Renting Garage Privately - Landlord issues

silvercar

anselld said:

FlorayG said:

You don't have any sort of 'tenancy' that's only for dwellings. Your agreement is informal and I would suspect you have no rights at all. I suggest you ask the garage owner ( who is NOT a landlord) if they will give you a week and then get yourself sorted and get everything moved

The terms tenant, landlord, tenancy can equally apply to various non-residential agreements.  AST is a specific form of residential tenancy but the other terms are more widely used (shops, garages, fields, etc, etc).

Then it comes down to whatever is in the contract. Here the contract is only verbal, so there has been no discussion of notice periods. It therefore comes down to what is reasonable. I would argue that 7-14 days is reasonable for a garage.

daveyjp

If paying monthly a notice period of a month would be deemed appropriate,

saajan_12

This would just be a commercial rental, governed by the contract without the strong protections for ASTs and other residential tenancies. So by the verbal contract, you may have a right to reasonable notice and for your items to be left alone until then. 

However in practice, if the LL does breach this and throw out your stuff, your remedy would be to file a civil claim. There wouldn't be any interest from police or injunctions to physically stop the LL. With a civil claim, it would be your burden to prove that 
(a) You had a tenancy in the first place, with rent paid and more notice than the LL had given
(b) The value of the items in the garage which the LL threw away. 

These may be very hard to prove, given as you say much of it was junk. So the practical way forward might be to get someone back there to remove your items sooner than later. 

Herzlos

Can you go and collect stuff or send someone to collect at least the stuff you care about and move it to a proper self storage place?

What rubbish are you talking about? Anything that's likely to be a hazard?

Realistically, your best bet is to vacate it properly on your own terms before she does anything to it, as with a verbal contract and regardless of the legality you're unlikely to be able to reclaim or recover anything that was thrown away.

Grumpy_chap

I suspect the OP has the use of the garage under "licence" which generally confers very little rights and can be terminated virtually at will of the LL.
Given the OP states they have paid rent until 8th Feb, this means two weekends (tomorrow and next week). 
Can the OP make arrangements to clear the garage in that time frame?  If so, a response back to the LL that they will make arrangements to clear the garage as requested and this will be done before the next rent falls due might well be sufficient for the LL to take no further action.  It is hassle for the LL to have to arrange to clear the garage, so if the OP indicates they'll go easily, that might just be enough to take the heat off.

bex2012

Is the garage in a block?. My guess is the landlord is subletting the garage to you, and she rents it off the council. When I worked in the housing office the rules on renting a garage was very clear, it could only be used for parking a vehicle, and not for the storing of possessions. Im guessing she’s been rumbled, OR shes been served notice to vacate the garage (any planning permission applications gone in for the garage site?), and shes now passing that on to you.

BonJonBovi

Thanks for the replies, apologies as I have been away.

So the latest is, on the 8th, day rent was due, landlord messaged me saying tenancy was terminated. The very next day she has gotten rid of everything.  I had bags of childhood school books that she's thrown away plus roughly £2k worth of stock, of which I have proof.

She also messaged saying she smelt cannabis and I suspect she is using it as a reason for doing what she did.

Looks.to be a matter for small claims? I have zero intention of letting this go

[Deleted User]

If it was that important, why haven't you arranged collection in the past fortnight?

All of the advice offered on this thread made no difference and you've done nothing in the meantime?

BonJonBovi

[Deleted User] said:

If it was that important, why haven't you arranged collection in the past fortnight?

All of the advice offered on this thread made no difference and you've done nothing in the meantime?

Because my rent was Upto date and It wasn't possible to arrange anything be cause I've been out of town.

daveyjp

If my garage had been beoken into, items stolen and I had suspicions about who did it I'd probably be calling the police.