Tenant's leftover goods (Commercial Premise)

[willister]

Part 4 of an sht episode folks, so I need to gather your viewpoints:

Tenant left, went into liquidation, left furniture and bits and pieces of crap everywhere.

Lawyered up, found most of he furniture to belong to company A with 2 other companies found on asset register to have claims over cement mix equipment and another on computer goods/software.

Here is the problem - reentered premise which was left in a mess, left it there now for about 1 month whilst stuff was going on with lawyers, didn't want to touch anything yet in case i get blamed/sued etc.

Agent took pictures when we re-entered and locks changed about 3 weeks ago...but I don't seem to recall seeing any computer goods or cement mixing equipment - they may have been taken by ex tenant or stolen by someone else.

What are the chances of the leasing company pointing finger at me for losing his machinery/goods? How do I prevent this? I'm stuck between a tenant probably gone belly up and angry creditors/lenders.

Losing heaps of $$$ in lost rent and lawyers but such is life I need to clean off this mess and move on!!

Company A has expressed they would like all of the furniture back BUT cannot prove interest on assets (or lack of evidence as my lawyer puts it). Other 2 companies have not heard back and lawyer reckons will not claim anything back and write it off.

Thanks.

 

[kathryn d]

can you rent a storage locker and move the belongings there and then clean up your property?

 

[willister]

can you rent a storage locker and move the belongings there and then clean up your property?

Could but costly.....

The pain of a bad tenant!!!

 

[kathryn d]

that's what we do with our resi tenants.
We no longer wait for them.
We give them a deadline...24 hrs

 

[Adrian Cahill]

Costly yes,
Perhaps if the cost of the storage locker/shipping container or whatever, along with cleaning bills would get added to their final bill. (Even if that bill is never paid)

At least then you can move on and continue business.

Surely more people can advise or share knowledge with you. Considering how often this stuff occurs in Commercial Property, I would hope more experienced Commercial Property Investors could advise.

 

[willister]

Costly yes,
Perhaps if the cost of the storage locker/shipping container or whatever, along with cleaning bills would get added to their final bill. (Even if that bill is never paid)

At least then you can move on and continue business.

Surely more people can advise or share knowledge with you. Considering how often this stuff occurs in Commercial Property, I would hope more experienced Commercial Property Investors could advise.

Surprised to see it does happen quite frequently with commercial property? Perhaps as businesses die off there is nothing to lose when going belly up?

Yeah costs would be far too exhuberant:

Loss in about 1.5 months rent: $4,000
Lawyer Fees: $2,500
Cleaning Costs: $1,500 Estimated.

Total: $8,000 so far!!

 

[MTR]

Has your lawyer advised whether legally you can remove these goods from your property ? Regardless of who they belong to, I don't see this as your issue. I would just be concerned as a landlord what your rights are as far as the removing the property etc. If the company has in fact gone into liquidation I would assume they would now be managed by an administrator, have you had any contact with them. The sooner you get rid of the goods the quicker you can rent out, obviously dependent on what your legal rights.

With resi property I had one tenant leave all house hold goods including mail, photos everything, legally I had to store goods for 3 months @ $165 per month, after 3 month period then I could dispose of goods. This exercise cost me over $1000.

Sorry, I can not be more helpful but I don't know how CIP works, why not post in the CIP section, I think Dazz actually had a tenant go belly up as well, he should be able to assist you.

Cheers
MTR