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Margot123

I think you'd be better advised talking with a solicitor that specialises in contract and tort law.

Gratuitous Bailment is quite an unusual area of law; hopefully you will find a solicitor that likes to get their 'teeth into' something just a little bit challenging and different.

Yorkshireman99

P2P wrote: »

Hi everyone and thank you for the various comments received to date.

I have just received a letter from the solicitors stating that as my stored property does not form part of the estate their client is not accepting any responsibility for any of the content either damaged or missing, so I am therefore interested in the legal position concerning 'Gratuitous Bailment'.

Is there any equivalent case law that could be used to 'persuade' my brother that he IS responsible before pursuing him legally. My intention will be to take him to the small claims courts as this process seems quite straight forwards.

Before anyone takes the stance re is it worth it...blah blah blah, the value of the missing goods including contents physically within the house (access has been denied despite 5 repeat attempts) not just in storage areas under the property which he left unlocked, amounts to many thousands of pounds (approx £7000) so it is worth it from my perspective.

Yes there will be an element of proof but I have at least 2 witnesses that will confirm said items were kept at my parents for insurance purposes, and I do have some photos and receipts to confirm purchase. Again pre-empting responses re why were these items kept at my parents and not moved/insured at my own address, this was due to an accident (broken knee) which meant my own house was rented out to provide me with an income whilst i recovered, so i moved into a friends house temporarily and the majority of my contents including more valuable items were stored at my parents as they had better insurance cover.

Any help (in particular similar or relevant case law) re Gratuitous Bailment would be most welcome

Read what I said in post #19 and Margot123 in post #22. Trying to DIY it is likely to result in failure. You need to strip the emotion about your brother ftom the reality. He certainly bears some responsibility but so do you. Some sort of compromise negotiated by a third party, not the court, would be the best thing for you to do.It is called mediation.

PasturesNew

Is there any chance any other relative stopped by and took something, not realising it was yours?

"Passing by, shall we pop into their house, see how it's looking?...... ooh look, unlocked. Ooh nice watches, I'll take those and have a word with XYZ when he gets in touch to ask if we want anything.... it's not locked so safer with me"

Margot123

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

Read what I said in post #19 and Margot123 in post #22. Trying to FDIY it is likely to result in failure. You need to strip the emotion about your brother ftom the reality. He certainly bears some responsibility but so do you. Some sort of compromise negotiated by a third party, not the court, would be the best thing for you to do.It is called mediation.

Good advice there from YM99.

Any solicitor worth their salt will recommend mediation before action.
The Court (if it ever came to that) would look more favourable upon the claimant if mediation was attempted, even if it subsequently failed.

Keep_pedalling

The sensible thing to do would be to right this off, and get on with your life, but somehow I don!!!8217;t think this is going to happen.

If I though my children were going to end up squabbling over my will, I would leave everything to charity. They might end up very cross with me but at least I would not be the cause of any big rift between them.

P2P

Keep pedalling - have you got a spare £7000, then if so please send this to me and I will gladly right it off?!!

P2P

We don't have any relatives in the UK so no one would just pop by and 'move' anything for safe keeping, so this is unlikely.

P2P

Keep pedalling - again for you, this is in fact nothing to do with the Will content, so not really sure what you comment as this concerns the neglect concerning my own property now that my brother is managing the estate. This is not mentioned in the Will.

Keep_pedalling

P2P wrote: »

Keep pedalling - have you got a spare £7000, then if so please send this to me and I will gladly right it off?!!

I have as it happens, but there are far more worthy causes I would direct it to, and none of them have been so careless with their valuable possessions:D

Anyway you are going to have your own spare £7000+ once you get your inheritance, so I have not one jot of sympathy for your situation.

Keep_pedalling

P2P wrote: »

Keep pedalling - again for you, this is in fact nothing to do with the Will content, so not really sure what you comment as this concerns the neglect concerning my own property now that my brother is managing the estate. This is not mentioned in the Will.

You know there is much more to it than this, based on your other post, the 2 of you have driven out the original executor.