Garage been stolen? Where do i stand

agentsquirrel_2

i have moved into a property which has a garage on spare ground at the back of the house. unfortunatly the man next door as possesion of it and will not let me have the keys.
the story goes that the house belonged to a friend of his as he lived next door to him all his life etc. when the man died the house and contents where left to charity. the garage was left as is. there is a van in there but its wrecked its been in the seven years and is rotten plus a load of junk really, i.e boxes of old washing powder long gone solid, a few rusty old bits of tools and basically junk.

i want the garage back and asked him for the keys last week (this has been going on since june/july now) he says that the contents are his and he won't hand over the keys until he's ready. i told him i don't want the contents, steptoe and son wouldnt want the contents trust me. but i do however want my garage back. he now claims that he wants money for all the maintance he's done in the last seven years, which i have since found out has been to put a piece of roofing felt nailed in when the other stuff blew off.

at the end of the day the garage is mine, he was fuming when i said i knew about it asking who the hell had told me about it. he seems to think its his by right as he has three garages in the space as it is. he's been round this morning and said if i want it then i will have to give him the money for all repairs which need doing even though he's got all the stuff to do it for free and i don't even want him to do them as my father is a builder. i don't want this to escalate, i've already had a bit of verbal from one of his brothers claiming i'm a !!!!! but i'm not rising to it. where do i stand on this, i'm getting a bit naffed off with my car being on the street when i have a garage sitting there and i can't use it.
help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Toto

Do you own this house or rent?

I would tell him you are prepared to pay for the repairs if he is prepared to pay the rental due on the garage. Cheeky sod springs to mind here.

Horace

I'd be busting the lock off and fitting a new one. I would also show him the deeds for the house pointing out that it includes the garage. By rights you do need to give him some time to remove his stuff but in the meantime I would be charging him rent for it. My landlord rents out the garages by my flats for £30 per week (I don't want to rent one myself) at that seems to be a fair rent. Why should you pay him for something that belongs to you?

silvercar

Not a legal expert, but I would have thought that you could stick a notice on the garage saying you are taking possession of it from XX date and any contents not removed by that time will be disposed of. Then change the locks.

All this presuming there is no dispute over who owns the garage.

agentsquirrel_2

at the moment we're renting the house but we do want to buy it later next year so i'm keen to get this resolved without incident as i am going to be here a while. yes your right he is a bit of cheeky sod he's a bit of a know it all too. there's been no rent to pay on the garage since the owner died seven years ago. basically he was keeping quiet and hoping i wouldnt either 1; find out about it 2; do something about it, then he could keep it for himself and another one of his family or friends could use it for their bikes and cars.

agentsquirrel_2

hi, thanks there's no dispute who owns it no, its there in black and white but the thing is the stuff that is in it techinally isnt even his, its the dead guys who left it all to charity, house and garage contents plus proceeds from sale of house. what happened there was he put a bill in for maintaining the house while it was going through probate and got nothing, mainly because he did nothing apart from put a fire on to stop the damp!! what a mess, all i want to do is park my car and store my patio furninture instead of lugging it to my dads.

LuciferTDark

Get a solicitor to write him a letter giving him 28days to remove his items from your property & return the keys or you'll be employing someone to remove & dispose of it all, also having the locks changed, he will then receive a bill for the costs incurred by you.

If he still refuses to do as you want, get the work done & send him the bill giving him a further 28days to pay up with the option of a small claims court summons if he doesn't.

sm9ai

As your renting then its really the letting agent/landlords responsibility to sort it out.

If you have the Garage noted on your letting agreement and you do not have access to it ask for your rent to be reduced until you do have use of it.

agentsquirrel wrote: »

at the moment we're renting the house but we do want to buy it later next year so i'm keen to get this resolved without incident as i am going to be here a while. yes your right he is a bit of cheeky sod he's a bit of a know it all too. there's been no rent to pay on the garage since the owner died seven years ago. basically he was keeping quiet and hoping i wouldnt either 1; find out about it 2; do something about it, then he could keep it for himself and another one of his family or friends could use it for their bikes and cars.

Pez2

agentsquirrel wrote: »

hi, thanks there's no dispute who owns it no, its there in black and white but the thing is the stuff that is in it techinally isnt even his, its the dead guys who left it all to charity, house and garage contents plus proceeds from sale of house. what happened there was he put a bill in for maintaining the house while it was going through probate and got nothing, mainly because he did nothing apart from put a fire on to stop the damp!! what a mess, all i want to do is park my car and store my patio furninture instead of lugging it to my dads.

If your tenancy agreement says that you have use of the garage then you'll have to take the matter up with the landlord/letting agent. If the agreement doesn't specify use of the garage then you'll need to clarify the situation with the landlord/letting agent, but you have no right to use the garage unless the owner of the property agrees to it.

Strapped

agentsquirrel wrote: »

i have moved into a property which has a garage on spare ground at the back of the house. unfortunatly the man next door as possesion of it and will not let me have the keys.
the story goes that the house belonged to a friend of his as he lived next door to him all his life etc. when the man died the house and contents where left to charity. the garage was left as is. there is a van in there but its wrecked its been in the seven years and is rotten plus a load of junk really, i.e boxes of old washing powder long gone solid, a few rusty old bits of tools and basically junk.

i want the garage back and asked him for the keys last week (this has been going on since june/july now) he says that the contents are his and he won't hand over the keys until he's ready. i told him i don't want the contents, steptoe and son wouldnt want the contents trust me. but i do however want my garage back. he now claims that he wants money for all the maintance he's done in the last seven years, which i have since found out has been to put a piece of roofing felt nailed in when the other stuff blew off.

at the end of the day the garage is mine, he was fuming when i said i knew about it asking who the hell had told me about it. he seems to think its his by right as he has three garages in the space as it is. he's been round this morning and said if i want it then i will have to give him the money for all repairs which need doing even though he's got all the stuff to do it for free and i don't even want him to do them as my father is a builder. i don't want this to escalate, i've already had a bit of verbal from one of his brothers claiming i'm a !!!!! but i'm not rising to it. where do i stand on this, i'm getting a bit naffed off with my car being on the street when i have a garage sitting there and i can't use it.
help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you sure that the garage belongs to the house? Who owns the land it's on, as you desribe it as "spare" and that the neighbour also has garages there?

Anyway, if you are renting, it's the LL's issue. Check your rental agreement to see whether it includes use of the garage.

Loretta

You are making this complicated.

You are renting the house, if you are sure the agreement includes the garage contact the letting agent/landlord, letter or email and say that you would like to use the garage, it is full of junk so you can't, will they arrange to clear it within the next 7 days (or whatever).

if you have a key to the garage, I would change the lock straightaway and give a key to the letting agent/landlord, because the lock is faulty, seems to stick and is hard to open the door and you don't want them to have a problem with it, so they can clear the stuff.

Don't get into discussions with this neighbour, it has nothing whatever to do with him. You have no idea who the stuff belongs to and you don't want to know. The landlord/agent can argue with him about it if they can be bothered.

If you are thinking of buying this house get thelandlord/agent to sort this out as soon as possible so you don't have to deal with it when it becomes yours