Verified answer

I will avoid being judgemental, as I do not know all the circumstances. There are, however, a few things that I can mention regarding legal requirements.

You were always late in paying the rent for two years. As prompt payment of rent is a condition of any tenancy (including a garage), you have been in breach and the council was entitled to bring the tenancy to an end. This would apply even if you cleared the arrears and set up a direct debit - that would be treated as simply paying off the debt due.

This is not a house, just a garage, so the tenancy can be brought to an end with one month's Notice To Quit. These are usually sent to the address on record, but many councils also place one on the garage itself or even serve it at the garage - all legitimate.

If they have served the NTQ, that's it - game over. They would then be entitled to change the locks.

Now, the stuff that was inside. The way that councils can handle this is by service of a Goods Notice, which is served when the NTQ expires. The power to do this comes from the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982. That notice takes effect one month after service, at which point the goods belong to the council. Service is by the same means as the NTQ. During that one month waiting period, it is often the case that items are simply left where they are, and the council is entitled to charge for them being left there in storage.

Without saying this is what happened, I can envisage a situation where the council officers took the view that it was time for them to bite the bullet last December. Notices are seldom served in the runup to Christmas and so, early January, NTQ is served. That expires early February, at which point the locks are changed and a Goods Notice served, with payment being due until that second notice expires and your stuff becomes the council's stuff.

You really do need to speak with the council urgently to find out what has happened. Do not try to dispute the issue of notices being served - if they say it has, then it has. You need to secure access to your stuff, wherever it is (it's still your stuff), so ask about that as well. And finally, ask about a fresh tenancy of the same garage, to start immediately with rent being paid by Direct Debit.

If you have been paying the rent, and have paid off any arrears to the council then you have a case to argue. But setting up a direct debit, but still having arrears outstanding is a different matter. If you have arrears and have ignored to pay up, then they are perfectly within their rights, although a court can only seize goods to the value of the debt, and the rest must be returned to you.

My suspicions are that you are not painting a full picture here, as councils do correspond and would have kept you informed of their intentions.

They would have contacted you as the person it was registered to.

So you would have had notice of any action they were going to take.

If they did not then they could be responsible for any loss or damage to the property in there.

I assume you have been in touch with the council since they did this?

If they have taken two months rent, it must still be in your name. So legally you are still the tenant and they acted unlawfully changing the lock and touching your things.