More apartment cleanouts
Feb. 6th, 2026 08:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickAs expected, tenant upstairs at 136 did not contact me about his stuff so now it's mine.
This was an eviction. Tenant paid rent through October, then went into residential mental health treatment (he did not tell us this at that time and we only discovered it around Christmas) so the November and December rents went unpaid.
To be clear, we made good-faith efforts to contact tenant. We called his cellphone. No answer. We called his emergency contact. No answer. (We tried multiple times.) We called his caseworker for "transition to non-institutional living" (which number we were not supposed to have but it's a small town and we had it so we called it) to see if they had any idea where he was. They did not know what was going on either and he had "missed check-ins" and "had been dropped from the program".
The upshot of all of this was that nobody knew anything and I couldn't get an answer from anywhere. Police visited twice for "wellness checks" to see if he was dead inside. Not dead inside. Ghosted. Well, hell.
Fwiw, you cannot call the local-ish residental mental health treatment facility and inquire as to whether or not your tenant is in residence there. HIPAA says no you do not get to do that. Privacy n shit.
So, lacking other options, we filed to evict in early November. Folks get a bit longer on an eviction filing if they are in contact with us or if we can get someone on a phone or if we know they are still living there, but ghosting -- we file promptly.
The hearing was attended by just me. Possession, back rent, and costs were granted to me because of course they were.
Tenant called me on December 23 (after the hearing, before the possession) to inform me that he'd been in residential treatment, was now spending the holidays with his family, and that he would have no money at all until February. I told tenant that possession would be on January 2, 2026.
The possession was attended by just me on January 2, 2026. All his stuff was still in the apartment because of course it was.
There's a law about this. Here's the law, which is lengthy. I have bolded the applicable parts to help you find them:
Pennsylvania Statutes Title 68 P.S. Real and Personal Property § 250.505a. Disposition of abandoned personal property
Current as of January 01, 2025 | Updated by Findlaw Staff
(a) Upon the termination of a lease or relinquishment of possession of real property, a tenant shall remove all personal property from the leased or formerly leased premises. Abandoned personal property remaining on the premises may be disposed of at the discretion of the landlord, subject to the provisions of this section.
(b) Personal property remaining on the premises may be deemed abandoned if any of the following apply:
(1) The tenant has vacated the unit following the termination of a written lease.
(2) An eviction order or order for possession in favor of the landlord has been entered and the tenant has vacated the unit and removed substantially all personal property.
(3) An eviction order or order for possession in favor of the landlord has been executed.
(4) The tenant has provided the landlord with written notice of a forwarding address and has vacated the unit and removed substantially all personal property.
(5) The tenant has vacated the unit without communicating an intent to return, the rent is more than fifteen days past due and, subsequent to those events, the landlord has posted notice of the tenant's rights regarding the property.
(c) Where the tenant is deceased and leaves personal property remaining in the demised premises, the provisions of this act shall not apply. The disposition of personal property in the case of a decedent shall be governed by the provisions of 20 Pa.C.S. §§ 711(1) (relating to mandatory exercise of jurisdiction through orphans' court division in general) and 3392 (relating to classification and order of payment) and other relevant provisions of 20 Pa.C.S. (relating to decedents, estates and fiduciaries).
(d) Prior to removing or disposing of abandoned property, the landlord must provide written notice of the tenant's rights regarding the property. The tenant shall have ten days from the postmark date of the notice to retrieve the property or to request that the property be stored for an additional period not exceeding thirty days from the date of the notice. If the tenant so requests, the landlord must retain or store the property for up to thirty days from the date of the notice. Storage will be provided at a place of the landlord's choosing and the tenant shall be responsible for costs. At all times, the landlord shall exercise ordinary care in handling and securing the tenant's property and shall make the property reasonably available for purposes of retrieval.
(e) Notice shall be sent by first class mail to the tenant at the address of the leased premises and to any forwarding address provided by the tenant, including any address provided for emergency purposes. The notice shall be in substantially the following form:
Personal property remaining at (address) is now considered to have been abandoned. Within ten days of the postmark date of this notice, you must retrieve any items you wish to keep or contact your landlord at (telephone number and address) to request that the property be retained or stored. If requested, storage will be provided for up to thirty days from the postmark date of this notice at a place of your landlord's choosing, and you will be responsible for costs of storage.
(f) Under no circumstances may a landlord dispose of or otherwise exercise control over personal property remaining upon inhabited premises without the express permission of the tenant. If the conditions under which personal property may be deemed abandoned no longer exist, the landlord shall have no right to dispose of or otherwise exercise control over the property.
(g) Except with respect to the provisions of subsection (h), in the event of a conflict between the provisions of this section and the terms of a written lease, the terms of the lease shall control.
(h) Notwithstanding any provision of this section to the contrary, if a landlord proceeding under the provisions of subsection (b)(3) has actual knowledge or is notified of a protection from abuse order entered for the protection of the tenant or a member of the tenant's immediate family, the landlord shall refrain from disposing of or otherwise exercising control over the personal property of the tenant for thirty days from the date of the notice. If requested, storage shall be provided for up to thirty days from the date of the request.
(i) A landlord that violates the provisions of this section shall be subject to treble damages, reasonable attorney fees and court costs.
At the possession, I changed the locks and sent a letter to my tenant's last known valid address to start the clock. (You have to have letters hand-cancelled at the post office now if you need to know for sure when the postmark is, just FYI. Like, if you absentee vote or something. Stand there and WAIT while they postmark your mail by hand.) Because I am not a complete asshole, I also photographed and TEXTED the tenant the picture of the letter because I know damn good and well that he would not get the letter because he didn't put in a forwarding address at the post office and I didn't have an emergency contact address. I tried my best, here. Law only says I have to send a letter. It doesn't say I have to text the tenant and shit.
The clock I'm talking about is the "tenant belongings left behind in an apartment" clock. Pennsylvania's landlord-tenant code is very specific about what happens to this stuff and how it is dealt with. The law slants towards the tenant's rights because in a landlord-tenant relationship, the landlord is the one with all the power and resources... and I understand that. But there are rules and I am by gum going to follow the rules (because Triple Damages, fuck me in the ass, we are not doing that fo' sure.), which I posted above so that you can see them.
Clock started January 2, 2026.
On getting my text of the letter picture, the tenant called me (shocker) saying that he was going to try to get his stuff.
Sure, bub. Sure you are.
Once the clock starts, the tenant has 10 days from the date of the postmark to get his stuff "for free". That's the rule, up there in section (d). Tenant can show up and get whatever he wants of his stuff (and pretty much landlord has to be "available" to allow tenant to get his stuff) whenever he wants in those ten days, without paying one red cent of the judgment owed. Landlord is NOT ALLOWED to hold the tenant's stuff hostage for money owed. That is against the rules.
I clarified this with the tenant. "You can come get your stuff for free for the next ten days, no charge. You will have to tell me when you're coming because your key won't work anymore, but you can come get some or all of your stuff for free."
In addition to the ten days of free storage, the tenant also has the right to ask the landlord to hold the items for up to 30 days (this thirty days also starts when the clock starts, on January 2, 2026). If asked, the landlord is NOT ALLOWED to say no, but they can charge "reasonable" storage costs. (The code does not define "reasonable".) This is also covered in section (d).
During that phone conversation, I informed the tenant of his rights to ask for this thirty days of storage from the date of the January 2 letter. Having been so informed, the tenant did ask for the 30 days of storage. I explained what the reasonable storage cost would be and allowed as how it could be pro-rated for only the days used. I reiterated that the tenant only had to get the things that he wanted out of the apartment, that he was not required to take all of it, and that I'd be available by phone or text to facilitate all of this.
And then... crickets. To be fair, I did expect this to happen. I expected crickets and that I'd be stuck fucking waiting thirty more days for dipshit to fuck around and fail at getting his stuff out of my unit. And that is exactly what happened.
Thirty days from January 2 expired on February 2. On February 3, we started to clean out the unit and throw his shit away because the clock has run out and all the shit has become mine, mine, mine to do whatever I want with it. Citing the law: Abandoned personal property remaining on the premises may be disposed of at the discretion of the landlord.
The endless new-in-box hot wheels and matchbox cars -- Trys got them, her husband is gonna try to sell them on ebay. There were two large plastic totes full of 'em. Good luck with the ebay, Matt.
The coins (including those in the safe, lol, sawzall with a metal blade is more powerful than your safe, tenant) plus the 'coin collection' album -- that's mine. I get all the actual money in the cleanouts. This time the coinage came to $180.00, not including the coin collection (I pulled out the 1964-or-earlier quarters and dimes because they're 90% silver) that I am selling for face to Trys' husband for face, about $120.00.
Oh, and I got four ounces of real silver -- two slabs, two rounds -- that I had verified at a local coin/jewelry shop with a sigma machine because I Had Doubts. That's currently worth about $280.00.
And I got a couple of cute succulents in need of some light rehab.
Pigs will get at least three five gallon buckets of food, Trys took the microwave and a set of chili pepper salt and pepper shakers. Goodwill got a lot of collectible salt and pepper shakers, a cookie jar, and some home decor crap. Oh, and a reasonably-sized flatscreen.
The drop box (trash) got fed as well. I've almost got the food cleared out and now it's to killing the meeses (traps and peanut butter), cleaning, fixing, and re-renting. Good times.
This was an eviction. Tenant paid rent through October, then went into residential mental health treatment (he did not tell us this at that time and we only discovered it around Christmas) so the November and December rents went unpaid.
To be clear, we made good-faith efforts to contact tenant. We called his cellphone. No answer. We called his emergency contact. No answer. (We tried multiple times.) We called his caseworker for "transition to non-institutional living" (which number we were not supposed to have but it's a small town and we had it so we called it) to see if they had any idea where he was. They did not know what was going on either and he had "missed check-ins" and "had been dropped from the program".
The upshot of all of this was that nobody knew anything and I couldn't get an answer from anywhere. Police visited twice for "wellness checks" to see if he was dead inside. Not dead inside. Ghosted. Well, hell.
Fwiw, you cannot call the local-ish residental mental health treatment facility and inquire as to whether or not your tenant is in residence there. HIPAA says no you do not get to do that. Privacy n shit.
So, lacking other options, we filed to evict in early November. Folks get a bit longer on an eviction filing if they are in contact with us or if we can get someone on a phone or if we know they are still living there, but ghosting -- we file promptly.
The hearing was attended by just me. Possession, back rent, and costs were granted to me because of course they were.
Tenant called me on December 23 (after the hearing, before the possession) to inform me that he'd been in residential treatment, was now spending the holidays with his family, and that he would have no money at all until February. I told tenant that possession would be on January 2, 2026.
The possession was attended by just me on January 2, 2026. All his stuff was still in the apartment because of course it was.
There's a law about this. Here's the law, which is lengthy. I have bolded the applicable parts to help you find them:
Pennsylvania Statutes Title 68 P.S. Real and Personal Property § 250.505a. Disposition of abandoned personal property
Current as of January 01, 2025 | Updated by Findlaw Staff
(a) Upon the termination of a lease or relinquishment of possession of real property, a tenant shall remove all personal property from the leased or formerly leased premises. Abandoned personal property remaining on the premises may be disposed of at the discretion of the landlord, subject to the provisions of this section.
(b) Personal property remaining on the premises may be deemed abandoned if any of the following apply:
(1) The tenant has vacated the unit following the termination of a written lease.
(2) An eviction order or order for possession in favor of the landlord has been entered and the tenant has vacated the unit and removed substantially all personal property.
(3) An eviction order or order for possession in favor of the landlord has been executed.
(4) The tenant has provided the landlord with written notice of a forwarding address and has vacated the unit and removed substantially all personal property.
(5) The tenant has vacated the unit without communicating an intent to return, the rent is more than fifteen days past due and, subsequent to those events, the landlord has posted notice of the tenant's rights regarding the property.
(c) Where the tenant is deceased and leaves personal property remaining in the demised premises, the provisions of this act shall not apply. The disposition of personal property in the case of a decedent shall be governed by the provisions of 20 Pa.C.S. §§ 711(1) (relating to mandatory exercise of jurisdiction through orphans' court division in general) and 3392 (relating to classification and order of payment) and other relevant provisions of 20 Pa.C.S. (relating to decedents, estates and fiduciaries).
(d) Prior to removing or disposing of abandoned property, the landlord must provide written notice of the tenant's rights regarding the property. The tenant shall have ten days from the postmark date of the notice to retrieve the property or to request that the property be stored for an additional period not exceeding thirty days from the date of the notice. If the tenant so requests, the landlord must retain or store the property for up to thirty days from the date of the notice. Storage will be provided at a place of the landlord's choosing and the tenant shall be responsible for costs. At all times, the landlord shall exercise ordinary care in handling and securing the tenant's property and shall make the property reasonably available for purposes of retrieval.
(e) Notice shall be sent by first class mail to the tenant at the address of the leased premises and to any forwarding address provided by the tenant, including any address provided for emergency purposes. The notice shall be in substantially the following form:
Personal property remaining at (address) is now considered to have been abandoned. Within ten days of the postmark date of this notice, you must retrieve any items you wish to keep or contact your landlord at (telephone number and address) to request that the property be retained or stored. If requested, storage will be provided for up to thirty days from the postmark date of this notice at a place of your landlord's choosing, and you will be responsible for costs of storage.
(f) Under no circumstances may a landlord dispose of or otherwise exercise control over personal property remaining upon inhabited premises without the express permission of the tenant. If the conditions under which personal property may be deemed abandoned no longer exist, the landlord shall have no right to dispose of or otherwise exercise control over the property.
(g) Except with respect to the provisions of subsection (h), in the event of a conflict between the provisions of this section and the terms of a written lease, the terms of the lease shall control.
(h) Notwithstanding any provision of this section to the contrary, if a landlord proceeding under the provisions of subsection (b)(3) has actual knowledge or is notified of a protection from abuse order entered for the protection of the tenant or a member of the tenant's immediate family, the landlord shall refrain from disposing of or otherwise exercising control over the personal property of the tenant for thirty days from the date of the notice. If requested, storage shall be provided for up to thirty days from the date of the request.
(i) A landlord that violates the provisions of this section shall be subject to treble damages, reasonable attorney fees and court costs.
At the possession, I changed the locks and sent a letter to my tenant's last known valid address to start the clock. (You have to have letters hand-cancelled at the post office now if you need to know for sure when the postmark is, just FYI. Like, if you absentee vote or something. Stand there and WAIT while they postmark your mail by hand.) Because I am not a complete asshole, I also photographed and TEXTED the tenant the picture of the letter because I know damn good and well that he would not get the letter because he didn't put in a forwarding address at the post office and I didn't have an emergency contact address. I tried my best, here. Law only says I have to send a letter. It doesn't say I have to text the tenant and shit.
The clock I'm talking about is the "tenant belongings left behind in an apartment" clock. Pennsylvania's landlord-tenant code is very specific about what happens to this stuff and how it is dealt with. The law slants towards the tenant's rights because in a landlord-tenant relationship, the landlord is the one with all the power and resources... and I understand that. But there are rules and I am by gum going to follow the rules (because Triple Damages, fuck me in the ass, we are not doing that fo' sure.), which I posted above so that you can see them.
Clock started January 2, 2026.
On getting my text of the letter picture, the tenant called me (shocker) saying that he was going to try to get his stuff.
Sure, bub. Sure you are.
Once the clock starts, the tenant has 10 days from the date of the postmark to get his stuff "for free". That's the rule, up there in section (d). Tenant can show up and get whatever he wants of his stuff (and pretty much landlord has to be "available" to allow tenant to get his stuff) whenever he wants in those ten days, without paying one red cent of the judgment owed. Landlord is NOT ALLOWED to hold the tenant's stuff hostage for money owed. That is against the rules.
I clarified this with the tenant. "You can come get your stuff for free for the next ten days, no charge. You will have to tell me when you're coming because your key won't work anymore, but you can come get some or all of your stuff for free."
In addition to the ten days of free storage, the tenant also has the right to ask the landlord to hold the items for up to 30 days (this thirty days also starts when the clock starts, on January 2, 2026). If asked, the landlord is NOT ALLOWED to say no, but they can charge "reasonable" storage costs. (The code does not define "reasonable".) This is also covered in section (d).
During that phone conversation, I informed the tenant of his rights to ask for this thirty days of storage from the date of the January 2 letter. Having been so informed, the tenant did ask for the 30 days of storage. I explained what the reasonable storage cost would be and allowed as how it could be pro-rated for only the days used. I reiterated that the tenant only had to get the things that he wanted out of the apartment, that he was not required to take all of it, and that I'd be available by phone or text to facilitate all of this.
And then... crickets. To be fair, I did expect this to happen. I expected crickets and that I'd be stuck fucking waiting thirty more days for dipshit to fuck around and fail at getting his stuff out of my unit. And that is exactly what happened.
Thirty days from January 2 expired on February 2. On February 3, we started to clean out the unit and throw his shit away because the clock has run out and all the shit has become mine, mine, mine to do whatever I want with it. Citing the law: Abandoned personal property remaining on the premises may be disposed of at the discretion of the landlord.
The endless new-in-box hot wheels and matchbox cars -- Trys got them, her husband is gonna try to sell them on ebay. There were two large plastic totes full of 'em. Good luck with the ebay, Matt.
The coins (including those in the safe, lol, sawzall with a metal blade is more powerful than your safe, tenant) plus the 'coin collection' album -- that's mine. I get all the actual money in the cleanouts. This time the coinage came to $180.00, not including the coin collection (I pulled out the 1964-or-earlier quarters and dimes because they're 90% silver) that I am selling for face to Trys' husband for face, about $120.00.
Oh, and I got four ounces of real silver -- two slabs, two rounds -- that I had verified at a local coin/jewelry shop with a sigma machine because I Had Doubts. That's currently worth about $280.00.
And I got a couple of cute succulents in need of some light rehab.
Pigs will get at least three five gallon buckets of food, Trys took the microwave and a set of chili pepper salt and pepper shakers. Goodwill got a lot of collectible salt and pepper shakers, a cookie jar, and some home decor crap. Oh, and a reasonably-sized flatscreen.
The drop box (trash) got fed as well. I've almost got the food cleared out and now it's to killing the meeses (traps and peanut butter), cleaning, fixing, and re-renting. Good times.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-06 06:20 pm (UTC)I have another friend (IRL) who just had an eviction come to an end. The house in question had been completely remodeled 6 or 8 months ago. The tenant left with most of their stuff, but had apparently never cleaned anything, including the cat shit off the walls or the fairly large amount of spilled food off the floors.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-06 07:58 pm (UTC)When my mom had cancer, and got real sick, I flew home to Canada from a customer site - I had been in San Diego all week, and instead of flying back to Santa Cruz for the weekend, I flew directly to Vancouver. I did not reach out to my landlord - who is also my friend - for AGES - I was distracted and totally oblivious to TIME PASSING in Real Life.
I flew home at the end of May - she emailed me in late June to say "hey I know you are Dealing With Shit - but any chance you can send me some rent?" And woah - did I feel bad! Of course I did not have my checkbook with me - I ended up driving down to Bellingham, withdrawing cash from my bank and driving across town to her bank and depositing money into that account for both June and July's rent - along with a heartfelt apology.
I didn't get home till the second week of August - but at least I was able to give her a date to say "I will be home and I will give you rent immediately upon arrival" - because I couldn't spare another day to do that whole "Cross the border and move money around" again.
I cannot imagine just abandoning *everything* - especially if I was without money? Even just...clothing, and bedding and I dunno, anything you might be able to hock or sell to get quick cash? It is super expensive to set up a life again - and it sounds like this person had Real Stuff - collections of things - it's not like they had just barely started collecting life stuff.
I get that they probably don't have any place to store it right now - and probably don't have access to a truck or van to move anything big - but still - just to walk away from everything is a choice I would try very hard not to have to make.
I hope the cleanup goes well and that the next tenant is easier!