Disposing of cohabitee possessions left in a property

_tuxian_

My dad is in his 90’s and has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and Dementia. He is also registered blind (he has some sight in one eye), and is deaf. He currently lives in his solely-owned property with a female friend, also in her 90’s. She is due to leave the property over the next month and move in with her granddaughter and her family.

When that happens it’s everyones view that my dad won’t be able to remain in the property on his own and will need to be moved in to a care home.

My brother and I have LPA over dad’s finances. To fund dad’s care home we will need to sell his property. We have told dad’s friend this and made it clear that we need the property empty ASAP after both of them have moved out. But she seems unwilling to accept this. To date she refuses to commit to any timetable we suggest, or to offer her own timetable. She has suggested that after moving out she will still be leaving some of her possessions in dad’s property. The space available to her in her granddaughter’s property is considerably less than the space she currently occupies in my father’s property. So she will likely have possessions in my father’s property that she will never have room for.

It’s a difficult time for both of them, and we are trying to be as accommodating as possible, but my questions are:

• After she and my father have left the property are we legally allowed to pack up any of her remaining belongings so we can clean and redecorate the property ready for resale? If so, do we legally need to issue notices of our intent, stick to some timetable, etc.?

• Obviously we want her to have all her belongings. We can arrange times for her to come and go through whatever possessions of hers remain in dad’s property. We can offer to help take anything she leaves around to her new home. But if she refuses to accept the situation can we legally dispose of her things after a period of time. What notices do we need to issue to her? What timetable do we need to adhere to, etc.?

In case it matters - to the best of our knowledge she has paid no rent and contributed nothing to the day-to-day living costs since moving in to dad’s property, 5-6 years ago.

Thanks in advance for any advice offered.

sammyjammy

Pack up her belongings and get on with what you need to do for the house, write her a letter telling her when she needs to collect them by, give her as much time as you can but give her a date to do this by.  Tell her after this date her belongings will be removed from the property.  Its clearly an emotive one but generally in a situation of an excluded occupier (which she was) the letter would go onto say they would be donated or destroyed after the date.

FlorayG

Aww that's difficult - what is legal and what is right for your dad's friend possibly aren't the same. Have you been in touch with the people she is moving in with to see what they think?
It's odd how people with only a few years left hang on to possessions - could she be persuaded to give things to people she was planning to leave them to in her will anyway?

Flugelhorn

"She has suggested that after moving out she will still be leaving some of her possessions in dad’s property. The space available to her in her granddaughter’s property is considerably less than the space she currently occupies in my father’s property. So she will likely have possessions in my father’s property that she will never have room for."

this is the tricky - what does she think will happen to the possessions? are they actually worth anything / likely to be appreciated by her beneficiaries or just can't face getting rid of them. 
I think storage will have to be mentioned to her 

Keep_pedalling

Difficult one, have you spoken to the granddaughter about this?

Newly_retired

The lady has no rights to leave any belongings in the property.  Give her written notice of a date by which you need the property to be cleared. Contact the granddaughter so she is aware. Suggest she puts them into storage if she really cannot be persuaded to part with them.
If they have not been removed by your deadline, you have the right to dispose of them, but as you are offering to help, maybe take anything usuable to a charity shop, otherwise it is the local tip.

 ( My late grandma insisted that her belongings be kept safe for when she came out of the Home, which of course she never did, and my parents were stuck with them for years, so I know how stubborn poeple can be ).

GDB2222

I always worry when I see a legal question about a practical problem. The legal side is covered by the 

Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977 - you can google the notice wording and time periods required.

The goods belong to your father's partner, and as such she deserves kindness and respect. In any case, by looking after him until now, she has saved you (as heirs to dad's estate) a small fortune in care home fees!  So, spending a modest amount of money now to look after her belongings is reasonable. 

One practical course may be to put her stuff into a self-store unit, and pay the fees for the first 3-6 months. She can then take over the fees after that, or she can agree to the stuff being dumped.

elsien

^^^

This. Put it in storage until she’s ready to sort it with that time limit as above. She is probably in no fit state to be thinking about any of it at the moment. 

What she’s paid or hasn’t paid over the years isn’t relevant. That was clearly an agreement your dad was happy with when she moved in, and that was his decision to make. 

As an aside, has it been locked into about care to keep him at home? You haven’t said there is an LPA for health and welfare to make those accommodation decisions. 

TripleH

I think a chat with the granddaughter and proposal to distribute the possessions in her lifetime is still a useful suggestion.

It might be that another relative has space to store them without the need for incurring fees.

Always worth a shout before resorting to the above useful advice?

RAS

And possibly an understanding that whilst you might as attorneys want to clear the house when GF leaves, there may be other members of your own family who want some of his belongings? It took a year to clear my parent's house, albeit I was working full-time as well.