Rubbish Dumped By My Tenant.

[HongKongphooey]

I own a small flat in a city 40 miles from where we live. Its in a block of 6 flats. Recently the tenant left after a year, and I decided to sell it. (We need the money to buy a house near my elderly mother, we rent at the moment)
The tenant dumped some large items next to the skip bins. As I don't live in this city I didn't know that the city council won't take large items away. There was a bed and and old office chair. Without me knowing the management company sent me a letter saying I am liable for £130 as they employed a contractor to take the items away.
This was 6 weeks after the tenant had left. They didn't contact me first and ask me to remove the items. I have been every weekend to redecorate and get the flat ready to put up for sale. My agent who managed the tenancy says the bond has been given back and closed and its too late to get the money from tenant. He's effectively wants nothing to do with the whole issue and more or less said its my problem. Also alot of other large items appeared long after the tenant left and they could have been dumped by anyone in the block. It seems I'm being charged for everything to taken away. When I protested to the management company they said 'your tenant has been seen dumping items, you have to pay for their removal'. I'm not rich. This is the only property I own and its only worth about £62,000 less than I paid for it 10 years ago. I only earn £670 a month and find it really hard going financially. I don't claim any benefits. My husband earns a similar amount from his business.
Just wondered if they legally can do this to me?I have the tenants forwarding address, but they are refusing to chase her and say its my responsibility. I pay a yearly management/ground rent of around £850 on the dot every year. Some other flat owners don't pay on time and still owe from previous years. Anyone know where I stand legally?

[CrapAtCryptics]

Cheapest way get a friend hire a van for the day and take it all to the dump - arguing will get you nowhere - take a photo when you are done and show it to the management company.

[VHG]

The tenants forwarding address is no use as they will just deny dumping anything (or at least only the stuff they were seen dumping).

I know it is £130 but you could spend ages sorting this out and get very stressed (and perhaps have extra expense).

I would just pay it (even though it may annoy you to do it)

[VHG]

>>Cheapest way get a friend hire a van for the day and take it all to the dump

Read the question again, the rubbish has already been taken away.

>>>>Without me knowing the management company sent me a letter saying I am liable for £130 as they employed a contractor to take the items away.

[jomifl]

If you pay tax on your rent income set it against the profit and put it down to experience. If you don't pay any tax consider yourself fortunate.

[Khandro]

HKP;//I pay a yearly management/ground rent of around £850 on the dot every year//

If this is a service charge to the management of the flats it should surely cover the removal of all such items along with the waste collection. To whom have you been paying this sum?

[Peter Pedant]

Not criticising KH fu
the question is:

am I liable for removal of rubbish of my tenant who has now gone ?

and if it is there - remove it yourself
or if it has gone then pay the fee - £130 is a small skips worth but what the hell

// This is the only property I own and its only worth about £62,000 less than I paid for it 10 years ago.// no it is worth £62k what you have calculated is the capital gain
Make sure when you sell you assing 50% equitable interest to your husband and then both capital gains tax allowance 2 x 10K come into pay and you should be able to escape CGT tax at all

I found mgt agencies as you have done carp carp carp
and manage my houses myself but I do live around the corner

I think you have to bite the bullet and pay

[ oh the legal answer is that your tenants are liable but you know forget it ]

[Peter Pedant]

Kh - management fee isnt ground rent - my ground tent is around £25 / y which the freeholder just pockets.

management fee - I have found you pay a management fee to a firm where an adenoidal teenager rings you up and says : XYZ isnt working - what are you donna do about it ? ' which I realised the tenant could easily do himself.

there was also the little matter that the mgt company were charging me £80 for a house visit for a plumber and then seemed to be sending her father .....

I paid a mgt fee of 17% of gross rent inc VAT and it was just money flushed down the drain

[Gromit]

Easiest thing to do is just pay it.

I imagine the management company must have had a contact address for you. Usually, you should be informed of any exoenditure hat you are expected to pay. Do you have your original agreement with them?

[HongKongphooey]

Thanks, guess I will have to pay it myself, but its stressed me out alot since I got this letter. Incidentally I don't think I will pay any capital gains as paid £64.950 for the flat and it the last one sold last july went for £62500. Even if I get what I paid I'd still have not even touched the £10,000 allowance so no capital gains thank god.

[Peter Pedant]

I went thro this with rats and mattresses and meat products scattered around a property. The council wrote to me after seeing my feckless penniless tenants and seeing it was hopeless

So I went in a shot the lot - no I chucked out the tenants, cleared up the property, cleared the mattresses poisoned the rats, at my own cost and got in new tenants.

there are times ( a lot of times actually ) where the legal position which of course the reader will instantly realise I inow all about is NOT the important point

[Peter Pedant]

eek the property prices have FALLEN !

EEK ! EEK ! clear;ly not central london - sorry about that aaaa rgh !

[Buenchico]

There are two separate strands to the answer to "Anyone know where I stand legally?". One relates to the management company and the other to the tenant.

Firstly, while your contract with the management company probably allows them to employ contractors on your behalf (and then send you the bill), they must also act in your best interests when doing so. That means, for example, that they can't simply employ someone who charges a fortune for a very simple task; they need to seek the lowest quote.

You've stated that the local council wouldn't take the items away. That doesn't surprise me as most councils won't do it for free. However I've never heard of a council that doesn't offer a paid service for collecting bulky waste items. For example, Sheffield City Council would have charged £40.20 for collecting the bed and the chair:
https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/environment/waste/bincollections/bulkycollections.html
Assuming that the relevant council (where the flat is) has similar charges, you've been overcharged by £90.

So I recommend checking the local council's website to find out what they would have charged for the job. (If you can't find the information, tell us which council area it is and I'll see if I can find it). Then tell the management company that you'll only pay that amount, since you're not responsible for their failure to seek the lowest price.

With regard to the former tenant, he is responsible for recompensing you for any losses that you've suffered through his actions. So you can send him a written demand for compensation and, if necessary, take legal action against him to get your money. However, just like you, he can then say "I'm prepared to pay £40, because that should have been the cost of removing the items, but I'm not paying £130 just because you, or your agent, didn't bother to find the lowest price".

[Peter Pedant]

erm I dont think the tenant is in a corresponding mood BC

[Buenchico]

Why, PP?

All we know is that HKP has a forwarding address and the management company are refusing to contact her. There's nothing in what HKP has written to suggest that he's even tried to contact the tenant directly.

[HongKongphooey]

No Sadly for me, the property is NOT central London...lol
Its Leeds City Council and the suburb is Middleton Buenchico.

[Buenchico]

Hmmm.

Leeds are odd because, unlike nearly all other councils, they do collect for free but there would have been two problems with trying to using their service:
(a) the contact details have to match the resident of the property ; and
(b) they only collect a maximum of 4 items at a time and a bed counts as 4 items!
https://my.leeds.gov.uk/Pages/Form%20Pages/BulkyWasteCollection.aspx

I'd be tempted to give this guy (and/or others like him) a call and, pretending that you're expecting that a tenant might leave some junk in the future, ask him how much he'd charge to run it up to a local recycling centre:
http://www.manwithavanleeds.co.uk/

I'm sure that you could easily find a quote of less than £130!