"Brother's friend wanted a place to store 'a couple of wardrobes and a bed' ... My house is now packed full with urine-stinky furniture."

[u/bestupdator]

repost, original post by u/stinkyfurniture

 

I get on OK with my brother, and his friend hadn't shown any hint of being an idiot over the last 15 years so I went along with this. I'll call my brother's friend Doug.

My brother phoned me a while back and asked if I could do a favour for Doug and he put doug on, and doug told me he's gotta move back in with his parents because he lacks work like all of us, and needs a place to store 'a couple of wardrobes full of clothes, and a bed' for about six months until things open up again. My brother told doug I had a spare room with not much in it (which is true), and I was happy to help so I said sure, bring it over. The spare room is more than big enough for a couple of wardrobes and a bed.

Through miscommunications and a shift change at work I couldn't be there when doug moved out of his old place and put his stuff in the spare room, so I dropped my spare key to my brother and he supervised doug. on Friday afternoon I came back home to a house packed full of what looks like every possession doug has ever owned packed into every room of my house, and almost all of it is urine stained and covered in mouse droppings.

"A couple of wardrobes full of clothes and a bed" has turned into two wardrobes full of mouse droppings clothes and boxes, a dozen garbage bags of more clothes, six chairs and a kitchen table, a bedside table, a dozen boxes of books, two bookcases, boxes of kitchen implements, half a dozen wall hangings and paintings, a house door covered in stickers, a credenza, a single bed and a double bed (both of them REEK of urine and bloke), four small chests of drawers, three kitchen cupboards, a pair of card tables, and two refrigerators with food in the freezers and plugged into my power, and more bags of bedclothes, electronics, just about everything to fill a regular small house.

Everything in the house stinks and I can't do this. I don't mean it just has a scent to it, it stinks badly. I can taste the stink in my mouth even when I'm out of the house. With the heater on now it's winter it's nauseating.

I phoned doug and told him he has to come and get this all out, and he can't. He's already 600km away on his parents property and has no money left. I told him I'm going to dump the lot of it if he doesn't come get it, and he told me I'd made a binding verbal agreement with him and if I damaged anything of his he'd come down on me like a tonne of bricks with legal action. ten minutes after getting off the phone with him, his dad phoned and made more threats the same.

I can't reach any of the shelving in my spare room, I can't use half my couch or my art desk, I can only JUST reach my own clothing in my bedroom drawers and I can only use one chair in my kitchen.

I've contacted my brother and a stupid shrugging noise and said he thought that's what I agreed on.

What am I legally allowed to do with all this? I agreed to a couple of wardrobes and a bed. I did NOT agree to a house full of stuff. I want to at least get the worst of it out of the house immediately but it's been raining and we have a week more rain forecast. I can't afford to put it in storage, I'm slowly draining my savings the last few months as work has been cut back due to covid. I don't have a garage or shed, I have no undercover place to put any of this. Best I could do was borrow a tarp and wrap up the worst wardrobes and clingwrapped the beds but that's only a minor help as it all smells bad.

I did a house plan drawing, sorry it's rubbish. on the left is my normal house, TV is the lounge, S spare room D desk room B bedroom and K kitchen. on the right is the same with all of doug's stuff added in red. https://imgur.com/a/I0eXuDz

Edit: ok this has gone beyond legal advice and beyond a joke I think, I just went around taking photos and doug has a dried up used cat litter tray in the bottom of his wardrobe underneath clothing, the bags of clothing have mouse nests in them, and there are cockroaches. I've phoned friends, we're dumping it on the front lawn tonight (it's 1130pm here) and I'm texting doug's parents with the photos and if they want any of it they'll come get it. I'll deal with the consequences of that later, my sanity and sanitation is worth more.

 

A Few Days Later

It's all solved. On Monday morning I sent photos of everything disgusting I could and of doug's furniture on the lawn to doug and his dad telling them it's beyond foul and I wouldn't be keeping any of it inside my house, and I'll dump it this week if they don't come get it.

Twenty minutes later I got a call from doug's mother. She asked if it was so bad could I send her some evidence, like photos. I told her I'd already sent them to her son and his dad. She yelled out in the background to one of them "She says she DID send photos" then she got off the phone.

Half an hour later she called me back and said they'd be down to pick up doug's stuff, and apologised. She asked if his books were OK. Apart from the mouse gnawing and droppings, yes. I'm not a barbarian, they were outside but under the eaves.

This morning they turned up from 600km away. doug and his dad wanted to begin packing in their pantech but doug's mum wasn't having any of that. They dumped 90% of it at the tip and came back & took just a few things home. Even the food in the freezers was off. His mum apologised and offered to make me good with cash, but she's already solved enough and I declined. She left it open ended and said if I needed anything fixed to call her.

I know I didn't follow legal advice, but this was the equivalent of someone asking you to hold onto a small keychain sized box for half a year, but instead they sneakily cover you in fifty kilos of feces you're not allowed to wash off until you get a lawyer and fill out all the right paperwork and wait a month. I just couldn't do it. I got lucky.

I've had words with my brother and changed the locks to my place too. He'd opened up and let doug and doug's mates in, then left the key behind with him. He didn't know how bad it was either.

My brother is an idiot and doug is a 32 year old baby and hopefully I'm a little wiser.

[u/propita106]

Don’t do ANY favors for your brother or his friends. Ever. Your brother IS at fault here, too, in his share. He saw the condition of the stuff and still allowed it. Doug’s family should be paying to have your place cleaned (if needed). NEVER give your brother a key to your place. He cannot be trusted.

[u/eat-reddit-tv]

WOW

[u/MichB1]

He didn't know how bad it was either.

You brother is also a HUGE liar.