Dealing with tenants who leave behind their property is a time-consuming and possibly confusing endeavor. As a landlord, you want to have the turnover as smooth as possible, but you also have the responsibility of handling the tenant’s abandoned property.
It can be expensive and a hassle, but there are steps on what you can do when a tenant abandons his property. Here is how to handle the abandoned property of a tenant.
Have a strong lease agreement
To lessen the hassle of dealing with a tenant’s abandoned property, have the lease agreement include specific and detailed provisions on what to do with a tenant’s property upon abandonment. Net Lawman has a wide variety of legal documents you need for the situation.
Choose which legal document you need, change it to fit the purpose you need it for and have it signed by the other party. Take advantage of the document review service where the experts review your documents and edit them to fit legal and grammatical standards. Over 150,000 people use Net Lawman because their legal documents are based on legal, commercial, and real-world experiences and standards.
Check the status of your tenant and his personal property
If your tenant has left the property, determine why he did so. See if he gave you a termination notice, was evicted, or it was an unannounced departure. How the tenant left the property will affect how you can take care of the abandoned property.
Afterward, check the property to see if there were any personal belongings left behind. A tenant’s personal property is anything he brought to your rental property or bought during his stay. The kinds of items that were left behind affect how you can take care of the property.
Handle the abandoned property with care
It is your responsibility as a landlord to keep and store the personal items of the tenant without damaging them. This is because the tenant might return for them. Make a list and itemize all the items left behind. Trash and other perishable goods can be thrown away.
Take pictures of the items and their condition. This is to protect you from any damage claims. Safely store the abandoned property in a safe place such as a commercial storage unit, container, or keep it in the rental unit if you do not have a new tenant moving in.
Notify the tenant
After you have safely stored the tenant’s property, you need to notify the tenant about the status of his property. You have to deliver a written notice of the abandoned property to the tenant in person or first-class mail with a return receipt.
The notice must include the itemized list of property with images, a deadline to reclaim the property, where it is stored, how much for storing, and what you plan to do with the abandoned property if not claimed. If the tenant does not return after a set amount of time to claim the property, you are free to handle the abandoned property.
Ways to deal with the abandoned property
Depending on where you are, there are different rules on dealing with abandoned property. In general, you can sell the abandoned property at a public sale, and you can use the money to pay for unpaid rent, storage for the items, and other costs. You might have to notify your local newspaper if you plan on doing this.
You can also keep items under a certain value, give them away, or dispose of them. Make sure to check your local rules to know the specifics of dealing with abandoned property.