Items left behind after moving

Harlan2

I recently moved and inadvertently left some £1500 of personal belongings behind at my old address, I had difficulty obtaining packaging materials because of “non essential” shops being closed and had to do lots of packaging literally at the last moment + the removal firm were not overly helpful and played a game of lets rush them out by revving up the truck, and I was stupid enough to fall for it.

I phoned the buyer but needless to say they deny knowing anything about the items which I suspect they will keep and sell sometime in the future.  Do I have any recourse?  I would emphasise that the belongs were personal, NOT household appliances etc.

davidmcn

Harlan2 said:

Do I have any recourse?

Yes, if you can evidence on the balance of probabilities that you did leave the items and what they were.

How soon after completion did you contact the buyers? Plenty of previous threads here from buyers lumbered with the sellers' junk after they move in.

greatcrested

The new occupants have a duty of care for your belongings and must make arrangements to let you collect them before they can dispose of them.

And if they do eventually receive any money eg by selling hem, that money is yours, less any costs they incurred (eg if they put the items into paid storage).

But all that assumes that a court believes you really left these items behind.

It's easy for you to say "I left xyz worth £X000 behind." And equally easy for them to say "Nothing was left behind."

As with any dispute, it's then for a judge to decide who he believes.

This link relates to tenancies, but the legal principle is the same:

https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/information/uncollected-goods/

dimbo61

So have you got photos of the valuable items you left behind ?
If you have a photo of 4 dogs smoking cigars and playing cards and the New owners have the same item for sale at Bonham's you might have a claim. 
It's proving you own the items 
So photos and insurance valuations would help

AdrianC

greatcrested said:

It's easy for you to say "I left xyz worth £X000 behind." And equally easy for them to say "Nothing was left behind."

I suspect it's more like "I left belongings worth £1,500 behind", and they say "They left a pile of utter junk which we binned after we got no reply from the seller after contacting them via their solicitor and EA."

OP - can you confirm where you are in the country, and the timescale here? "Non-essential" shops were closed between 5th Nov and 2nd Dec in England, but most packaging materials would have been easily available via (open) supermarkets, (open) self-storage facilities, or online even during that period.

Flugelhorn

We moved into a house during lockdown - there were 2 piles of "stuff" near the garage - the binmen were coming the next day and kindly took the lot when we explained the situation. Later that day the agent rang and said that a friend of the vendor had come to collect  some stuff but it had gone.... if only they had said the day before we would have saved it but we had no idea that these were specific piles of whatever.