Abandoned property

[cinnamonbeach]

My husband's ex-wife left some personal belongings in his house the last time she moved out, which was 17 months ago in May 2009. She had lived with him on and off and he asked her to move out several times since their divorce in 2001. There was never a rental contract between them.

Without going through the drama of the past 17 months, I can say that the relationship between them has become contentious, forcing him to block her phone calls and email messages when simply ignoring her attempts to contact him failed. (None of these old attempts to contact him had anything to do with returning her property.)

Soon after she moved out, we made every attempt to give back everything we could find that belonged to her, but she makes a request for the return of some random item every few months, ostensibly to force him to see her again. To avoid seeing her, he made arrangements though a mutual friend to deliver her last request.

My question is this: do we have to continue to comply with her requests or can we simply claim ownership of the items still left in the house as abandoned property, especially since she hasn't requested the items in the last 17 months? We both would really like to never hear from her again.

 

[army judge]

The easiest way to eliminate this creature from your lives is to do the following:

Take pictures or a video of all of her items, after you've collected and organized them into one location.

Inventory everything.

Pack everything.

Make copies of the pictures, video, and inventory.

Ship the items to her last known address (or have a trusted third party deliver them). Enclose your proof; the pictures or video, and the inventory.

Also address a letter to her informing her that these are all of her remaining items that she left at his home. Ask her to stop contacting you and wish her well. End the letter with a stern admonition, that if she continues to harass you, you'll have no choice but to file for a restraining order.

You do not want to open the malodorous can of deceased, decaying worms by keeping her belongings. You do that, she could sue you.

 

[cinnamonbeach]

Thank you!

The easiest way to eliminate this creature from your lives is to do the following:

Take pictures or a video of all of her items, after you've collected and organized them into one location.

Inventory everything.

Pack everything.

Make copies of the pictures, video, and inventory.

Ship the items to her last known address (or have a trusted third party deliver them). Enclose your proof; the pictures or video, and the inventory.

Also address a letter to her informing her that these are all of her remaining items that she left at his home. Ask her to stop contacting you and wish her well. End the letter with a stern admonition, that if she continues to harass you, you'll have no choice but to file for a restraining order.

You do not want to open the malodorous can of deceased, decaying worms by keeping her belongings. You do that, she could sue you.

Thanks, army judge! This seems the easiest way to get out of this ugly situation.