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What to do with Evictee's belongings?

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Florida

I am doing my first eviction and I'm 90% sure the guy is not moving his stuff out of the house. My question is what are my legal obligations to care for/dispose of what is left behind.

The process is almost over, he was given his 24 hour notice from the court Friday and Monday the sheriff's deputy will be there to turn the house over to us. The sheriff's office says all the will do is insure "all living creatures, human or otherwise" are out of the house.

What can I do with what he leaves behind?
 


STEPHAN

Senior Member
Once you have a writ of possession promptly moving of the resident's possessions to the property line provide and you will be save.

For the future: Do you have proper abandoned property clause in your lease? That - in some cases - might save you from having to obtain a writ of possession.
 

FarmerJ

Senior Member
take pictures of the things while they are still in the house so you have some kind of record as to what the tenant left behind this way later on should there be any dispute or civil claim from the tenant against you for that spendy TV they claim to have owned your able to show the court the pics and let them see it was a 15 year old CRT tv ( box set with glass tube) Do also check your states abandoned property laws to see what they have to say too.
 
Thanks to Farmer J and STEPHAN!

Its done as he took more of his stuff than I expected, though he did leave a lot of worthless stuff behind.

He was still in the house when the Sheriff's Deputy arrived to evict him, but he left and the Deputy told me that he did not want any of what was left. I stayed back, did not want to talk to the guy.

He left a huge mess, mostly garbage but there are a few worthless pieces of furniture and lots of dirty dishes and worn out clothes. All is going into the dumpster. I did take a lot of pictures, it should be obvious to anyone nothing of any real value was still there.

And my next lease will have a good abandoned property clause, wish I had thought of that sooner.

Evicting someone is no fun, but some things have to be done.
 

STEPHAN

Senior Member
Thanks for your feedback. I am happy it all worked out for you.

I use something like this:

Abandonment
The tenant agrees that upon surrender, abandonment, or recovery of possession of the dwelling unit due to the death of the last remaining tenant, as provided by chapter 83, Florida statutes, the landlord shall not be liable or responsible for storage or disposition of the tenant's personal property.
 

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