Any Landlords here that have dealt with "Abandoned Personal Property"?

[Rodoni]

Need Advice Regarding "Abandoned Personal Property".

BACK STORY:

I own a 4 bed 2.5 bath house with my best friend, we will call him Brandon, and we rent out two of the rooms. If both rooms are rented, our mortgage is covered and we both live rent-free. We're just recently out of college and have been mostly renting to friends on a "month-month" type basis. Last June we had a buddy that we have known for 8+ years move in as he was just leaving the Army, recently divorced, and wanted to get back to CA. From June 2015-April 2016 there was no payment "issues". Rent was paid on time, utilities were taken care of, etc. Well during that whole year our buddy was never motivated to get a job, was living off of left-over money he was getting from the Army, etc. He was going through some depression type stuff off and on and I never really pressed him for rent starting in May because he said he was looking into getting a job etc.

We press him a little more and more as time goes on and get the same story. Well July 1st rolls around (No rent since May) and now I'm really pressing him and he tells me he'll get me at least 1 month's rent within 3 days. I get a call from his mom and she's confused as to why I haven't gotten any rent money because she gave him money for rent. I tell her the situation and she says that she'll make sure everything gets paid. He was 3 months behind (May/June/July).

Fast forward to August and our "friend" is still 1 month behind. Not a huge deal as he's been paying extra to get back on track. A week into August he tells Brandon that he got a welding job in Georgia with an old Army buddy and he was moving out. He was going to be packing up his stuff so a mover could come haul it across the US to Georgia. 10 days go by and he hasn't packed a thing and one day I came home and his house key is on the counter and he's gone. He took his xbox, his dog, and some clothes and drove off to Georgia. His room was left 100% in tact with his bed, dresser, desk, etc, a sectional couch in the living room, and even more stuff in the garage. Probably 10x10 storage worth of stuff total.

No response from him for about a week and then he tells Brandon that he's going to have movers come and get his stuff and that he would pay to have the house cleaned because he feels bad that he just took off... He is still 1 month behind on rent and in another week September rent would be due. 9/6 comes and he tells Brandon that within 2 weeks a mover will be there and he will pay the rent that's due.

It is now 10/13, still no mover, still no rent money. I'm almost positive we won't get any reimbursement from this so-called friend of ours and we're left with all of his stuff. We had to move it all into the garage to get the room rentable again and we are sick of housing this guy's crap.


ADVICE NEEDED/CLIFFS:

- It's been 60 days since a tenant (our friend) left our house and moved to Georgia without any formal written notice and he left 90% of his belongings, and 2 month's behind on rent.

- He has stated he is going to have movers come and get his stuff and told us himself that it would be gone within 14 days of 9/6/2016.

- 10/13/2016 still no movers, no rent, no word or response from him about his stuff.

- Month-Month based with NO ACTUAL RENTAL AGREEMENT/CONTRACT SIGNED

What can we legally do about his stuff?? Obviously it was a mistake not to have a rental contract signed. We were trying to help out a friend and we got taken advantage of.

I've looked into the CA laws about "abandoned personal property" of a tenant however I'm not sure if that actually apply since he wasn't a "contract/lease binding tenant". He's on the other side of the US, we've had his stuff locked up in the house for 60+ days, and he's failed to retrieve his belongings.

Are we still entitled to follow all the steps provided in the CA law about abandoned property? We're just over having all of this stuff here and it's going to be a pain in the ass to call up the county and do the "county auction/garage sale" since his belongings are easily at least 700$.

Thanks in Advanced R3V.

[flyboyx]

why don't you call his mom and ask what her thoughts are? maybe she will pay whats owed and get his stuff out for you. obviously, he doesn't seem to care too much about his belongings. if you don't get anywhere with that, i say get rid of it.

what would your friend do anyway? is he going to sue you? probably not. its his fault you are in this bind.

[2mAn]

I think with no contract you screwed yourself out of rent, but he also screwed himself from any recourse. Sell his furniture and have his mommy pick up his clothes

[ainadude]

Sounds like you're going to have to take him to small-claims court if you want satisfaction. Pretty sure he has legally vacated by virtue of his vacating and leaving the keys, but do yourself a favor and spend A LOT of time going through the appropriate Landlord-Tenant Code (probably a CA state document but may be under county purview). If code is similar to Hawaii's (and I'm guessing it is as both are very liberal states), you and your absent/departed tenant are probably bound by some basic, assumed conditions associated with a verbal, month-to-month tenancy in place of a regular, written and signed rental contract. In other words, both parties have responsibilities regardless of the lack of a signed document.

Sounds like you have satisfied your end of the bargain so far, but make sure that's the case. You may be required to provide written notification that you intend to confiscate and dispose of his abandoned property -- almost certainly via a document he has to sign for and for which you get proof of receipt. Not sure what you need to do to satisfy the law if you have no forwarding address.


Chances are, if you perform due diligence on your end and decide to take him to small-claims court, he is unlikely to travel from Georgia and the judge will issue a summary judgment in your favor. At that point, you'll have to garner wages to collect unpaid rent (pretty sure at this point abandoned property will revert to you). With the law in your favor, that's not a big deal, although it may be some time before all monies are collected.

[flyboyx]

i used to have a flight crew crash pad. i would charge for the room and by the month in a similar fashion that you do. i used to have problems occasionally with renters skipping out. i solved the problem by charging a deposit of one month's rent. once in a while some jackass wanted to rent the place, but didn't have the money to cover the deposit. i simply would not rent to them because they probably would not be able to cover their costs down the road.

[decay]

his shit is abandoned in place... dispose of it however suits you.

edit: and yeah, rental contracts around here are usually "first month plus another month's worth as deposit".

[Rodoni]

Ideally I would like to just get two months rent from him (700ish) and get his stuff out of here. I was hoping I could just sell off a couple of his items to make my 700$ but it's looking like I can't legally do that here in CA even though his stuff is unclaimed x60 days.

Laws:
1. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/di...file=1980-1991
2. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/di...2000&file=1965

"(e) "Records" means any material, regardless of the physical form,
on which information is recorded or preserved by any means,
including in written or spoken words, graphically depicted, printed,
or electromagnetically transmitted. "Records" does not include
publicly available directories containing information an individual
has voluntarily consented to have publicly disseminated or listed,
such as name, address, or telephone number.
(f) "Tenant" includes any paying guest, lessee, or sublessee of
any premises for hire."

It's basically looking like legally I have to mail (or email which became legal in 2013) a "notice of reclaimant of property" which buys him 18 more days (15 if emailed) before I can go to the next step. Unfortunately for me, the property is over $700 so I'd have to have a county sanctioned sale -_-.

I was really hoping to find some verbage of "unclaimed property after 90 days is now the property of the landlord" or something lol.

But at the very least we just want his shit gone so we can move on and just eat the 700. It's not like its an astronomical amount of money. I'm just surprised how complex this process is.

[Rodoni]

Sounds like you're going to have to take him to small-claims court if you want satisfaction. Pretty sure he has legally vacated by virtue of his vacating and leaving the keys, but do yourself a favor and spend A LOT of time going through the appropriate Landlord-Tenant Code (probably a CA state document but may be under county purview).

(e) The real property shall not be deemed to be abandoned pursuant to this section if the lessee proves any of the following:
(1) At the time the notice of belief of abandonment was given, the rent was not due and unpaid for 14 consecutive days.

If code is similar to Hawaii's (and I'm guessing it is as both are very liberal states), you and your absent/departed tenant are probably bound by some basic, assumed conditions associated with a verbal, month-to-month tenancy in place of a regular, written and signed rental contract. In other words, both parties have responsibilities regardless of the lack of a signed document.

In an oral rental agreement, you and the landlord agree orally (not in writing) that you will rent the rental unit. In addition, you agree to pay a specified rent for a specified period of time - for example, a week or a month. This kind of rental agreement is legally binding on both you and the landlord, even though it is not in writing unless a tenant and a landlord agree to the lease of a rent unit for more than one year, the agreement must be in writing.

Sounds like you have satisfied your end of the bargain so far, but make sure that's the case. You may be required to provide written notification that you intend to confiscate and dispose of his abandoned property -- almost certainly via a document he has to sign for and for which you get proof of receipt. Not sure what you need to do to satisfy the law if you have no forwarding address.

The notice of reclaimant or whatever. But I did not see any mention of getting a receipt or confirmation that the document was received.

Thanks for the help!

why don't you call his mom and ask what her thoughts are? maybe she will pay whats owed and get his stuff out for you. obviously, he doesn't seem to care too much about his belongings. if you don't get anywhere with that, i say get rid of it.

I don't think she lives in CA anymore either. Last I knew she was in Vegas.

what would your friend do anyway? is he going to sue you? probably not. its his fault you are in this bind.

I agree but I just wanted to make sure I was covered just in case.

[ainadude]

Thanks for the help!

Anytime, and best of luck. Sucks when ***holes throw friendships overboard in the wake of unpaid bills ...

[mrsleeve]

Call his mommy, tell her to come get his shit. Once she is in position of it all, see if she will then give you 700 bucks worth of shit to sell off to recoupe your funds. The he has to deal with mommy about his shit being sold to cover his debts

[bddog]

I have a 18 day abandonment statement written into my rental contracts.
Remove his shit. Rent the room. Send him an abandonment letter. Eighteen days later Craigs List the shit for less than $700.
I do it every time someone leaves their stuff.
It happens more than you would think.
There would have to be a hardship experience for the Judge not to be on your side.
If you do the paperwork correctly, you can get a small claims judgement against him and keep the abandonment money.

[Rodoni]

So a little update. I sent a "notice of abandoned property" on 10/14/16 via certified USPS mail. One copy to him (his last known address which is my address) and 1 copy to myself at my address. By law he should have setup "mail forwarding" however I received both letters (his and mine) to my address on 10/15 (Sacramento is a main USPS hub so we get mail fast). By CA law, 18 days after mailing the notice, his property becomes ours.

I went the extra step and emailed him the same notice I attempted to mail him (CA Law was changed Jan 2013 stating that it was acceptable to email a notice if the tenant provided one).. He obviously got the emailed notice because within a couple of days he was texting my buddy and telling him he was gathering quotes and needed some pictures of the items left over so he could show the movers for a quote. He told my buddy a mover was going to show up on day X to get info for a quote. Day X came and went and no mover showed up.

Pictures were sent to our ex-roommate of the items that were abandoned (even though I attached a list and a couple pics to the notice) just as he requested so he could show his "potential movers". Haven't heard a peep from him in over a week and now (11/1/2016) it has been 18 days since the mailed notice attempt and email notice was sent.

I believe under CA law I have covered my bases and done the appropriate steps and his property is ours to dispose of as we see fit. Can any CA residents agree?

[Das Delfin]

I think at this point he's learning a life lesson to follow through with his plans and take care of his stuff.

[cory58]

There is incorrect advice in this thread. You need to GET AN ATTORNEY. The cost will be minimal, compared the potential liability you will be avoiding. Deadbeat tenants always win and honest landlords always get screwed, especially in the People's Republic of Kali.

FYI - I've been in the commercial real estate business for 24 years.

[flyboyx]

Just sell his shit. If he can't get it together after all these chances, he isn't going to get it together to bring a lawsuit against you. Fuck him already.