Landlords furniture in our house

Mr.Generous

When you get the inventory you get a time frame to agree or dispute it. Dispute it! Get the landlord to rent a storage lockup or just agree to remove and dump the junk.

martindow

hyperkiller92 said:

  Just to add this same landlord has built a non-working sauna into the back of the house too!

Can you dump some or all of this furniture in the non-working sauna to free up some space?  Not a solution to the problem unless it all fits in.

Schwarzwald

if classed as un-furnished
and no rooms are excluded
seems like a difficult case for the LL to argue

but dont dispose the furniture simply
would likely rather put it into storage, potentially deduct the storage fees from the monthly rent
but that will for sure cause a dispute with the LL

sounds v unreasonable from the LL

RHemmings

I was thinking that surely the agents would sort this out. What the landlord has done is unacceptable. I'd definitely propose putting the items into storage and deducting the storage fees from the rent as a solution. Propose, not actually do. That should start focussing some minds. 

Section62

hyperkiller92 said:

We have just rented a new house and we are having issues with some of the landlords furniture thats being stored in the house, When we viewed the house initially we asked what the items were and were told it was the landlords but to request for it to be removed with our application which we did. We were then told the landlord doesn't want to move the items in that room as he moved abroad.

Whilst signing the contract it stated nothing about the landlords furniture or items in that room and it was classed as an un-furnished property. When we had the inventory online it had photos of the items in that room and it said the following * Check image*

When was that (the BiB), i.e. before you signed the contract?

What discussion took place after you were told the landlord didn't want the items removed?  Did you agree to them being left there?

The inventory says "Items in this room not to be removed or used" - so someone told the inventory company that prior to them completing the report.  Who would that have been (the agent?)?

Herzlos

Given the non-working sauna and landlord unwilling to even move furniture I think that unless you really want to live there I'd be pushing to unwind the contract due to the changes which weren't agreed to.

Mainly because I suspect you're going to have a nightmare of a time getting anything fixed.

_Penny_Dreadful

Landlords like this give the rest of us a bad name.  The landlord wants to charge rent as if the whole property is available and then not only leaves a bunch of furniture in a supposedly unfurnished property but specifies the tenants aren't to use said furniture, that renders the room more or less unusable. 

What to do?  I like the idea already suggested of politely contacting the letting agent requesting for the furniture to be removed or for you to put it into storage for which the landlord must cover the cost.  Another option would be to leave the furniture where it is and suggest a rent reduction since the amount of rental property available for use is less than what was advertised.  Having zoomed in on the inventory pictures I'd wager that at least some of that furniture has a residual value of zero.

pretamang

how did you get on?

tripled

You are an involuntary bailee. You should write to the landlord at the address on the contract for serving notices, obtaining proof of posting, giving them a reasonable amount of notice (say two weeks) for them to be removed, or you can sell them (and forward the proceeds to the landlord).

It might be worth getting advice from CAB or a solicitor to make sure you go about things correctly and don't open yourself up to any legal risk.

Find out more here:
https://www.stephens-scown.co.uk/commercial-property/whose-belongings-are-they-anyway-dealing-with-involuntary-bailment/

As an aside, if the landord lives abroad, are they a non-resident landlord (NRL)? If so, you might need to deduct and pay taxes from the rental payments if you pay the landlord directly. However, if you are paying the agency, then they should take care of it.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/paying-tax-on-rent-to-landlords-abroad

hyperkiller92

Well after taking all of your advice, we opted to go in to speak to the estate agents and discuss this matter with them. Needless to say they were biased to the landlord obviously and the methods they used to rent the property very shifty as a few things were said pre tenancy that then changed to " we didn't say that you agreed to keep the items in that room and therefore it does not need to be in a contract but only the inventory"

I do think how some estate agents operate is manipulative considering we were rushing to find somewhere that would take us and a dog and had been to over 20 viewings in couple of weeks and use this against people who apply as they know they are desperate.

below is an email i had after the office meeting