When Rajasana Otiende hired a skip following a clear-out of her Borehamwood home, the last thing she expected was to see the rubbish dumped on her driveway.

The 34-year-old has been left out of pocket, after the company from which she hired the skip, Countrywide Skips, went into administration last month.

Countrywide had delivered the skip, which is owned by Harrow-based Paxton Skip & Grab Hire, to Ms Otiende's Shenley Road home six weeks ago.

On Tuesday, Paxton representatives arrived at the property to collect their skip, but tipped the rubbish, which included boxes of magazines, in front of the house because Countrywide had not passed on to them Ms Otiende's £90 payment.

Ms Otiende said: "Paxton told me I had to pay them to take away my rubbish in the skip.

"The main thing that concerned me was that they didn't call me to tell me what was happening.

"When I spoke to them on Monday I didn't know that they were going to come the next day to collect the rubbish."

The man who collected the skip had not told her what he was doing, she added.

"I have two young children so am worried about what the rubbish will attact but it will have to sit here until I have the money to have it taken away," she said.

Birmingham-based Countrywide is one of Britain's largest skip hire companies, using a network of more than 400 skip operators to offer waste removal services to domestic and trade customers.

Chris Moore, administrator for the company, said: "The way it works is they take on a customer, contract a local skip company to deliver the skip at a previously agreed price and, hopefully, make a profit.

"What's happened in this situation is that a number of local skip operators have been left financially out of pocket and the company's liabilities are more than £1.5 million.

"From what I understand, this is a nationwide problem and skip operators have been taking away their skips and leaving the rubbish."

A Paxton spokeswoman said the company had suggested to Ms Otiende she should discuss the situation with her bank to try to recoup her money from Countrywide.

"I explained we were financially unable to take on the cost of recycling her waste without any contribution, as much as we sympathise with her situation, especially having been hit with a large unpaid bill from Countrywide and the ever-increasing landfill tax.

"We acted completely within the law, we took our skip, and regrettably had to give back the rubbish."