Paperwork with sensitive information

wonderwoman29

I have a small office building on my property where a book keeping business used to trade. The business is now gone and all the paperwork is left, paperwork that belongs to all the businesses that they used to do books for. I have (after many many MANY hours) organised the paperwork by business and now need to return it to them one at a time. What I wanted to know is, for the businesses that no longer exist (there's paperwork dating back to the 90's!) what do I do with it?! If I can't find the person who owned the business?
Thanks  

Savvy_Sue

Just wondering, what was your relationship with the book keeping business? and how did it go? ie suddenly down the tubes or a planned closure?

Financial records only need to be kept for 7 years, so anything older than that can be shredded.

BUT will anyone know to come knocking on your door at this stage? I'd have said the book keeping business had the responsibility to pass it back to the businesses. 

If you have anything non-financial then it may need to be kept for longer, eg I think certificates of Employers Liability Insurance have to be kept for 50 years. But again, not necessarily your responsibility to deal with it - that timescale is so that if anyone develops something they can claim for, then the claim can be directed to the right company, even years after the person left it. 

Manxman_in_exile

I admire your high moral standards in trying to sort this out, but I'd be a bit concerned that by voluntarily trying to do so, I may be inadvertantly assuming some responsibility for it.  What happens if you do something wrong - like passing confidential information to the wrong company?

The accountants should have sorted this out before they left.  If you are the landlord and need to clear the office for new occupants, I'd be looking for a data shredding firm or something like that.  And get a certificate of shredding.

wonderwoman29

It's a family member that owns the business, the business is still running although the family member has no part of it now other than owning it. The lady who runs it (and used to work up the office in the garden) now works from home and there's no way she could have all the paperwork in her house, there must be literally millions of sheets of paper, in endless boxes!
The family member has point blank refused to help and told me that if I want it out I have to take it back to the businesses myself. I've done my best and made sure the paperwork is organised by business but just not sure what to do with paperwork belonging to businesses that no longer exist, and I can't find any contacts for. I'm trying to do the right thing but honestly I'm a bit frustrated with the family member who refuses to help at all, considering it's their mess. Would it be me liable if anything went wrong? I just want it all out so that we can make use of the office, it's 3 whole rooms so you can imagine the wasted space!
Thanks for all your help so far  

Pennywise

wonderwoman29 said:

It's a family member that owns the business, the business is still running although the family member has no part of it now other than owning it. 

If she "owns" the business then it is 100% her responsibility.  As owner, she can't abdicate her responsibilities to the person she's employing to run it.  What are the terms of the lease that she signed when she was operating from your premises? 
If it were me, I'd be sending her a special delivery letter giving her x days to remove her property from your premises and telling her that you'll have it all destroyed and send her the bill if she doesn't.  Then if any of her clients need their paperwork, you've a paper trail leading back to her proving it's her that her clients would need to take action against.

Manxman_in_exile

I agree with Pennywise*.  It's not your responsibility to sort this out it's the responsibility of the business owner.  Put her on notice to remove the stuff or you'll destroy it and bill her for it.  Except for doing this I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.  You owe no duty to the businesses these papers belong to, and you certainly do not want to be seen to be assuming any liability by interfering.  Not your problem.  (I probably shouldn't say this and I'm not suggesting it applies here, but many, many years ago after graduation I worked for a short time for a company management services provider in the Isle of Man.    I would make no attempt whatsoever to return any documents to whom you think they might belong.  Let sleeping dogs lie - believe me...)

*I've always assumed Pennywise is an accountant so I'm pretty confident that their advice will be as good as you'll get.

Mistral001

I am not sure about destroying them and sending a bill to the family member.  Unless you have a contract or lease with the family member which states that you can charge for destroying the documents or even destroying them at all, then I think legally you will be on weak ground. 

I often get shot down on this forum when I say that you should get professional advice, but I think you need to get it on this occasion before doing anything. 

PS.   I am surprised nobody has suggested putting the documents in plastic bags and leaving them on the family member's doorstep, but please seek legal advice before doing this as it might be considered as fly tipping, but if this can be done legally, it would get rid of the problem as far as you are concerned.

rach_k

I would probably get in touch with each business you can find and say that you believe there *may* be some paperwork of theirs that they would want (don't confirm anything) and that they should contact the book-keeper (I wouldn't give her personal contact details but point them to something like her website, which is publicly available info) to let her know what to do with it.

If she starts getting calls from her old customers, she'll have to decide what to do with it.  If she turns up to collect some of it, have it all boxed in sealed boxes so she has to remove the lot rather than just taking the bits she wants.  

Manxman_in_exile

wonderwoman29 - it's really not your responsibility, it's your family member's who owns the business - and presumably makes or made money from it.  How can they expect you to sort out the documents and put the responsibility on you to make sure they end up in the right hands?  It's completely unreasonable.  I wouldn't want to be in the position of inadvertantly releasing somebody else's confidential information to the wrong company, or - worse still - handing something over to a company which they were never intended to see and might raise all sorts of questions.  That's the problem with sensitive/ confidential material - it's sensitive/confidential and you don't want to be the person who might put it into the wrong hands.

Unless you really don't want to offend your relative (eg are you expecting an inheritance from them?) I'd consider doing what pennywise suggested.  They sound like an appalling relative and an incompetent if not negligent bookkeeper.  Did they pay rent when they were in there?

Grumpy_chap

It sounds like the company have not fully vacated the office so deal with it as per the terms of the lease.  Continue to charge rent until the property is properly vacated.