To put the whole lot on Facebook marketplace/Freecycle/gumtree

[Peoplewatcheswithcoffee]

DH's grandmother has to move into a care home as she is no longer able to live at home due to health and care needs. As a result we now need to empty her rental bungalow as it needs to be returned to the landlord. Moving her stuff out isn't the problem, she moved into the bungalow after the death of DH's grandfather and all the mass decluttering happened when she sold the house to move closer to us all. The main problem is that she has a garage full of the taxi drivers belongings.

This taxi driver befriended his grandmother when she first moved to the area, she has many complex health needs which required her to go to the local hospital for management on a regular basis. DHs grandmother is low contact with both her children (FIL, aunt and uncle) due to MH issues. Until she deteriorated she was fiercely independent and would take a taxi to all her appointment's. It is a small local firm with only a few drivers and as she often booked in advance would request the same driver. At some point he needed to store some furniture and Grandmother offered use of her garage (we only found out when BIL went into the garage on one of his visits and found it full of furniture). He never paid her for this storage and over the years he has put more and more items in the garage, using it like a storage unit come garden shed. The entire garage is full and piled high with all sorts of furniture, knick knacks, garden equipment, etc.

BIL has phoned the taxi driver multiple times to collect his belongings which he is storing in GP's garage as GP needs to move into care and will be giving up her bungalow and it needs to be returned empty. However the taxi driver is now refusing to collect them and says he has nowhere to put it all or anything to collect it with. This means we either have to pay to dispose of it or pay to store it all for him (which we are not doing).

I have suggested we send him a written letter saying if items are not collected by X date they will be disposed of/ sold/ donated.

WIBU to put all the items on Facebook marketplace, Freecycle, gumtree and donate the rest? All of the items in the garage are of good quality and in working order.

He obviously needs to arrange his own storage. I would give him a deadline and tell him it will all be disposed of after this. You could ask the British heart foundation or a similar charity to come and see what they can take off your hands as this will be less hassle than selling it on market place

you need to get a solicitor to write him an official letter advising him to remove his stuff before x date, or x will happen. If you just get rid of it, he may have grounds for legal action against you.

I'd give him formal notice of when it must be gone by, giving him as decent a time frame as you reasonably can. (I realize others wouldn't do that bit) Make sure you can prove you've served that notice and he's received it, and make sure he has easy access to remove it if he can cobble something together, so there can be no accusations that you made it difficult/impossible for him to recover his property, then wait. Then go ahead and dispose any way that suits you.

Info from the sheriff's office here: www.thesheriffsoffice.com/articles/abandoned-items

Essentially you need to write to them giving them 14 days to collect. If they don't reply you can sell/dispose of the items.

Thanks. Spoken to BIL who says he has texted him and also emailed him about collecting his things since the start of the month.

We have until the end of the month as that's when the rent is paid until and the contract comes up for renewal at the beginning of next month.

The taxi driver has a key to the garage, GP in her moment of poor MH copied a key for him for the garage as he kept wanting his garden stuff out of it from time to time and she decided he might as well have a key so we also need to retrieve that.