Tenants leaving house full of rubbish / posesions behind

[lavy]

Hi, I have tenants that have moved out and have not given a forwarding address although I have repeatedly asked for this by email . Tenants also did not pay there last months rent . I will be claiming this from there deposit so will leave little of it left. They have left behind large amount of stuff (old tyres furniture etc looks mostly rubbish they dont want) in the house , garden ,and shed etc. Would fill a large skip . I have however found out where they have moved to . I am thinking of taking all there stuff left behind and delivering it into there new house front garden ? I am fed up with tenants leaving all there crap and unwanted items behind and having to clear up after them . Will i be breaking any laws etc by taking there stuff to them that they have left behind and putting in there front garden . Any recomendations on how to deal with this would be appreciated

[SouthernDave]

Hopefully someone with legal background can respond, but i would imagine dumping all their crap on their front garden would get you in some sort of fly tipping trouble. Remember we are in the UK and the law protects the wrong people in most of these situations! Its having the balls to go do it if you can, then just say is wasn't you… theyd have to prove that it was. They need teaching a lesson…
can you not claim for a skip from their deposit?

[jpucng62]

You have a really useful bit of information there - their new address.

Dumping their rubbish on them might seem like a good idea but in reality means loading & unloading and apart from being unprofessional, could cause you real problems! Put the rubbish where they can collect it then write to them at their new address giving them a time frame to remove the rubbish & telling them if they don't you will get a skip & bill them. Tell them iIf they don't pay that bill you will take them to court then do exactly that!

[lavy]

Hi , Thanks for your replys , There will be very little of there deposit left as they have not paid there last months rent , Giving them time to remove the stuff will delay when i can re let the property and they will probably not clear it anyway and will just cause other losses ie loss of rent , council tax etc ,I think they have had enough time allready to clear everything. How long is reasonable time after end of tenancy date ?. Taking to court also takes a lot of time and costs to do this so is not realy practical as will incur more costs which may not be recovered . Easiest solution is to deliver all there stuff to there new address . If legal to do so ?. Maybee the loclal press or new landlord may get to hear about this which I am sure they wont like . Just get very frustated that this happens all the time as many landlords must experience . The deposit cap does not help as tenants dont pay last months rent and then have nothing to lose ?

[doobrey]

I'm not going to post a link because it would no doubt get blocked as Unapproved but there is a good video from 18 months ago where a farmer returned a load of fly-tipped tyres to their (allegedly) rightful owner. Google* "fly tipping tyres farmers revenge".

* Other search engines are available

[jpkeates]

Hi , Thanks for your replys , There will be very little of there deposit left as they have not paid there last months rent , Giving them time to remove the stuff will delay when i can re let the property and they will probably not clear it anyway and will just cause other losses ie loss of rent , council tax etc ,I think they have had enough time allready to clear everything. How long is reasonable time after end of tenancy date ?.

What you can claim from them isn't limited to the deposit.
What is a reasonable amount of time depends on what they've left behind.
If there's nothing in the tenancy agreement, it would probably be 2 or 4 weeks.

Taking to court also takes a lot of time and costs to do this so is not realy practical as will incur more costs which may not be recovered .

The idea is to get rid of the stuff and then bill them for the costs associated with this. Not to wait or try and force them to deal with it though the courts.
If this isn't paid, you can sue them for it.
It's easy, cheap and quite satisfying.

Easiest solution is to deliver all there stuff to there new address . If legal to do so ?.

Is it legal to dump someone's own property in their own garden.
Yes.
But if it damages that property (either the stuff being dumped or the garden), that could be a problem for you.
If you dump it and someone takes some of it, that could be a problem.
If they see you doing it and beat you up, they'd be committing an offence, but it might hurt.

The deposit cap does not help as tenants dont pay last months rent and then have nothing to lose ?

Use the deposit to compensate for the stuff that's dumped and sue the tenant for the last month's rent.
Rent owed is a black and white claim, unlike compensation for disposing of rubbish.
It's possible the tenants will pay the rent owed rather than risk a ccj.

[Neelix]

As you have their new address I think a polite letter asking them to complete the clearance AND pay the rent they owe is in order. If you don't do this and take them to court later, they will say they "forgot" or something similar.

[ash72]

I would do an inventory of the things left (however bad it may be) after all someone's rubbish is someone else's treasury. Tell them to pick it up or it will be thrown away at their cost, most likely they wont turn up, so you put in a small claims for the cost and removal of their things as well as storage costs.

[doobrey]

being unprofessional

I'm not sure it is unprofessional (if done sensibly, and not damaging anything, and assuming that it is legal). If something belonging to someone else is left on your property, moving it to the owner's property seems a reasonable course of action. It is what you would do with e.g. a neighbour's stray football in your garden.

[jpucng62]

As jpkeates says taking them to court for the cost of the skip is actually cheap and easy - it is not the same as eviction. Google Money Claim On Line for details.

[Hudson01]

As said, do not dump the rubbish on their new drive etc, it is a criminal offence and add the fact that when you are doing this anyone can come out of the house and hit you over the head with something which may either kill you or injure you....... there are many cases of this in the annals of history. Do as the others have said, get a skip and clear it and keep the invoices..... but take lots and lots of picutres.

[doobrey]

As said, do not dump the rubbish on their new drive etc, it is a criminal offence

What is the offence?

[Hudson01]

What is the offence?

Section 34 of the EPA 1990.

The biggest danger though is the possibility of confrontation ..... aka violence, there are cases of home owners committing serious assaults on people who park across their driveway !!!

[royw]

Few people will assault you for returning their own property and if they do it's a criminal offence. If returning it is the easiest option for you I would do so. They may think twice about doing it again.

[doobrey]

Section 34 of the EPA 1990 concerns fly tipping. I wouldn't regard placing someone's abandoned possessions on their own property as fly tipping (although not sure of the legal position / definitions).

The farmer I mentioned in post #5 was Stuart Baldwin. His land is in Haydock. That case was widely reported and he spoke to the media about what he had done. I haven't seen any suggestion that was fly tipping himself by moving the tyres to the alleged perpetrator's property, or that he faced any legal repercussions as a result.