Landlord evicted from garage with no notice?

[Please Help]

Hi,

I REALLY hope someone can help here as I really don't know what to do. Its a bit of a saga so I apologise in advance!

 

About 4 years ago my parents rented a flat from a letting agency. They also rented a garage (separate from the property). My father died a few years back now, but mum has carried on renting from them. Never late or missed a payment and she goes into their office monthly to pay them by cheque (yes I've tried to convince her DD is the way forward, but hey ho!).

Anyway, I went to get something out of the garage a few months back and couldn't get into it- short version is that they've cleared all our stuff out and destroyed it.

When asked about it they had no record of us renting it (thankfully I have found some correspondance to prove it, although not the original lease). They then said that they'd had no rent from us and that was why.

That part is true as my dad had taken care of that, and when my mum had taken over paying she thought that it was included in the rent for the flat. Not once have they ever sent a bill or anything- otherwise we'd have paid it.

I've sent a letter since, requesting they pay for all the stuff (it was over the small claims court level in value so thats not an option) and they said that the garage roof had fallen in and it wasn't worth what i'd said. Had we realised this we'd have obviously claimed on insurance/got them to fix it since surely that is maintanence from them?

I contacted the Estate Agents Ombudsman, but because it wasn't a residential property they wouldn't get involved.

So, what do I do? and is there a limitation on time thats elapsed? It was about 6 months ago.

Thanks in advance for any help.