End of tenancy cleaner took my posessions

marksoton

This is all a bit silly to my mind.

-taff

It really doesn't matter if the cleaner still had it or not. Their contract said remove all possessions. They didn't.
There is no theft.

laineyhen

in my experience
Only landlords from well known large halls
Return deposits
All of the smaller rental companies are a law
Unto themselves
Bullying apparently is allowed by them

It's only cash after all
So why can't they keep it all
Even when the tenant has been the most careful
And respectable to their property


It's a harsh lesson in life
Especially to young students
Who imagine they're liberal education hints
That there may be random acts of kindness available out in the big wide U.K.

Older more experienced adults i.e. Parents of
Said student
Actually fear that landlords and their behaviour
Is disgustingly unfair harsh and seriously in need of a conscience
Maybe they just stumble at the word CON

It certainly is a huge one
And I'm sorry they've gotten you too

I hope that you can move on from this and prosper
Without their negative actions

Mr.Generous

My view is the cleaners are entitled to do whatever they want with stuff people leave, they are paid to clean (and clear) the place. The landlord recommended this company so presumably is happy with the standard of work. Why didn't you just pay a professional part time cleaner such as your partner / mum / self to clean it and do a proper job. You are very lucky to get back your train stuff, they probably thought they could give it to kids - if they saw value as a collectable they would have been much more careful.

We find all sorts of stuff left in empty properties, never anything of much value but some stuff in lofts make a few £

Oh and on the deposit front not had many tenants leave between me and my brother, but never held onto a single penny as tenants have always made an effort. Of course there is wear and tear but nothing deliberate.

AdrianC

laineyhen wrote: »

in my experience
Only landlords from well known large halls
Return deposits
All of the smaller rental companies are a law
Unto themselves
Bullying apparently is allowed by them

It's only cash after all
So why can't they keep it all
Even when the tenant has been the most careful
And respectable to their property


It's a harsh lesson in life
Especially to young students
Who imagine they're liberal education hints
That there may be random acts of kindness available out in the big wide U.K.

Older more experienced adults i.e. Parents of
Said student
Actually fear that landlords and their behaviour
Is disgustingly unfair harsh and seriously in need of a conscience
Maybe they just stumble at the word CON

It certainly is a huge one
And I'm sorry they've gotten you too

I hope that you can move on from this and prosper
Without their negative actions

If that's poetry, it's not terribly good.
If it's advice, it's abysmal.
If it's a conspiracy theory, it's laughable.

agrinnall

googler wrote: »

... but they didn't return them willingly.

There's absolutely nothing to say the toys weren't returned willingly, the cleaner was asked about them, said they still had them, and made them available for the OP to collect.

moneyistooshorttomention

googler wrote: »

... but they didn't return them willingly.

They only returned them once they'd been caught out.

They hadn't done what they'd said they would do (dispose of anything remaining in the property) and had kept some for themselves, apparently with the aim of profiting from the OP's oversight

Quite.

I'm one of the ones that can't understand why things like that are deemed to be valuable - but I do know they are valuable and would also lose a bit of that value if the packaging isn't in mint condition.

So I would imagine quite a few people also know this fact - and that probably includes the cleaner.

It's all well and good for a cleaner to throw things into their own personal possession if the place is a holiday flat and a holidaymaker has left behind half a packet of pasta. I've deliberately left leftover items of food put neatly somewhere obvious on a kitchen worktop - ie the message is clear of "I can't be bothered to cart them back home - so either take it or chuck it". But a place a person has been living in and a possession as such is a totally different ballgame.

lincroft1710

Very naughtily, when my father moved out of his house, we "forgot to take from the loft" 2 clocks and an old hand operated clothes wringer. One of the clocks may have had some value. I presume the new owner just disposed of these items as we never had any comeback. Perhaps that clock was valuable, I don't know.

The cleaner may have thought the train set was abandoned and might make a suitable present. If they realised it was a valuable item from having watched TV antiques programmes I don't think they would have damaged the box.

Theft or carrying out instructions to remove "abandoned" property? We will never know

googler

agrinnall wrote: »

There's absolutely nothing to say the toys weren't returned willingly, the cleaner was asked about them, said they still had them, and made them available for the OP to collect.

OK, I'll rephrase that. They didn't pro-actively return them. They had to be actively chased by their boss to hand them over.

If they hadn't been chased by their boss they would have kept them.

teddysmum

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Very naughtily, when my father moved out of his house, we "forgot to take from the loft" 2 clocks and an old hand operated clothes wringer. One of the clocks may have had some value. I presume the new owner just disposed of these items as we never had any comeback. Perhaps that clock was valuable, I don't know.

The cleaner may have thought the train set was abandoned and might make a suitable present. If they realised it was a valuable item from having watched TV antiques programmes I don't think they would have damaged the box.

Theft or carrying out instructions to remove "abandoned" property? We will never know

My son moved out quickly from a rented house, as he was given an HA flat at short notice, leaving a number of items in the loft. he didn't accuse the next tenant or the landlord of theft because no one contacted him to return the items.


Asking a tenant to remove possessions would leave someone to believe that anything left was no longer required. The cleaner may have thought it a pity to throw away an item which her child could play with and it may have been this child who damaged the box, as children often do in their eagerness to get at a toy.


When I was a child, our neighbour worked for what was called the Salvage Department of the council. It's job was to clear items that were not put in bins, but left near them for disposal.


'Uncle Herbert' often brought me perfectly good toys which people had thrown away and I particularly remember a wind up tin roundabout, which would be very collectable, nowadays.


Good toys were saved from scrap and one child was very happy.


Because something has value, does not mean that it was not meant to be thrown away. Some people regularly throw things out, so they can follow the latest trends, but can't be bothered to sell the unwanted stuff. (This could be seen on our local Freecycle, before it became dysfunctional because of some users' greed).