As a landlord, two of your main priority is maintaining the good condition of the rental property and the welfare of your tenants. However, despite your effort, certain problems could not be avoided especially with your tenants. You may have difficulty with late rents and worst, your tenant abandoned the property without prior notice.

To make sure that the tenant has actually abandoned your house, pay a visit to your property. Check the mailbox, if it is overflowing with letters, then it is a sign that your renter has left. In the absence of letters, you can check out the post office of any change of address. Another sign is change of the locks in your home or the tenant has removed all his belongings. Try talking to the neighbors. You can also find out if your renter has left, if he or she neither contacted you nor paid the rent. State laws say that two months unpaid rent or paid fourteen days after the due date are periods to assume tenant abandonment.

What to do when your tenant has abandoned your property, following are some steps that might be of help to you:

1. After finding out that the tenant has abandoned your property, you could try to reach him via his or her phone or through email. Despite repeatedly contacting your renter without response, you could try to write him or her letter. Your letter should state any standing balances and the rental agreement are terminated.

2. If your tenant left some belongings, this situation is termed as “bailment.” The items left would be under your supervision. There are some rules for this, but in general, you are required to store these things. When your tenant comes back to claim, you should return them. However, he or she could only reclaim if he has provided you a written letter given fifteen to twenty days after he abandoned the premises. The tenant should also pay storage fee costs before he or she could recover these things within three days.

3. If your tenant has not made any reply with your letter within 18 days, according to most state laws, you could throw away, keep or sell the properties left behind. The ones you can keep should not be worth more than $300. The rest could be sold through a public sale with accompanying published notice of the activity. The proceeds could cover the costs for your storage, organizing and advertising the sale. The remaining amount would be given to the county treasurer. After a year and the proceeds are still unclaimed, you are eligible to claim the money.

4. In case jewelry or cash has been left behind unintentionally, submit an application in the sheriff’s office or the local police station. Enumerate the things left, where they are found and the name of the owner. The police have to find the owner within ninety days; otherwise, you can reclaim the items. However, if for some reason the authority rejects your application, then you should treat the items as abandoned property.

If you want to make sure that the tenant will not hold you liable concerning his personal belongings, follow the steps above and consult your attorney immediately.

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