Handling a Renter's Abandoned Personal Property

In the event a renter or tenant leaves the leased property prior to the end of the lease or rental agreement (an abandonment), a landlord or property manager is often left with the task of dealing with personal property left by the renter at the leased premises. Significantly, Utah law provides specific guidelines for dealing with abandoned property.

Based on the Utah Code, where a renter abandons the leased premises and leaves personal property, the landlord is entitled to remove the personal property from the premises, store it for the tenant, and then recover the actual moving and storage costs from the tenant. The landlord should then make reasonable efforts to notify the former tenant of the location of the personal property.

If the tenant fails to retrieve his or her personal property after 30 days, and the tenant has made no reasonable efforts to retrieve the personal property, then the landlord may do one of the following:

1) Sell the tenant's personal property and apply the proceeds to the amounts owed by the tenant to the landlord; or

2) Donate the tenant's personal property to charity if the donation is a commercially reasonable alternative.

If the landlord elects to sell the personal property, then he or she will need to be aware that a tenant may be able to make a demand that the surplus proceeds from the sale be returned for up to three years following the sale.