You can move furniture out any of these ways
1 Get a moving service to take it to a storage unit
2 Hire a van to take it to the local tip
3 Donate it to a charity which collects it
Or say the tenant must move it.
Or let the letting agent find companies to do it for you.
Useful Websites
Removals
British Heart Foundation for donations
https://www.bhf.org.uk/shop/donating-goods/book-furniture-collection-near-me
Website on using A1
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15499329/Too-busy-clean-home-agent-gives-tour-Use-AI-pictures-Inside-bizarre-new-property-trend-house-hunters-called-misleading.html
In Singapore in a block of flats, when you moved in or out, you had to give the management at least 24 hours notice and pay them a fee for putting padding in the lift and around entry doors, and protective padding along the path from the car park to the building entrance, and from the entrance to the lift, and from the lift along the corridor to your flat, and around the door frame which belonged to the building. On request, they could also do the same inside the landlord's flat.
Some landlord's prefer to provide an unfurnished flat, less wear and tear to worry about, less admin, less to be checked on an inventory, less cost of buying and replacing.
In some places in the UK, when a flat is vacant, no furniture so it cannot be lived in, the landlord is not liable to pay the council tax which covers the public utilities such as taking away the rubbish.
I prefer to supply furniture. This is a leftover from the days when I was letting out my late parent's flat, then my son's flat when he was married with a child and moved into a house. I left the furniture there, less trouble, liked it for sentimental reasons. And it was convenient to have it there if I wanted to move back in. Even showing the flat, it was convenient to have a chair and a kettle.
At one time I thought that it was easier to get tenants to vacate if they had no furniture. It was less hassle for them to move. Less costly. Quicker to organize.
I have had tenants who wanted to buy their own furniture when items broke or got old and tired looking.
I also had requests for extra beds when they had long term guests, or had children.
If they move in a large piece of furniture, such as a bed or wardrobe, the danger is that it will damage the door frames or doors.
This makes the flat look unsightly when you show it to the next prospective tenants. If you are a fussy, particular person, every dent or scratch or chip is annoying. You might think it is easy to repair, but it isn't. You might spend three trips of an hour or more going to DIY stores trying to match paint, find enamel paint to repair a chipped bath. Or order online and pay postage.
We had the hallway and guest toilet walls repainted. The walls had to have the paper and paint stripped off one weekend, the lining paper or undercoat the next weekend, the final top coat of paint the next weekend. Photos of areas to be painted taken and estimates. Then trips to check the work, and open the door for the painter.
The paint alone cost a hundred pounds. The worker has to factor in the cost of the materials, time to buy the materials, his petrol, working time, and travel time, and time doing the first inspection, and sending photos of work done for the landlord and inventory.
When we asked for the skirting boards and doors to be painted, the cost was another four figure sum.
Letting agents make a monthly charge for management. Some agents include in that price four visits a year, check in, two three monthly visits, and a check out. |They then add fifty pounds for every extra visit, which covers the time spent travelling to and from the property, arranging access, checking the situation, making a report, filing the report.
Aa a landlord managing your own property, you need to have the time to do this, visiting, correspondence, taking photos and keeping records. You and to factor in your extra costs, the petrol, camera upgrade, computer upgrade, office.
The letting agent contract will stipulate that all furniture must be returned to its original place for the checkout.
If the tenant moves the wardrobe and desk from a bedroom to a living room, its hard to compare the old inventory with the new one.
If the tenant moves in another bed or wardrobe or desk, it's hard to work out which one is their and which is yours. This also causes confusion when the prospective tenant for the next tenancy looks at the residence or photos and asks, which items of furniture do you supply? Is the bed yours? Is the desk enabling us to work from home supplied.
In theory a tenant can sublet, and in a shared flat they can give the larger living room to the sublet tenant, and give each of the two or three people a bedroom as their own small private living room or daytime work from home study.
However, if tenants or sub-let tenants leave the furniture there, and the next tenancy is for a family, somebody has to move the bed and wardrobe and desk back from the living room into the bedroom. This could require two people, not just one landlord or letting agent to visit. And somebody strong and willing. Not an elderly landlord with a hernia!
Moving furniture leaves indentations in the carpet where the furniture rested. The carpet or flooring could be a different colour where it was under furniture. Moving leaves dust marks under the furniture or around the edge, or floating out, requiring more cleaning, or even replacing the carpet and flooring, which could cost two thousand pounds per room.
Replacing furniture is costly. Nowadays many company charge for delivery, charge for unpacking, charge for inserting a built in oven, stove, or fridge, or washing machine, or dishwasher, or tumble dryer, charge for connecting. You need an electrical inspection to check the appliance is safe, and to supply the certificate of inspection to the letting agent or tenant.
Furniture needs to have a label saying it is safe, and if the tenant removes the label, the furniture cannot be proved to be safe for the next tenant and must be replaced.
The landlord is required to supply and display certain certificates showing that the annual gas safety and electrical safety inspections have taken place.
You may want to put in the contract that the tenant must not remove fire safety warnings, phone numbers for repairs, nor guarantee of safety certificates.
Portable Appliance Testing
Will cost about £95 including VAT. Jan 2026 website price.
EICR
Will cost about £115 for a 3 bed area, £95 plus £10 per room.
A leaking radiator caused damage to flooring.
If flooring is stuck down, you are charged extra by the people who come to fix the next flooring because it is hard to removed the stick down flooring.
So I prefer jigsaw flooring, that fits together.
First, if one part of the floor is damaged, you can replace just that section.
Second, the replacer won't charge you extra for removing the first flooring.
I recall the man laying the new flooring telling me the flooring was not stuck with the proper glue but a glue which made it impossible to remove the carpet, normally to tear it back. Instead, a stronger glue had been used which left the carpet in little clumps, each of which had to be removed separately, which took him hours, for which I was paying a large amount as he charged me by the hour.
Some flooring companies offer fitting in the price.
Others , like Tapis in Brent Cross, included the free measuring up. But they added for removing the old flooring, taking away the old flooring, laying the flooring, for the glue, underlay, flattening the undersurface which is necessary for jigaw tiles, though not for blue down tiles.
We looked at two types of lino tiling. It is not a solid tile but a laminate. We opted for the thicker one.
We had a problem with a towel rail. It leaked. Then developed a hole. The regular plumber for the building did not work on Sundays.
I looked online for a plumber on a Sunday. Up popped an advertisement for a 24 hour plumbing service provider.
Plumber 1 'A' - Emergency Service
I called them and they told me I had to pay a call out fee in advance. I did so. The time was about 2.30.
Their plumber was half an hour away on another call.
I got a call he was delayed. About 3.30.
In December in London. it gets dark after 4. As it got nearer 5 I was losing hope.
Finally I got a call to say that the plumber had agreed with the tenant to call next day at 8.20 am. She would meanwhile leave bucket under the dripping.
I checked the suppliers of towel rails, to the public and trade. They were closed by 5 pm on Sunday.
So the new towel rail would not be available until tomorrow anyway.
What I and the tenant did not realise, not being trained or experienced plumbers, was that the leak situation could get much worse suddenly, unexpectedly, seriously damaging the property.
Nor did I know where to turn off the water supply.
An hour or so after that I got a call from the tenant. Water was gushing everywhere. I said, call the porter to turn off the water.
The porter called the fire brigade who turned off the water to the flat, and the electricity, to prevent the danger of water plus electricity.
The next day the plumber called to fit the new towel rail.
The cost of a new towel rail and valves was what seemed to me like a huge sun, over eight hundred pounds. Nearer nine hundred total including the call out fee, which was deducted so I had to pay the difference.
I went over to the flat. To my horror, the wooden flooring of the large square hallway and the smaller bedroom beside the bathroom had both sections of what looked like buckled planks.
The feedback I got from the emergency plumbers was that to prevent a recurrence, the system needed draining, which meant ll the radiators in the flat, and turning off the water supply in the building, vast cost.
I contacted the management. I was told that to turn off the water supply in winter meant compensating al the other flats in the block. They suggested I contact their regular plumber to discuss the situation.
Plumber 2
When I called him, he told me that the towel rail was not on the same system as the radiators, but on the hot water supply, which was turned on and off within the flat.
He said the report I received from the other, first, plumber was wrong.
He arranged to come over and check the situation with the new towel rail.
Plumber 3
Meanwhile I had phoned my son, whose plumber was too busy to come to me. However, hearing of my disaster, and expense, he agreed to come over.
I have made these notes for myself and my family to keep track and up to date. But anybody else who stumbles upon this site is welcome to read it, send me updates, comments or offers.
Landlord Information
You need to consider two prices.
What price are you asking the tenant to pay?
Your agent will advise you. Different agents might suggest different figures. It's tempting to go for the higher sum. The higher the price the more the agent makes, if he or she is acting on a percentage of sale, so he or she should be keen to get that price.
But one agent told me that other agents make unrealistic suggestions to get you on their books. Then they can't sell at that price.
How much are you willing to pay for, advertising, showing the property to the prospective tenant, doing a tenant finances check, compiling and sending out a contract, signing, collecting signed contract, collecting rent, dealing with property faults, or tenant non payers, inventory check and key handover at end of tenancy, rant rises in key with market, gas and electricity checks, council tax band for tenant, cleaning of carpet and curtains before new tenants take over.
Some agents have a brief, succinct list of what you need to do. Your options. Such as sending them photos. Or fixing a time to meet them, and then later their appointed photographer.
What do I need to do, for the agent, the property, the tenant, the law?
A handy guide on the website of agents Winkworth who have branches in Mill Hill and Hendon alerted me to the facts.
Proving Ownership Of A Property
Firstly, that I needed to provided proof that the property was mine.
Secondly, some kind of textual and/or visual evidence that I am the person listed in documents as the owner.
I was distracted from proceeding to appoint an agent, lying awake at night wondering,
QUESTION
Do I need to go back through ten years of documents on properties I have owned, inherited and purchased to find the right document?
Dexters of Hendon Central rang me with their chasing sales pitch. I asked them about how I prove to them I am the owner. They told me the. Answer.
ANSWERS
1 The letting agent will do it.
2 The will/would check with the Land Registry. No need for me to do anything.
Proving Identity Of The Landlord
Question
All I need to do is provide evidence of my identity. How?
A passport or driving license will do. I can email it or take it into their office.
Advantages Of Large Multi-Branch Agencies
They pointed out that they have multiple offices. If I paid a lower set fee - to a small start up online company or struggling independent business - for find a tenant only, pay upfront, the agency could take my money, about one thousand pounds or more, and go out of business before finding me a tenant.
Online Advertising Only
This is quickest. I could send photos to an agent who works Monday to Friday, and they could put up my ads within an hour.
But what if my tenant has asked me to call to take photos and inspect the property and fix any visible defects on Saturday. Delay until Monday.
Which Agent Is Where?
Dexters (who took over another company) and Squires are in Brent Cross by the station.
Aston Square is in Hendon.
Winkworths, of Hendon, are the ones who se photographer takes a video, and their photographer will do your floor plan for you. But it costs you. Depends if you have time or money.
Check your bank statements.
Go through your emails using the words insurance renewal.
Useful Websites Of Estate Agents for Landlords in London, England.
(On November 2025. Note new legislation comes into force in 2026).
https://www.astonsquare.co.uk/copy-of-our-services-1
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Trees can provide shade, privacy, decoration, fruit to eat or sell.
But note how high each tree and plant will grow. Allow that distance from your house walls, paths and any extension you may build in the future. Also keep it away from the neighbour's house.
If you don't, it the roots could uproot your walls, block the drains. Growth above ground could darken your windows and obscure your view and provide cover for burglars.
Tree cutting is very expensive. Make sure your gardener cuts back plants to no more than six foot high. That's so the plant is always in rich for trimming.
To pull down high branches to cut them, you can use the curved handle of an old umbrella or walking stick.
For even higher branches, you can fix a cutter on a pole, with strings attached to the handles. See videos on Youtube or Facebook.
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