LouisB

Current plan, sell, give away and bin as much as possible.

Rent out house, semi furnished with functional and non precious stuff we don't want to take or store, especially non precious stuff easily replaced later.

Store the rest...

We have an empty loft. My question is, what do people think about putting as much as there as sensibly possible, before reaching out to external storage companies. We'd rent the house but not the loft.

This would at least be for say the first year, on return visits we'd decide to leave or sell more (or bring over to US) as we go.

Loft is currently dry and in good shape, recent work has made it solid expected for years to come. Appreciate there's a risk of damage but nothing too highly valluable will go up there, risk would be kept acceptable.

Furthermore, when it comes to storage what works best? Was thinking to purchase stackable plastic boxes with lids rather than cardboard, wrap delicate items in industrial bubble wrap / cling film, maybe wrap some boxes with delicates entirely in film, to keep out dust and protect against temporary leaks should any occur (unlikely but always possible).

Any thoughts and ideas?

Wintersong

Sounds like a plan

Can you ensure the loft is locked and not accessible to renters?

LouisB

I think we can fit a padlock to the entrance

Just_Joy

It's been a long long time since I lived in the UK so I am not familiar with all the laws, excuse me if this sounds like a dumb question. If the house is rented out would you have access to the stuff you have stored in the loft? The US has tenants rights and a landlord is not allowed into the property without permission from the tenant, except in an emergency. Didn't know if this applied in the UK.

LouisB

It is a very good point, will read up on that!

Wintersong

As I recall, from my days of renting in the UK, the landlord could access the property so long as they gave appropriate notice. That was 12 years ago, though, so things may have changed.

WEBlue

We left our rental in Cambs mid-2011 & that was the way the law worked then.

The estate agent handling our landlord's property would notify us in writing a few weeks in advance of a visit by the landlord. If we didn't call to reschedule & we were by some chance out of the house, they could enter the property....

LouisB

Thanks for the replies. Googled around and thought some more about it.

1. We'll need to make it totally clear in the agreements that the loft (and shed also) are out of bounds, not part of rental in agreements. In any case loft is not fully converted with staircase etc, not viable to have tenents using it.
2. Yes it seems you can get access but you need to give notice in advance. Fair enough. Idea anyway is what goes in there is long term stuff for when we come back to live in the house again (or take with us to new house wherever that may be). Be highly unlikely anything in there we'll need in US while renting out the U.K. Property, unless we come to sell up and move for good.
3. Will either put a lock or a tamper seal on the hatch. The later may be better since it doesn't complicate in case of emergency yet keeps it evidently out of bounds otherwise.
4. Will inventory and photograph what goes up there and how stored and ensure our part of house/contents insurance covers it.
5. Will leave room for access to pipes and so on in case of emergency repairs
6. Will check is in good dry condition, it was in good shape last time I checked but will ensure roof 100%

Hopefully that should do it and make moving a little easier initially. After a year or so we can review and change as required.

Pulaski

Plastic tubs, the stackable ones with interlocking flaps for a lid. Personally I would buy commercial grade heavy duty ones from an on-line supplier, and they can be sealed with zip ties. Ones similar to these:

Then I would cover the stack with a heavy polythene sheet, held in place with a brick at each corner. Don't stack too much weight up there, at least not where the rafters aren't supported by walls underneath.

That said, I wouldn't leave anything I cared about in the attic of a house a was renting out.

WEBlue

So our landlord in Cambs did this--left some cartons of stuff in his loft with a large padlock on the door/pull-down ladder.

The only trouble was that after a few years squirrels gnawed their way through a soffit & started to nest up there. We reported this to the agent. Agent reported it to the landlord, who had the soffit hole repaired, then asked us to put poison in the attic if it ever happened again....

I pointed out that there was a big padlock keeping us out. AND that I wasn't happy to climb up a rickety ladder with poison.... 6 months later he arrived with a big bolt-cutter, clipped off the padlock & climbed up himself to place poison around the loft. He never did replace the padlock-- he knew none of us were going anywhere near that loft.

LouisB

Always a risk but I think it's relatively small. We'll take best precautions to limit/prevent incidents. On that basis we can make a sensible choice what goes up there.

Our very precious things (not that we have many) will not go up there. Either will go with us or to friends and family and there won't be much of that.

I don't see it being up there for years and years. Either we'll come back after a while and use it or once it's clear we're not, we'll come back to clear and sell it all off/ ship over.

At that stage even keeping / selling house could be in question.

However not sure either of us are sure we want to settle in the US long term, as much as we like it short term.

I've discussed I can work from London office anytime so coming back to attend to this should be a breeze. Helped by the short flight times. Not much longer than a big commute into London

Hopefully in this day an age we'll be able to feel international and get best of both worlds. That's the theory anyway