all well and good but the time and hassle just aren't worth it.

For example, I know lots of contractors in banking and IT on £300-£600 a day. My belief is that you can only claim £100 a day in lost income. Each time they take someone to the small claims court it'll cost them hundreds in lost income (income that they can't afford to lose).

Unfortunately in these situations, while the benefits that accrue to 'society' by doing this might be greater than the cost to the individual, the share of the benefit to the individual is considerably greater than his costs.

There's a book called 'Bowling Alone' that touches on this I think. Not read it but it's meant to be very good.

*Louise*

OP - I think you're right to be annoyed about it, I hope you get something sorted - why should you use your time/money getting rid of someone else's junk?

I am leaving my place at the end of the month - I would be embarassed to hand it over in a mess - I will be scrubbing it before I go. I just hope the house I'm moving to has a decent standard of cleanliness.:D

thesaint

*Louise* this thread is an old one that someone resurrected from page 118, I think that they've sorted it out now.

*Louise*

Wow, lisawaters must have been really annoyed about it to have dredged it up from there....:eek: :rotfl: