Seller left lots of rubbish in house

Cazzy1964

Hi, my son has just moved in to a house and when he got there, there was loads of rubbish in the garage .. old tins of paint, radiators .. lots of plant pots, bricks, an old awning and lots more. 

He contacted his solicitor who emailed the  sellers solicitor and they basically said she said my son said she could leave them there and also some of the stuff in the photo that was sent wasn’t even hers, she basically said she’s not gonna do anything about it. 

It’s gonna cost my son another skip to get rid if it. 

He was gonna take her through the small claims court to try and recoup the cost of the skip. But both her estate agent and her solicitor have said their file is closed now. 

But he cannot get her onward addresses as no one will give it him because of data protection. Does anyone know how he could get her address to put it on the small claims form. 

Thanks

tealady

Best thing he can do is drag the rubbish to the front garden and put a note on "free, help yourself" 
He needs to save his sanity as chasing a long gone seller wont be good for his bank balance or blood pressure.
Rads, tat man will take.

user1977

Instruct a tracing agent? But I'm not sure it's worthwhile for the cost of a skipload of junk.

Skiddaw1

I agree- he's best just letting it go. It's far from uncommon. Our previous shed was full to the brim with stuff when we moved to our previous house for example. I'd have a sort through it at my leisure- he may well find things he can either use or sell/give away. We found a fab vintage door in our shed as well as some bits & pieces that came in very useful when I was redesigning the garden.

pinkshoes

I'd put it all outside with a sign saying "FREE", then also put a post on a local Facebook group advertising the free stuff with the address. Hopefully most will then get taken.

If there's anything left then I'd deliver it to the estate agent and plonk it on their desk, stating that as they won't give the address of the seller to you, then you brought the stuff round that they left. 

We agreed the seller could leave what he liked as he was moving to a 1 bedroom retirement flat, but we put this in writing saying he could. 

ouraggie

as above, put out the front with “free to good home” written on it. Could he get rid of smaller things that are left by putting a few bits in the rubbish bin each week? I once got rid of 93 old housebricks by putting one in the middle of every bin bag i filled. Took me nearly two years !

Cazzy1964

Thanks all, I’ll tell him 

tealady

pinkshoes said:

I'd put it all outside with a sign saying "FREE", then also put a post on a local Facebook group advertising the free stuff with the address. Hopefully most will then get taken.

If there's anything left then I'd deliver it to the estate agent and plonk it on their desk, stating that as they won't give the address of the seller to you, then you brought the stuff round that they left. 

We agreed the seller could leave what he liked as he was moving to a 1 bedroom retirement flat, but we put this in writing saying he could. 

Pink shoes thx I never thought of face ache. 

GDB2222

Curiously, to issue proceedings, he can use the last known address, ie the house he now lives in. That means he will win by default, as the ex owner won’t even know about the proceedings. Then he just instructs bailiffs to collect on the judgment, and they can easily trace the ex owner. 

SensibleSarah

I had a similar situation when I bought my house. House and garden shed both full of worthless stuff and pieces of ugly and mainly broken furniture. I still haven't been able to get into the loft (hatch is jammed) so I expect that is still full of junk too! It was a big pain to get rid of the stuff I did - but I didn't have the mental energy to try and claim anything back so I just sucked it up and did it gradually myself. 

kipsterno1

@Cazzy1964 you could also try your local freecycle groups.

@SensibleSarah I remember your loft hatch post. Please do provide an update when you finally get it open.