Dealing with Abandoned Property: A Step-by-Step Guide

When a tenant moves out of your rental home and leaves a mess behind, that mess becomes your mess. It’s frustrating. It’s annoying. What are you supposed to do with it?

We’re talking about abandoned property, and providing a step-by-step guide for how to legally manage it. Don’t take matters into your own hands and do whatever you want with it. This is still your tenant’s property, and you have to provide them with an opportunity to recover it.

What Does California Law Say About Abandoned Property in a Rental?

There are a number of reasons for why there might be property left behind after a tenant moves out. Maybe you evicted that resident, and they didn’t bother packing up. Or, perhaps they broke the lease and had to leave quickly. Maybe your otherwise good tenant simply did not have the muscle or the ability to heft that heavy sleeper sofa out of the third-floor apartment. 

Whatever the reason for the leftovers in your rental, you have to make sure you’re following California law as it pertains to belongings left behind in a rental home. 

Some of what’s left behind can be thrown out immediately. Food in the refrigerator, for example, can be tossed. If there is garbage or trash, you can remove it immediately as well. If there’s a mess that requires hauling and dumping, dispatch a crew, take a lot of photos, and deduct the cost from the security deposit.

Anything else will require a detailed inventory and storage until the tenant is contacted. Disposing of that property right away is illegal.  

Under California law, any of the tenant’s belongings left behind must be protected by you for up to 18 days after that tenant has been issued a notice of property abandonment. 

Within that time period, a tenant has the opportunity to reclaim the items they left behind. If the tenant does not respond to the notice that was sent within the 18 days, then we have the legal standing to do any number of things with that abandoned property. 

Just make sure you wait out those 18 days.

Estimate the Abandoned Property Value

You’ll have to start with an understanding of what the abandoned property is likely worth, because that will make a difference in how you store and potentially dispose of it. 

In California, landlords can claim any items worth less than $700. Items worth more than $700 must be sold at auction, and the proceeds will go to the county where the property is located. When you’re dealing with something that’s worth more than $700 and you cannot claim it for yourself, then you do have the right to deduct reasonable costs that are paid for storage and management of these items that will be sold.

Steps to Dealing with Abandoned Tenant Property in California

Here is what you’ll have to do when property is left behind.

• Step 1: Review Lease Agreements 

First, check out what your lease agreement says about this property. We always encourage terms and language around abandoned property in every lease agreement. If the California lease references abandoned property, that’s where we want to start. Review what the lease says and follow any instructions or directives that are found there. 

• Step 2: Send Tenants a Legal Notice Regarding the Property

Once that you know how much property you’re dealing with and what it’s worth, you’ll want to send the departed tenants a notice that outlines what has been left behind by them, where you plan to keep it, how long you are obligated to keep it, and what they’ll need to do in order to reclaim it. This is a formal notice that is required, and it’s called a Notice to Remove Personal Property from Premises’ in California. 

There’s a template for this form, and we can provide it for you if you don’t have it already. The required language is pretty specific. Our form is inclusive of all the important details. The property has to be identified, the storage location has to be shared with the tenants who have moved out, and you have to be specific with the deadline for retrieval (we give a time as well as a date). If there are costs involved for the tenant, your notice must disclose those as well. 

This notice needs to be promptly sent out, after the conclusion of a move-out inspection. We recommend that you inventory the items that may have been left behind. Then, communicate directly with your tenant about this property. The form must include information on what will happen to the belongings if the tenants do not come and claim them within the 18 days that are given. 

This notice is not only legally required, it also puts everything in writing for the tenant. When you serve this notice, you know that those tenants are fully informed about the process and how to take back any of the property they may have left behind unintentionally. 

• Step 3: Remove the Property 

There are a couple of different options when it comes to holding the property for your tenants. You can remove the abandoned items from the rental property and store them, or you can leave them at the rental home. Most owners will want to get to work turning over their unit, and that will require cleaning out the property. But, if almost everything has been left behind, that can be difficult. 

Once the notice period passes, you have the right to remove the items from wherever you are holding them. 

Remember that California allows owners to keep any of the items that cost less than $700. If you decide to keep the property, nothing more needs to be done. There’s no need to document that the property has been sold or destroyed or donated. 

Those more expensive items that are over $700 have to be sold at auction to the benefit of the county. A local bond agency will have to facilitate this auction, and property owners are permitted to deduct the cost of that transaction from the proceeds of the sale. 

Those are your immediate steps. But there’s more to understand around how to handle such a situation.

Exceptions to Abandoned Property Laws

As with everything in California law, there are exceptions. For example, cars.

Let’s say a car is left behind at your rental property. You’ll have to follow different guidelines. If there’s a boat in the backyard, selling it at auction is not the way to go. When you have this type of property left behind, the first thing to do is to report the abandoned property to the police, and they will handle it.  

If there are permanent fixtures installed at the property that were not the owner’s but instead were put in place by the tenant, they can be left where they are. A fence, for example, or a ceiling fan are now part of the rental property and can be left alone. 

Can You Prevent a Tenant Leaving Property Behind?

It’s not fun to deal with this after a lease has come to an end. Preventing it is possible, and here are some of the ways we minimize the risk:

• Invest in Tenant Screening

Almost everything comes back to good tenant screening. As professional property managers, our screening process includes rental histories and eviction checks. We investigate whether a tenant has a history of moving out without proper notice and if there are any landlord claims or judgments against them.  

• Offer a Pre-Move Out Inspection

Tenants are entitled to a pre-move out inspection in California, and it can come in handy when it’s time to think about a new tenant and an efficient turnover. During this walk through, we remind our departing tenants that they’re expected to clean out the property entirely and not leave anything behind. We will get inside the rental home immediately after the tenants leave so we can conduct an inspection right away and make decisions about security deposit deductions. This will save time and get the 18 day deadline started right away. 

• Prioritize Good Tenant Relationships 

Tenants are less likely to break lease agreements, pay rent late, damage property, and leave items behind if they have a good relationship with their landlord or property manager. Let us handle tenant relationships. We’ll establish a good relationship with our tenants and prioritize communication. 

• Partner with a Property Manager 

Professional property management can provide a rental experience that’s more pleasant and profitable. With a team of experts leasing, managing, and maintaining an investment property, there’s no need for property owners to be the first responder when it comes to things like abandoned property. We know what to do, and we’ll have the tools and resources in place already to take care of the situation. We know the laws. We understand the best practices. And, we have preventative measures in place to avoid long, expensive, and drawn-out situations where a property might be full of furniture, or tenants are not responding to requests to claim what belongs to them. 

Whether you’re dealing with abandoned property now, or you’re worried about how you’ll handle it in the future, we can help. Please contact us at Redwood Residential Property Management.