A tresure trove of unwanted items left in rented flats every year

Braemore Property Management Blog

Tenants are leaving behind hundreds of pounds worth of belongings because they can’t be bothered taking them with them when they move home, according to one of Edinburgh’s leading letting agents.

 

Braemore Property Management says that many tenants either forget to take belongings with them or cannot be bothered to pack them away when they move out of their rented flats – leaving letting agents to deal with the discarded items when the property is empty.

 

The firm says that the most common items left behind by tenants include clothes and sex toys, which are often stored in seldom-used drawers and cupboards. During the stress of packing up and moving out of their property, tenants forget about these items and do not remember where they left them.

 

But the company, which is based in Dundas Street and has a portfolio of 850 properties worth more than £250 million, has also discovered many more unusual possessions left behind by tenants – including hundreds of photos of mannequins, a stash of designer perfume, expensive gym equipment and even a brand new kitchen.

 

Kelly Cattermole, General Manager and Head of Facilities with Braemore Property Management, said: “For some reason, there are always a lot of marital aids or risque toys that people leave behind in rented flats. It’s got to the point where nothing really shocks us anymore when we’re inspecting properties that have been recently vacated by tenants.

 

“But every now and again, there will be something weird and unusual left behind in a property. In the past year, we inspected one flat and found hundreds of photos that had been left by the tenant – each one featuring a shop mannequin.

 

“We also had another tenant who worked for an airline and when he moved out of his flat, he left dozens of bottles of perfume and aftershave behind. They were top name, high-end brands and although he’d bought them cheaply through his work, you would have thought he would have taken them with him.

 

“But by far the most unusual one we’ve ever had was in a one bed flat in Edinburgh, where someone left a new kitchen behind when they moved out. The tenant wasn’t happy with original units in the flat, so they re-fitted the whole kitchen themselves without the owner knowing.

 

“When they moved out, they didn’t tell anyone what they’d done and just left it as it was. We were gobsmacked when we saw it – especially as the tenant hadn’t asked for any money back for doing the work in the first place.

 

“We’ve also found quite a lot of gym equipment that have been left in flats when tenants move out. It’s fairly expensive, so you would think that they would want to take it with them, but sometimes there just isn’t enough space in the car or van that they use to transport all their belongings to a new home.

 

“For many people, it’s far easier just to leave it behind and let someone else deal with it.”