What to do if a tenant leaves possessions or equipment behind?

Can you remove and dispose of the tenant’s belongings which have been left behind at the end of the tenancy?

A tenant is generally obliged to remove their chattels from the property at the end of the term. A lease will often expressly oblige the tenant to remove their chattels at the end of the term, if only to make the obligation clear to the tenant. It is also common for a lease to clarify what the landlord can do with any chattels that may be left on the property at the end of the term.

In the absence of express terms in a lease, if chattels are left in the property once the lease has come to an end, the chattels remain the tenant’s property and the landlord will be an “involuntary bailee”.

At common law, a person may become a bailee by voluntarily and knowingly taking possession of goods belonging to another. A bailee has a wide range of duties, including the duty to take reasonable care of the goods in the bailee’s possession. An involuntary bailee is a person who has, without their consent, found themselves in possession of goods belonging to another. In the context of property transactions, this often arises where a tenant has left goods at the demised premises after the end of the lease term.

An involuntary bailee does not owe the same duties as a bailee. The involuntary bailee must not deliberately or recklessly damage or destroy the goods and must take care if trying to return the goods to the owner through a third party, to confirm that the third party has the owner’s authority to receive them.

Abandonment

If the owner of goods abandons them, the person who finds or takes possession of the goods may become the new owner and so free to deal with those goods as they see fit. The problem is establishing that the original owner did abandon the goods.

It is annoying and potentially expensive for a landlord to be left as involuntary bailee of a former tenant’s goods, especially if the goods are bulky or valuable.

Unless you are prepared to store the goods indefinitely, you need to establish that the former tenant has abandoned them so that you can sell or otherwise dispose of them. Until you have disposed of the goods, you must ensure that they are not damaged or destroyed deliberately or recklessly.

The correct action is to serve a notice in accordance with Schedule 1 of the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977, requiring the tenant (or the true owner of the goods) to come and collect the goods. The notice should:

• Set out where the goods are kept;
• State when and where the sale will take place, if the goods are to be sold;
• State that any sale and storage costs will be retained from the sale proceeds; and
• Attach a schedule of the goods that remain on the premises.

The notice should be sent to the former tenant, if their new contact details are known, and, in any event, should also be attached to the premises in a place where it can be seen.

If all reasonable steps have been taken to contact the former tenant and still the former tenant has declined to get in touch, it is more reasonable to assume the goods have been abandoned and you are free to dispose of them. If the goods are reclaimed, you should get written confirmation from the person collecting them that they are the true owner of the goods.

It would be prudent for you to document all action taken, including taking a full photographic and/or video record of the goods, in case evidence is required to defend a claim for damages or conversion and to establish a defence of abandonment.

If you decide to sell the goods, the sale should be for a proper price and you should retain the proceeds of sale, at least for a period. How long that period should be will depend on the amount of money involved and all the circumstances.

There is no guidance in the Act as to how long you should wait before looking to sell or dispose of the goods, although we would suggest that a period of at least one month, and probably three months, would be the minimum that might be considered reasonable by a Court, depending on the nature and value of the goods.