advice - house-sitting gone wrong!

pinkteapot

The friend put possessions she didn’t want you having access to in her garage and locked it, and didn’t give you a key. So you went to a neighbour who held spare keys to get in there?!

Skiddaw1

Whatever the ins and outs, I think the moral of the tale is never mix friendship and business. It has a tendency to go horribly wrong.


I think OP is going to have to draw a line under it, sever any further contact with the former friend and accept that the chances are she won't get her remaining belongings returned.

Slithery

pinkteapot wrote: »

The friend put possessions she didn’t want you having access to in her garage and locked it, and didn’t give you a key. So you went to a neighbour who held spare keys to get in there?!

Nope. It's the OP's possessions in the garage.

shortcrust

I’d block her emails and texts, forget about the possessions in the garage and breathe a big sigh of relief that I was out of the situation. Actually, if I’m honest I’d have torn all the tassels off all the cushions and choked her with them.

It would be great to hear the other side though because this woman will presumably also think that she’s being reasonable. Perhaps send her a link to this thread in your final message.

Disjoint

You didn't have access to the garage so went to the neighbor's to get a key to get access to it. That's dumb.
Everyone is asking how much is the stuff in the garage worth? If it's less than £200 just walk away and forget about it.

baronne

Thanks for the replies. to be clear, I didn't trash the place - the place was incredibly clean and I took good care, I had a regular cleaner while I was there.

You're right that there are always certainly two sides to the story, but the grand total of "damage" was:

- slight damage to her bedroom doorframe when my daughter was in the room, and put the small latch on, my son didn't realise and pushed the door which made the frame come away slightly and pushed back into place with slight paint damage which cracked as it came away. nothing serious at all.

- the small mark on the sofa I had no idea how it happened, but it was about the size of a 50p coin - not a disastrous stain

- the cobweb, genuinely a cobweb high up at the top of the stairwell, my cleaner couldn't reach - in fact, she pointed it out to me and I said not to worry, it's hardly a problem. Bearing in mind, had I not been living there while she was away, I'm sure the build of dust and cobwebs would have been much more significant.

- the garden, I had it tidied by a gardening/landscaping company on the morning I was due to leave for France (and paid them £120 for it). They tidied and cut back hedges, neatened the borders and so on. However, the landlady called them back after I had gone and said she wasn't happy with the Ivy which was touching the floor (I have checked back on photos I took when I moved in and it was no different when I moved in!). She then instructed the gardener to invoice me and that I'd pick up the bill.

- stuff left in the fridge/freezer & cupboards. Because of the scuppered garage saga, I didn't clear out some of the fridge/freezer items which I would have done so on the morning I left and popped it in the bin for collection. Again, worth noting there was some stuff in the fridge and freezer when I first moved in. Taking it and dumping it at my work is just almost unbelievable.

There was in fact, a huge list she sent after her Summer visit of things she wanted sorted. I could post it, but it's long and a lot of it is getting things absolutely perfect before her parents were supposedly coming to stay, and she wanted it in pristine condition

During her stay in the Summer she told me off like a naughty schoolboy for things like the fact I happened to be low on loo paper, she told me not to do the short rinse cycle on the dishwasher (nb. I paid £800 for "bills" which I am pretty damn sure would cover the excess electricity "burned" up by the 15 minute dishwasher rinse.). She also told me to that I had left the underfloor heating on permanently, when in actual fact I had turned the thermostat right down so it wouldn't come on, but of course she vehemently disagreed with this and said it was costing her in electricity (again, I paid for bills). She told me to speak to the neighbours about the fence that had been pushed over slightly in a storm earlier in the year (which I advised her of).

Now, as for my stuff in the garage. I had originally put it in there by agreement with her as a one off to keep these things there. At the time she was in France and as I mentioned before the elderly couple across the way had the spare key and I went in to put my belongings which as I recall is a snowboard, my music collection, camping equipment and my kids bicycles (which I couldn't get out for them to use in the Summer due to the paranoia of me accessing her garage - even when things were fine between us as a friendship). I think there are a few other bits and bobs, I can't remember exactly what. I read somewhere online about the law relating to Tort (interfering with goods) act 1977 - which is squarely what she appears to have broken. I don't the value of the stuff - may £200-300, possibly more.

Anyway, that's the story.

theartfullodger

Explain that you have been advised to report her rental income to HMRC tax-man and the "Let Property Campaign" (it's very easy -
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/let-property-campaign-your-guide-to-making-a-disclosure/let-property-campaign-your-guide-to-making-a-disclosure
&
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/reporting-tax-evasion





- but if you get your belongings back wouldn't.


Get you stuff back then report her anyway...


If she had/has a mortgage inform them also.. (details for £3 from land registry..)


Cheers!

pinkteapot

Slithery wrote: »

Nope. It's the OP's possessions in the garage.

I know. I meant that the friend was using the garage for storage and didn't OP a key. So OP got a key off a neighbour and started putting her stuff in the garage too. The friend hadn't wanted her to have access to the garage so it's hard to complain now that she can't retrieve her stuff.