House Removal company boxes deposit

river_chemist

hi, this is my first post! I would really like to hear people's advice on the following.

I recently moved house from outer london to surrey (40 miles) in Sept 2021, and used a removals company to move everything for me. Before the moving day the company supplied us with their own boxes and packing materials in exchange for a deposit of £120, where the deposit would be returned to us when the empty boxes were collected.

I have now asked the company three times about when they can come and collect the empty boxes (I have carefully flat packed them again into a stack, think there are 80 in total and do take up around 3 square meters of space), and each time I'm told that they do not have any nearby removal jobs happening, so it's not convenient for the box collection.

What do I do now, I would really like my £120 deposit back from them?
Has anyone had a similar experience?

user1977

I borrowed boxes from my movers, but they didn't need a deposit. They also didn't bother collecting them when I arranged, so I passed them on to a friend who was moving.

comeandgo

Could you say you will charge them a fee for you safely storing their property?  

newsgroupmonkey_

comeandgo said:

Could you say you will charge them a fee for you safely storing their property?  

What, and take them to small claims court for it?

Sounds like an even bigger ballache than storing them.

Slithery

What does your contract with the removal company have to say about these boxes?

NameUnavailable

Read the contract (as above) then unless there's something to stop you, give them notice that they must collect and refund you within (a set reasonable time, say 3 weeks) or you will then dispose of the boxes and issue legal proceedings to recover your deposit.

Murphybear

user1977 said:

I borrowed boxes from my movers, but they didn't need a deposit. They also didn't bother collecting them when I arranged, so I passed them on to a friend who was moving.

That has often been my experience.  Unless you are not moving very far there’s a good chance that the removal company won’t ever collect them.  Our longest move was  Northants to Dartmoor, bit far to go for a few boxes  . I’ve never paid a deposit either.  

Flugelhorn

We moved a long way, no deposit on the boxes and they never mentioned coming back for them - I flattened them and offered them on local FB site to others moving 

TheJP

Sounds like the removals are not interested in the boxes and more interested in the £120 you gave them (which is odd IMHO).

Murphybear

If you have no need for them and they are in your way then advertise them on Freecycle.  We did that and could have got rid of them half a dozen times.  

Sadly, as others have said, there is little chance of getting your deposit money back.  The cash is more useful to the removal company than a load of 2nd hand boxes which may be covered with thick black ink room directions 

saajan_12

The key is what the contract says about 
1) deposit - 
2) box return

You can't charge them for storage without a contract agreeing to storage. If they go beyond the contractual time they should have collected, then you may be able to sue for your actual damages from their breach, eg if you paid to store them offsite, or paid for disposal.