The 'wombling' landlord

One of the sidelines of being a landlord is that you some how get recruited into the recycling industry. This is because when tenants leave they often leave you all sorts of unexpected gifts behind.

Landlords should always ensure where possible that a thorough tenancy 'check out' will reveal any rubbish and unwanted items left by the tenant. However, this is not always the case. To date my largest item to be left was a car!

The result is that many landlords can feel like modern day recruits into that 1970's puppet phenomenon the 'Wombles'. Having being placed in the position where they have to dispose or recycle the tenants rubbish - what is a landlords position legally?

The legislation

The legislation controlling this is contained within the (Interference with Goods) Act 1977 replaces an earlier (1952) scheme. It applies only to E&W and NI (not Scotland).

Section .12, s.13, and the Act's Schedule are most pertinent. These deal with goods left with someone else when the owner of the goods does a flit.

The Act uses the technical terms BAILEE and BAILOR. The former is the person in possession/control of the goods; the latter is the owner of the goods. Let's call them Landlord and Tenant, for convenience.

Section 12 and Part I of Schedule apply, for Landlord & Tenant purposes, if:
a. Tenant is in breach of obligation to take delivery of goods; or
b. Landlord cannot trace or contact the tenant to impose such obligation.

If the Landlord's duty as custodian of goods has ended, he can give Notice to the tenant in writing (specifying the landlord's name/address, location of goods, that goods are available for collection, and amount owed by the tenant). If by post, Notice should be sent to the tenants last known address.

If the landlord serves Notice but the tenant does not reply (or the landlord cannot serve Notice, after taking reasonable steps to locate the tenant), and the landlord is reasonably satisfied that the tenant owns them, the landlord is entitled to sell them under the Act's procedures. The landlord then owes the tenant the sale proceeds less:
a. costs of sale; and
b. whatever the tenant owes the landlord (to set-off).

To sell them the landlord must serve another Notice on the tenant- Part II of the Schedule- on same lines as in 6 above but, this time, by Recorded Delivery. Landlord must give the tenant sufficient advance warning of the date of sale so that tenant has reasonable chance to take delivery (at least three months, if the tenant owes money to the landlord which will be set-off against sale proceeds).


The reality
If the tenant leaves items behind they generally do it intentionally and therefore are unlikely to be anticipating that they are going to get anything back for it.