The majority of cases where goods have been left at the property by a tenant are when the tenancy has been abandoned. You should consult this guidance for details on abandoned tenancies. This guidance assumes there is no question as to whether the tenant has left or not. It purely deals with the situation that the tenant has gone (either via abandonment, court order or surrender).
When one party (the bailor) leaves his goods in the possession of another (the bailee) a legal relationship called ‘bailment’ arises automatically. Unless appropriate steps are taken, there will be an obligation on the bailee to return these goods at a later date and the bailee can be held liable for any loss or damage which occurs to the goods whilst in the care of the bailee. [Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977] & [Toor v Bassi [1999] EGCS 9]
Hi, thanks but tenancy not abandoned tenant evicted and just left goods, what is the procedure so I can get rid of the furniture.
What if no forwarding address?
Thanks
It doesn’t matter how the goods were left, the rules apply regardless.
You must make “reasonable enquiries” for a forwarding address (which is a fairly high test). Start by looking at the application form they completed before moving in. If you’ve used ours, that has a next of kin. Also, if there’s a deposit, by law you had to obtain details (including address) to be used by the landlord at the end of the tenancy and that has to be inserted in the prescribed information. Therefore, if there’s a deposit, you can use that address. There’s no requirement that usage of the address is exclusively for deposit purposes.
Thanks, the address is tenant’s sister, now moved away, this is in Deposit information, no forwarding address known.
Thanks