'I’m paying £1,000 a year for a garage I can’t use because someone’s filled it with rubbish'

'I’m paying £1,000 a year for a garage I can’t use because someone’s filled it with rubbish' Granddad Martyn de Young, aged 68, has said his rent has been increased despite being having been unable to access the nearly £1,000-a-year garage in Larkfield, Kent, for more than one year A granddad renting garage space for nearly £1,000 a year has complained he's paying not to use it after finding it stuffed to the roof with fly-tipped rubbish. Martyn de Young, 68, forks out £960 a year for private use of the garage in Larkfield, Kent, in which he stored important belongings for three decades. He was forced to give it up, however, in August last year when he opened its door to discover it completely packed with someone else's rubbish. The father of two has spent the last 14 months locked in a battle of wills with owners Clarion Housing to get the mess cleared, describing the process as a "depressing tale of woe". Martyn's life was turned upside-down when he arrived at the garage to find it crammed with a sofa, builder's rubbish, laminate flooring and pairs of Wellington boots. The massive mess, weighing three tonnes in total. prevented him accessing the space, and he was unable reach his mobility scooter, which had been swallowed inside. Contractors were deployed to clear the fly-tipping soon after Martyn raised the issue, but they got the wrong garage, and were forced to put the refuse back where they found it. Clearance teams eventually removed one of the three tonnes from the right garage, and were due to come back to tackle the remaining two. But Martyn says this still hasn't happened, with contractors unable to access the garage due to damage on the door and its lock. Martyn said he tried multiple times to contact the housing association for an update, and by March he tripped down to the garage to check if there had been any progress. But instead of discovering a newly cleaned out garage, he found it had been completely boarded up without notice - which Clarion later explained was an anti-fly-tipping measure. The granddad of five said CCTV was meant to be installed as an additional defence, but nothing ever came of it. He has now spent more than a year paying to rent the garage despite not being able to use it, which has cost him an estimated £1,200. He said he has been asked to pay more rent in the meantime, and was forced to borrow a new mobility scooter after his was lost in the mess. He said: "In the meantime they’ve put my rent up. A year is a long time to wait. I don’t need the mobility scooter anymore now, luckily. But I had to borrow one for a while, and it’s been a bit of a nightmare really. “It’s not doing my finances any good; I’d still be paying the money out if I was using it, but it’s a bit of a waste if I can’t use it. It’s a bit annoying as a pensioner I don’t get that much to spare, so it will be nice to get that [money] back if I can.” The retired IT consultant says when he finally got a call from someone at Clarion on October 27, there was no explanation as to why it had taken so long to get it fixed. He continued: “When it got to a year, I thought now’s the time to start doing something about it, and I wrote to them asking them to sort it out." “It’s just been going on and on and on for 14 months. It has affected me; it’s been annoying and I don’t usually get annoyed. It’s gutting and completely unnecessary, really. It could have been sorted out right at the beginning. “If they expect me to pay rent, and the other people to pay rent, then they should be looking after the properties to some extent and keeping them secure. They had said about putting up CCTV, but they haven’t done that. I’m paying rent for it, so I should be able to use it.” Martyn had suffered from arthritis in his hip and had initially gone to the garage to recover his mobility scooter when he discovered it had been filled with rubbish. However, the inability to retrieve it, meant he had to borrow an alternative scooter for several months, ahead of a total hip replacement. He said: “As a pensioner, it is quite a hit on my finances for something I am getting no benefit from. Frankly, I am very disappointed at the lack of contact I have had from Clarion… it is over six months since I have heard anything, apart from a notice of rent increase.” Martyn wants an early intervention to clear the garage and to recover his property, which includes his scooter, a scale model railway layout, family heirlooms and more. In addition, he wants the garage to be refurbished, with a replacement door and a new, secure lock. He thinks he should be refunded all rental payments he had made since the issue was reported, and a suspension of payments until the garage is in full use. No one was arrested or charged in connection with the fly-tipping, which Martyn believes was deposited between July 1 and August 25, 2025, as he had not been in the garage for around six to eight weeks. At the time, several of the other garages had also been fly-tipped. A Clarion Housing spokesperson said they were “sorry for the inconvenience” experienced and are working with him to resolve the outstanding issues with his garage. He said: “We will also reimburse the rent he has paid for the period the garage has been unusable. The other affected garages at Raven Close were cleared and secured to prevent further fly-tipping, and we are exploring additional security measures for the site, including a controlled-access barrier.” The spokesperson added that staff had been in contact with Martyn to arrange clearance of the remaining waste with him present, so he can identify his belongings.”