Abandoned personal items

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southejc

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I recently purchased a condo with the intent to refurbish and hold as rental property. My understandig at closing was that the unit was vacant and that the previous renter had moved out. In fact, myself and the seller agreed in writing that the closing would not happen until after that tennents lease was expired and they had vacated the property. The previous owner had rented the property through a property managent company. At closing it was my understanding that the unit was vacant. I was given no informaion concerning the previous renter or anything in that regard. My understanding was that the unit was vacant and by virture of the closing mine with no questions asked. I did not recieve a key at closing so I checked with the previous property mgmt company to collect the keys and inform them that they would no longer be in charge of the property. They could not locate the keys as the previous tennant had not turned them in. He also still owed them money. The following day I drilled the lock and found that some personal items from the previous renter were still in the condo. Several days later I informally contracted some labor to empty the unit and begin removing carpets, bubble ceiling, fixtures etc in preperation for renovation. Several days after this clean-up concludes I was confronted at the unit by the previous renter. He claimed he was looking for his stuff and I informed him it was discarded. I had instucted the labor to throw everything away. Long story shot we are now 3 months later and I have recieve a letter threating to sue me for over $25,000 to replace the items that were trashed. I know for a fact that there was no more than maybe $250 worth of "stuff" that was left in the unit. My view is that I had no contract with the previous renter nor the previous management company and I also recieved no information regarding a tenant still storing stuff in my recently puchased unit. My thought at the time and now is that the personal items in question had been abandoned by the previous owner. Obviously the $25,000 is large enough to go to Superiour Court if I am sued... How do you advise? Was I in my legal limit to discard the abandoned items?
 
The previous tenant is under the mistaken belief that they've won the "lawsuit lottery".

Keep the letter but don't respond and don't worry about this unless you get official notification from the court that a lawsuit has been filed against you.

If this does go to court, you bring your written documentation between you and the seller that the closing did not occur until the former tenants vacancy had ended and they had vacated the property.

If this tenant is dumb enough to sue, they'd have to show proof that they left $25,000 worth of stuff in a unit whose lease had already run out and that they had vacated.

Gail
 
I dont see he has much of a case as he had no contract with you at all. He'll also need to prve the items left there and their value.
 
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