Have you ever had a tenant who left items in the house when moving out – what can you do with them? Have you the option/right to destroy them, sell them or do you need to hold them for a period of time?

Following on from a recent enquiry from a member I am sure this will be something many landlords need to have an answer to at some point in time.

If a tenant leaves items behind when they move out the landlords has a duty to ensure he safeguards those items until the tenant is ready to take them away.

This duty falls under Tort Law and requires the landlord to hold on to and to protect the tenants property for a period of 6 years before they can be destroyed or sold.

So what should you do?  The best course of action is to contact the tenant and ask if he/she wishes you to dump the item or if you should just put it into storage for which he/she would be responsible to make the payment when they collected the item(s). Thankfully in this case this message was enough for the tenant to come promptly and pick up his item.

However, if you do need to use a storage facility please be aware that you will be the one taking on the storage costs if the tenant does not come back for it or refuses to pay as the contract with the storage company has been instigated by you.