Rent a room *on phone to the police*

[matrixsteele]

My friend found a room for rent via a well known app.

He viewed the room and agreed a short term contract.
he moved in and paid £1500 cash, that night while my friend was at the pub, the live in landlord removed half of my friends belongings (basically clothes) & put them on the door step and kept all the high value items.
this led to an altercation and the police removed my friend from the area with his belongings.

The issue he has is that the landlord refused to give a contract once the money was handed over.
He has refused to give any money or his belongings back.
he has spoken to the police to get his belongings back as they said its a civil case for the money, but the landlord has stated that he "got rid of it all"

Today we have just found out the the landlord is selling my friends daughter ride on toy on Facebook, (the one that he said he had gotten rid of)

We are currently on hold to the police again to try and retrieve the item.

What do we do?


Any help is appreciated.

Do i buy the item so that his daughter gets it back and prooves he sold it after lying about it.

how do get this all resoved. My friend is literally homeless atm and charities/ Council wont help. He doesnt have any money to get another room

[dslippy]

Very tough, but the police are not there to act as debt collectors

[islandgirl]

What is the debt here? And did this person hand over the money and not receive any paperwork? Is there no paper trail at all (emails etc)?

[matrixsteele]

All the money and some of his belongings.
my friend agreed the terms in the app conversation
he has the texts asking for his belongings back, a response saying "i will let you know when you can collect it"
then "i have got rid of it all"
my friend has the invoices / receipts for some items.
Photos of his daughters toys and her using it
sheen shots of him advertising it on Facebook stating " tenant left it behind"
and giving me the address

Its definitely him and my friends items, he is refusing to give it back and is trying to sell it.

The police have said how would they know its my friend's items even with all the proof.

He just wants his money and belongings back so he can rent a room and start seeing his daughter again.

The landlord said he was going to hand over a contract but wanted to wait a day till he could get an inventory of the room, he was yet to get a bed but had a mattress on the floor.
As my friend was desperate he just moved in.
The day turned into 3 and he was removed on the 3rd night.
all this is backed ul in app messages. He had to pay to find/ message to get a room

[islandgirl]

Then I would think it is theft. As for the money the Police will probably say that is a civil matter to it is Moneyclaim online after a letter before action to the LL giving him 7 days to return the deposit. The bad news is this will take a long time and if the LL does not pay (if your friend wins) it is difficult to enforce. What a strage and awful situation

[matrixsteele]

Update*

We kept calling 101 who said there is nothing they can do, until we said we were heading to the property to buy / claim the items, and they sent a unit to assist.

Once there the police spoke to my friend and went and knocked on the door, they were able to recover some more items, but not all.

The police have said they have an officer on charge who will see if there is wrong doing, eg theft, selling stolen items.

My friend was happy to get his daughters ride on toy back.

they said the Landlord said he wasnt a landlord and just a tennant who deals with managing from time to time.

They said we can pursue this civilly, but is it worth it and where do we start?

[islandgirl]

send the LL a letter before action requesting repayment of the money within 7 days. Then launch a claim on Moneyclaim online.