Tenants leave behind so many things

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Nestor_Kelebay

Emperor Penguin
Joined
Mar 28, 2009
Messages
1,844
Reaction score
5
I am typing this post on a new computer (new to me). It's a Dell Pentium IV with Windows Pro XP and 256 MB of RAM.

The tenant who owned it got a job in Toronto, and the moving company he hired to move his stuff to Toronto charges by both volume and weight. To minimize his moving costs, he left a whole bunch of stuff behind. So I've inherited this computer, a pair of cheap metal shelf stands that my sister wants, a ghetto blaster, a Magnavox TV set, a computer desk, mouse and keyboard, a set of golf clubs, an exercise machine, a portable dish washer, a half ton of 1.44 MB floppy disks, two end tables and a coffee table, a coffee maker and a whole bunch of other stuff. He was a computer programmer and he musta left behind about 300 computer books, and those have been disappearing fairly quickly from around my dumpster. I'll leave them out there until they stop disappearing, and I'll take the rest to the recycle depot.

I've heard of garage sales and yard sales. I think I'm going to hold an apartment sale because most of this stuff I don't need either.

He did clean up before he left so I'll mail him his damage deposit. I'll sell what I can, and just leave the rest beside my dumpster for anyone to claim.

I've had tenants leave behind almost anything you can imagine... a hand made table, an old film movie camera, projector and screen (which were obsolete cuz no one uses photographic movie film anymore), a pair of crutches, and I even had a tenant leave behind an old car (that still started and ran well). I gave that to the Canadian Diabetes Foundation and got a tax receipt for $200 for it.
 
Last edited:
Nestor - You may need more ram and adding memory is cheap and worth it.

I understand the problem of ex-tenants leaving things. I bought a townhouse (2 story quad) from a slum lord that had bad renters and lived across the driveway. She just called the police for problems and they had had to bust in the doors during a "bust" or two.

After that, she put it on the market and we bought the unit. After fixing the banged up steel door and installing new locks, everything was reasonable. We found lots of stuff to toss and got it civilized it has been fine.

While doing more work, I removed smoke detector to get access for fishing some stereo wiring. I found a couple of plastic bags behind the detector with white powder. I did not want to create problems and complications, so I flushed them. I always wonder what was in the bags.

Since then, the only problems are the deer eating my plants and a family of racoons. I know I will get a bear or two this fall before hibernation for the winter, but that is free entertainment

Dick
 
You're probably right.

I now have two Pentium IV's.

The old one I was using for my business is 1.9 GHz and 512 MB of RAM. I don't access the internet on that computer cuz I don't want to get a virus on it that might cause an interruption in my business.

The one I inherited is 1.6 GHz and 256 MB of Ram. Maybe I can buy some old RAM somewhere.

On my old Pentium IV, I had two 256 MB memory cards. If I have two 128 MB memory cards on my new P4, can I add a 256 memory card, or is it better to keep them all in the same denomination, that is, install another two 128 MB memory cards.

I'm computer illiterate.
 
Congrats Nestor! That's an awesome find. Are those clubs for a lefty by chance? I could use a set.
 
I've seen where tenants have literally seemed to just plain disappear and leave EVERYTHING behind all the way down to the toothbrush still being in the holder in the bathroom.
 
Wow, like they were never going to need it again? Crazy.
 
You're generous to give back all the rental deposit. To me the house should be delivered in habitable shape with the exception of minor cleaning (like dusting trim or small paint touch ups). That means all stuff out! I charge for the removal of left behind items. I don't need the hassle of disposing someone's discards and my incoming tenants deserve a pristine home.

That being said, my own discards and some of the nicer ones I have had left by tenants in the past I've put up on Freecycle.org and just watch it disappear. I've posted stupid stuff that I can't imagine someone wanting to drive to pick up (one odd sized lampshade) to pieces of furniture and kids stuff.

It's great for DIY stuff too. Any left over materials or things I'm replacing go on Freecycle or Craigslist.org. Half a can of paint. One open box of flooring. Stuff I know would just sit in the basement unused. I got rid of a whole picket fence we replaced from our back yard. Even though half was rotting, someone paid us $100 and took all the panels saving us at least that much in hassle and disposal fees.

I found on craigslist trying to give stuff away for free usually leaves you stuck waiting for a bunch of no-shows. Charge anything and they'll be fighting each other for it. Freecyclers seem very concientious about being serious in their inquiry and prompt with pick-ups in my experience.

ErinNik
 
TXBuilder:

I don't remember if the golf clubs were L or R handed. They ended up going to my nephew's girlfriend's brother, so they're not around any more. The cost of transporting them to Texas would probably be a significant chunk of what a new set would cost, I'd imagine.

ErinNik:

I agree that if a tenant leaves behind JUNK, then I'm no happier dealing with it than any other landlord, and I would have charged for my labour to remove stuff like that. However, the tenant did clean the place up and removed all of what I'd consider "worthless stuff" that no one else would really want. He just left behind stuff that he didn't need or want ENOUGH to pay the cost of having them trucked to Toronto.

I suppose I could have sold some of that stuff, but that's one more project I don't need. I'm happy just to get the thanks of friends and family that wanted the things they took. None of it was actually valuable. He had a much newer and faster computer, and left behind his old one, which wasn't much older than my new one!

One man's trash is another man's treasure.
 
Last edited:
I would think so, but finding lefties already made, versus having them put together, is a pretty significant chunk unto itself.
 
Try to sell them on eBay. For those things that you think nobody uses anymore (like the old film camera), you might want to try posting them as collectibles. They may rake in more money than you realize. I've read a recent news about an old Nintendo getting sold for $25,000 to a collector. You'll never know right?
 
That would be great if you could find something like that. Most of the junk from my childhood is just worthless.
 
if its made with good quality, then it is a good investment :)
 
Last edited:
You have to be careful with what you do with other people stuff.
We had someone 3 months behind in there rent, notice had been given in hand by the sherrif for them to move out and they skipped town.
The only thing they took was some furniture that really belonged to Rent to Own and a lawn mower that belonged to the new people buying the house that they had stored in the shed. There was a plate full of food still sitting on the table, 2, juck cars, the kids clothes and toys had been dumped out and were all over the house, cartains of cig. A jar with change in it, food in the cabinets and still in the ref. It looked like someone just got up and walked out.
I was told to go there and take everything to the dump and keep anything I wanted, just get it cleaned out ASAP so it could be sold.
Two months later the old tenet came back and kicked the door in thinking his stuff was still in there. Someone saw him doing it so we called the police.
When we went to court he won because we were suppost to hold his stuff in storage and post in the local newspaper for 30 days and pay for storage for at least that long.
To me that just makes no since but that's the law. He did not even have to pay for the damage to the door.
If stuffs left behind try and get it in writing it's now yours.
 
You have to be careful with what you do with other people stuff.
We had someone 3 months behind in there rent, notice had been given in hand by the sherrif for them to move out and they skipped town.
The only thing they took was some furniture that really belonged to Rent to Own and a lawn mower that belonged to the new people buying the house that they had stored in the shed. There was a plate full of food still sitting on the table, 2, juck cars, the kids clothes and toys had been dumped out and were all over the house, cartains of cig. A jar with change in it, food in the cabinets and still in the ref. It looked like someone just got up and walked out.
I was told to go there and take everything to the dump and keep anything I wanted, just get it cleaned out ASAP so it could be sold.
Two months later the old tenet came back and kicked the door in thinking his stuff was still in there. Someone saw him doing it so we called the police.
When we went to court he won because we were suppost to hold his stuff in storage and post in the local newspaper for 30 days and pay for storage for at least that long.
To me that just makes no since but that's the law. He did not even have to pay for the damage to the door.
If stuffs left behind try and get it in writing it's now yours.

That's terrible, sorry to hear it.
 
Were you asking me? ^_^ They left the fan on and it probably had a shortcircuit, almost burned the house down.

That's terrible, luck you. Honestly, I hardly ever remember to turn my fans off before I leave, I understand how a mistake could be made.
 
On a junk removal job/move out we picked up a weight set worth about $600. We told the guy its probably is worth something but he just wanted it gone. We sold it on craigslist and donated the proceeds to our local 4-H group.
 
You're generous to give back all the rental deposit. To me the house should be delivered in habitable shape with the exception of minor cleaning (like dusting trim or small paint touch ups). That means all stuff out! I charge for the removal of left behind items. I don't need the hassle of disposing someone's discards and my incoming tenants deserve a pristine home.

That being said, my own discards and some of the nicer ones I have had left by tenants in the past I've put up on Freecycle.org and just watch it disappear. I've posted stupid stuff that I can't imagine someone wanting to drive to pick up (one odd sized lampshade) to pieces of furniture and kids stuff.

It's great for DIY stuff too. Any left over materials or things I'm replacing go on Freecycle or Craigslist.org. Half a can of paint. One open box of flooring. Stuff I know would just sit in the basement unused. I got rid of a whole picket fence we replaced from our back yard. Even though half was rotting, someone paid us $100 and took all the panels saving us at least that much in hassle and disposal fees.

I found on craigslist trying to give stuff away for free usually leaves you stuck waiting for a bunch of no-shows. Charge anything and they'll be fighting each other for it. Freecyclers seem very concientious about being serious in their inquiry and prompt with pick-ups in my experience.

ErinNik

I could see charging for stuff left behind. Sometimes you can get useful things, but much of the time its just garbage takes up room or costs for removal. It seems like Nester got a good deal with his left behinds though! Putting things on craigslist seems like more trouble than its worth. Donating it is a good thing and if it goes to a dump, get a reicept!
 
Ah, yes, the things renters leave behind. Let's see, it's been a few years, but let me try--13 broken windows (kid had a beebee gun), battery acid burns in much of the livingroom carpeting and kitchen flooring, caused when he wheeled his crashed motorcycle through the house "to keep it from getting stolen," smashed door jam and casing (he "lost his key again, and didn't want to bother us"), etc., etc.

So after we replaced the carpeting and flooring, and had the door replaced, we just took it out of his security deposit--except there wasn't a security deposit, because the wife felt sorry for him and was friends with his mother, etc. Oh, and did I mention the last 2 month's rent that he never bothered paying?
 
I had a tenant leave behind fleas in one of my rental properties and then tried to get a lawyer involved because I had to take some of his deposit to pay for the service.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top