Tenants belongings?

[CalliopeTorres]

We recently had a troublesome tenant who we gave notice to and eventually moved out of the house leaving virtually all of his stuff. Long story short was he was living elsewhere due to having a tag on him that meant he couldn't return to our property. He was given many opportunities to remove his things and on one occasion DH and I went to him, collected his step son and filled our car with as much of his crap as it could carry and brought it back to him. I then made a further run up to where he was living with other stuff he specifically asked for. We then got the house cleared as it needed a full renovation job after he had pretty much trashed it.

So the point is, he said he wanted to keep his shed. We agreed he could have more time to deal with this and I asked that it was removed before Christmas (he moved out end of November). The shed has still not been removed and nor has he responded to our requests that he deal with it. We understand he is due in court today for his offences and may well receive a custodial sentence. Legally can I get rid of his crap in the shed?

[HortonWho]

I don't understand why you didn't give him X time to remove stuff and told him if it's not vacant as stipulated in the contract he agreed to, you will hire X company at y fees to dump it all on the lawn of his current residence and will then be taking him to small claims to reclaim the y fees. Bet he would have found a mate to sort it all for him then!

No idea if you can legally dump belongings when you are in regular contact and he's actually agreed to remove stuff, just missed the deadline. Best to try shelter a couple of different times (I find you get slightly different answers from different people because they are trying to answer a very specific scenario without having all relevant info, so they tend to give you broad advice to avoid giving you wrong advice)

[CalliopeTorres]

I'm confused. You seem to have misunderstood, you say why didn't we give him a deadline but then you say he has just missed the deadline.

The tenant was not a nice man. He was violent and already out on bail for violent crimes, I did not have any desire to wind him up, I just wanted him out of my property and out of my hair. When we made contact he asked for more time as he hadn't been able to empty the house, we refused and so he told us to just get rid of it all then. Except the shed. He wanted the shed. As at the time we had planned on emptying the house ourself I took as much of his stuff as I could to him however it became very clear it was too big a job for me and DH (not least because it was filthy and there was clear evidence of drug use - I didn't want to touch it) so we hired someone to do the house clearance.

The ex tenant was aware in advance the house would be cleared and he requested specific items which I took to him. He asked that he be allowed more time to remove the shed. We gave him a deadline of Christmas. He has failed to respond to any contact since the 6th December and as I say as far as I know he could well be spending the night at HMP.

I'll give shelter a call though, see what they say. I always thought they were specifically for the tenant so hadn't considered them.

[CalliopeTorres]

Sorry just read my reply back and it sounds arsey. Not the tone I meant to take I'm just finding this whole thing supremely frustrating.