Lina

Thanks. There's a lot of talk of eviction but our problem is sadly that he isn't here...

Thanks all. I've had another look in the contract which has a clause that we can relet the room without notice period and abandon of goods left as we see fit. He's gone since beginning of March. We'd tried numerous ways to contact him incl embassy and local and Met Police. He finally contacted us in Aug, stating he would come back in a couple of days, he didn't, and then on asking said he would come back asap and keep us updated. This was again 6 weeks ago. Numerous attempts to contact him on his email addresses (incl new one) and Facebook. He does not answer his phone abroad and we know he is not at his home address there either. He has contacted his employer though but not us. We will probably put things into storage as we do understand that things have a value for him. But strictly, this would meet 'abandonment', wouldn't it?

Thanks all. 

On 9/14/2020 at 8:41 PM, Carryon Regardless said:

I've found advice on how to deal with belongings a bit vague.

Some say 3 months, some say 6 months storage. My way is to create an account of monies due in preparation for defending a claim. The account may be a little awkward as this is lodger related, I've no experience of this. But a judge might view your claim for rents ott and say you could have re let earlier instead of waiting and running up a bill.

In short charge for storage, and to contradict my earlier point it may be reasonable to say the room cost is storage cost as it's still used for his purposes. If / when you dispose of the belongings you need demonstrate their disposal at market value, eBay auction should serve well enough. Your efforts are free. You could employ an agent and charge for their costs. Any revenue can offset your losses, surplus paid to lodger.

Ideally you are better reaching a demonstrable agreement. 

We'd love to but he's not reacting to any attempt from our side to make contact. Even his employer asked him to get back to us.

On 9/14/2020 at 7:51 PM, Richlist said:

To add to CoR's excellent advice.....

No you certainly cannot sell his belongings.

I'd pack/box all his belonging up and provided they didn't form to large a pile of stuff I'd store it.....in a shed, garage, spare room etc. I'd tell the lodger that you are storing the items and charging him £x per week.

Then just re let the room.

Thanks. Sadly it's a lot of stuff (big room plus him being a bit of a hoarder and bringing things like a large dining table in) incl stuff that needs to be stored in a dry environment.

What does a 'duty of care' re belongings entail? Do I have to store them for a certain period? Can I sell any of it to make up for lost rent?

He is certainly a lodger

Hi,

we've got a lodger who went abroad just before the Covid-19 measures came in place in March and then ended up not being able to return. He had some difficult times and after he initially made 2 rent payments, the last payment covered up to 4 June. He inbetween completely seems to have disappeared to the extent that we called the authorities. He then confirmed beginning of August that he would return 2 days later which was again cancelled. Since, we've heard nothing despite making numerous attempts. His employer recently confirmed that he has been in touch and asked for 2 more  months leave as he needs to sort some personal / legal issues in his home country.

We have now emailed him to give him notice.

My question is however: do we even need to give him notice or is the room de facto already vacated by him not having been there since March and not having paid rent since June?

Please don't get me wrong  - we'd be very happy for him to return and sort things out. But we've made so many attempts to contact him and he seems to blank us, especially considering he was in touch with his employer. On top of it we had some infestation, partially because he tends to hoard in the room?

Which leads me to the next question: can we discard of the property / sell what's worth it to make up for the rent not paid or do we need to store it for some time?