£1,000s of tenant’s property in communal cupboard disposed of?

£1,000s of tenant’s property in communal cupboard disposed of?

9:22 AM, 29th April 2019, About 5 years ago 5

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I have a flat in Scotland which is within a new style development with a communal stairway. Within the stairway are located only two flats and a communal cupboard. The stairway has a locked door as does the communal cupboard and the exterior/communal areas are maintained by a 3rd party factoring company.

The tenant has used the communal cupboard for which he has key to store personal items, recently the factoring company have removed these items and disposed of them. The tenant claims the value was several thousand pounds worth of goods.

The factoring company did not put up a communal signs stating the intended action, the company did not post any letters or leaflets to occupiers within the building. The factoring company did not notify any letting agents. The factoring agency did put a notification in a combined letter to the landlord as part of their standard monthly junk mail.

The factoring company claim they had to remove items from the communal cupboard and that fair notice was given to the landlord. My argument is that no attempt was made to actually notify the owners of the goods or residents of the building. It is particularly frustrating as this is only a two flat building. The factoring company now claim they have an obligation to remove combustible items, the irony here is that they removed everything of value and left paint and white spirits, clearly contradictory to their statement. They also had to go through two locked doors to locate the items (cupboard is individual locked).

Who is the the right and who is in the wrong? Does an agency have the right to remove somebodies property from a communal area without making a reasonable attempt to notify them and is this written in any law?

Regards.

David


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Comments

Rob Crawford

10:27 AM, 29th April 2019, About 5 years ago

Even if they had put up signs I don't think this gives them the right to dispose of someone's belongings, especially if locked up in personal space. I would get the tenants to report the theft to the police asap.

SimonR

10:46 AM, 1st May 2019, About 5 years ago

Whilst I agree the management company cannot just dispose of the tenants items, they can remove but will have to store for a period of time and also try and contact the tenant/landlord to make arrangements to collect, the storage costs will have to be met by the tenant. I have to question the supposed value of goods, who in their right mind would store £1000s of goods in a communal storage cupboard, this does sound like someone trying it on

Tony Hodge

8:32 AM, 4th May 2019, About 5 years ago

How is use of the store described in the tenancy agreement?
Storing stuff under stairs can be deemed a fire hazard. If the material found there by the factoring company was deemed a fire hazard then they quite rightly disposed of it.
I own a rental flat and there is a prominent sign on the under stairs cupboard door banning storage of anything in there and in communal hallways etc.

GREENDIZZYCRAB

12:53 PM, 7th April 2022, About 2 years ago

I have a similar problem, we did not have a key to the communal cupboard and we assume somehow the tenant got the use of one! The tenant has long gone but left stuff in there and no one has a key. Are we responsible for it, when it was nothing to do with us, there was stuff in the communal cupboard when we bought the property and we had no way of accessing it.

Reluctant Landlord

13:15 PM, 7th April 2022, About 2 years ago

similar issue here too - cupboard on communal landing for which no permission has ever been granted for any tenant to use, yet one had deemed it his, out stuff in and put his own lock on (to which I have no key)
I have told him this is not on, written him an email explaining the has no permission and against our building insurance police and given him reasonable time to get his stuff out, but its not moved it
Now what? Can I break the lock and remove his stuff? I have given him reasonable notice. I have no where to move his stuff too so I cant even do that and send him a bill for storage.

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