Moving out time
As a tenant you will have a lot to think about when your tenancy ends, perhaps most significantly about where you are going next and what arrangements need to be made. Your circumstances could see you simply moving to another part of town, moving in with a partner or even leaving the country to start a new life overseas.
For the latter two scenarios in particular you may find yourself with a number of personal belongings that become surplus to requirement: if two households are becoming one, they aren’t going to need double of everything; it may be more trouble and money than it’s worth shipping that favourite armchair to Australia when you can pick up an identical one over there! What to do with these excess items can therefore become another entry on the moving out to do list.
Good intentions
The temptation in such a situation may be to simply leave the unwanted personal belongings in the property you are moving out of. It is not uncommon for tenants to leave things in a property when they vacate it and, more often than not, this is done with good intentions – they may be thinking of it as the landlord gaining an item of furniture, or as one less thing for the incoming tenant to buy when kitting out their new home.
Unfortunately though, the reality is that by leaving your possessions behind you may incur a deduction from your tenancy deposit. Tenancy deposit protection scheme, SafeDeposits Scotland, has encountered dispute cases resulting from landlords needing to arrange for the removal of items left behind, ranging from tables and chairs to games consoles and designer clothes. Ultimately, if the property is not left as it was found, a fundamental condition of most tenancy agreements, then the landlord could feasibly request a deduction for any cleaning or uplift charges arising from unwanted goods.
Donate or sell your unwanted personal belongings
There are a number of ways in which you can part company with your unwanted items, including options that can benefit others or even yourself.
Donating belongings to a charity can give the items a loving new home while simultaneously raising funds for a good cause. Giving a sofa to a charitable organisation might seem like more of a logistical challenge than handing in a bag of DVDs to the local charity shop, but a number of charities including Shelter Scotland, the British Heart Foundation and Sense Scotland accept larger pieces such as furniture in some of their bigger stores and can actually collect these from you.
The Reuse Tool from Zero Waste Scotland is a great resource for helping to find new homes for your larger items. Enter your postcode and the tool will instantly show a list of the nearest organisation that can collect and re-use your items.
Another alternative, particularly for smaller items, is to put them on an online selling site such as eBay. You may find that rare vinyl you no longer listen to is in high demand among collectors, and make a very welcome profit at a time when you are dealing with the expenses of moving to a new home.
