Money grabbing Storage Company

Hoolibooli

Can anyone give some opinions about a friend of mines dilemma? He's moving to Russia to live and apart from visiting has no plans to come back to live here. He has used a well known storage company and recently arranged for his possessions to be shipped over there. The company have told him that because he gave them no notice to close his account,  despite being paid up till the end of the month, that he owes them £50. I think that's a little over the top, as they are free to re-let straightaway. Apart from the moral standpoint what does everyone think will happen? Would they send bailiffs to recover £50 + extras to Russia? If he visited the UK in the future would he be hijacked at Heathrow? Any ideas?

ToxicWomble

What you think is mostly irrelevant (unless you are actually the friend). It will boil down to what the contract with the storage firm says about cancelling/giving notice.
Depending on the monthly cost of the storage unit £50 may or may not be representative.
They probably won’t release the items until the account is paid up either.
More detail and info required.

Manxman_in_exile

As per ToxicWomble's post, it depends what your friend's agreement with the storage company says about giving notice.  Hasn't he checked?  Did he ever read the T&Cs?

FWIW, £50 does not sound at all excessive to me.  Again as per ToxicWomble, has your friend checked the T&Cs he agreed to about the possibility of the storage company holding onto his belongings until everything is paid off?

(Always read the small print on removal and storage contracts.  Once they've got your stuff in storage you tend to be over a barrel).

Hoolibooli

Can people please read the original post, the items stored are no longer there, they are released and in Russia. The storage company has been paid for the storage, my question was about their attempt to grab another £50 by email notification and the possible consequences of ignoring this.

davidmcn

Hoolibooli said:

Can people please read the original post, the items stored are no longer there, they are released and in Russia. The storage company has been paid for the storage, my question was about their attempt to grab another £50 by email notification and the possible consequences of ignoring this.

You still need to answer the question about what their contract says - they may be entitled to the £50, not merely "attempting to grab" it.

gettingtheresometime

Sounds as if your friend didn't give the correct amount of notice hence the £50 charge. Does this equate to a month's storage charge ?
I know you've said that he has no plans to return to the U.K. but given that we seem to live in a topsy turvy world these days & some countries are more volatile than others, his plans may change / have to change & whilst the storage company may do nothing, they may also go through the process & he's landed a ccj which would have consequences if he did have to come back. 

Is £50 worth it? 

DoaM

Hoolibooli said:

Can people please read the original post, the items stored are no longer there, they are released and in Russia. The storage company has been paid for the storage, my question was about their attempt to grab another £50 by email notification and the possible consequences of ignoring this.

Here's what you actually said:

Hoolibooli said:

He has used a well known storage company and recently arranged for his possessions to be shipped over there.

That doesn't say that the shipping had taken place ... in fact, to me, it says that he'd arranged for it but that nothing had happened because the storage place wouldn't release them until the £50 was paid.

Aylesbury_Duck

Hoolibooli said:

Can people please read the original post, the items stored are no longer there, they are released and in Russia. The storage company has been paid for the storage, my question was about their attempt to grab another £50 by email notification and the possible consequences of ignoring this.

Why not just tell us the answer you want?  You clearly don't like the (perfectly decent) questions and advice you've had. 

mattyprice4004

Where the items are is irrelevant - usually there's a notice period that needs to be given, and if he's not given that notice he's liable for the period, regardless of if he had stuff there or not. 

It's very, very simple.