Apartment abandonment

[hdworker]

What is the name of your state? Pa
the tenants in one of my apartments have dissappeared, some of their belongings are still in the apartment, we have a month to month rental agreement signed between us. i have taken over posession of other apartments when people have left but this apartment seems to have quite a few items still in it, my question is when is an apartment considered abandoned?

 

[FarmerJ]

Short of starting your states procedures for eviction for non payment OR just simply sending notice that they are to vacate according to your states laws , you may have to look to see If your states laws address abandonment of rentals , Re check your state statutes for rental propertys and also search your state govt web page on the word abandoned property to see if it may be covered there . If they havent paid eviction based on nonpayment may be the cleanest way to go .

 

[hdworker]

Short of starting your states procedures for eviction for non payment OR just simply sending notice that they are to vacate according to your states laws , you may have to look to see If your states laws address abandonment of rentals , Re check your state statutes for rental propertys and also search your state govt web page on the word abandoned property to see if it may be covered there .

I have been searching thats how I ended up here, lol, There was a time I could find things easily on the net but it has kind of grown, lol, I will try and look up my state and find their definition about an abandoned apartment, I have been a landlord for years and have come accross many types of unique problems but this one has me stalled.

 

[treese]

Pennsylvania Landlord Tenant:

http://www.tenant.net/Other_Areas/Penn/harris/pa-part5.html

 

[JETX]

How long have they been gone??
Are all their personal belongings (make-up, clothes, etc.) missing??
Does it appear that the things left are throw-away, or are they 'decent' things (television, electronics, etc.)???
Is there rent current??

Generally, a tenant does not forfeit or lose title to its personal property by failing to remove it from the leased premises after termination of the lease, even if that failure continues for a reasonable time after the lease ends. Abandonment at common law requires the intent to relinquish a known right or interest. It is therefore important for the landlord to investigate the ownership and lien status of the tenant's personal property before asserting claims against them and certainly before claiming abandonment by the tenant.

In any case, you must give them notice (to their last known address) of the abandoned property and give them a reasonable time to arrange to recover it. You can purchase a notice letter ($5) at the following:
http://secure.uslegalforms.com/cgi-bin/forms/query.pl?S-T-PA-B-abandoned~property

In the future, you should draft clear language in the lease relating to the disposition of the tenant's property on lease termination. It is important to provide for disposition of all types of tenant property and not simply improvements. Contractual dispositions of property are generally enforceable. Something like paragraph 22 at the following:
http://www.ilrg.com/forms/lease-res/us/pa

 

[hdworker]

thanks for the advice,