Temporary guests & their abandoned property

E. Odum

New Member
Jurisdiction
Georgia
Friends asked if they could stay for 2 or 3 days. Ended up staying 6 months. Abruptly left one night and have never returned, have not seen or heard from them. Their cell phone has been disconnected since their departure. Do not know where they went. Before they left they moved a LARGE AMOUNT of personal property items on my driveway and 1 month later it is still there. They paid no rent, utilities, and never received any mail at my residence. How can I legally dispose of their personal property?
 
You've got two choices.

1 - Follow a very convoluted and expensive legal process and I have no clue as to what that would be so you'd have to pay a lawyer to figure it out.

or

2 - Toss everything in the trash and if anybody ever asks say "Huh, what stuff, you took everything with you." Then stop talking and tell them to go away. Don't keep anything, don't sell anything.
 
Link didn't work when I clicked on it but did work in my browser. Wonder why.

Anyway, here's the advice from an attorney who responded to a similar question:

There are some issues in providing a concrete answer to this questions in terms of a "statute of limitations" on how long you have to hold onto someone's property before it is considered abandoned. Georgia law doesn't provide a time frame and the courts seem to treat circumstances on a case by case basis.

Georgia code (OCGA § 51-10-1) provides that "[t]he owner of personalty is entitled to its possession. Any deprivation of such possession is a tort for which an action lies." This basically means that if you are in possession of someone's property, you can't get rid of it or sell it or you are liable to be sued for conversion. To establish a claim for conversion, the property owner must show (1) title to the property or the right of possession, (2) actual possession in the other party (meaning you are in possession of his property), (3) demand for return of the property, and (4) refusal by the other party to return the property."

Nowhere in these elements, however, is a timeframe. I have seen between 30 and 90 days being a sufficient amount of time to elapse before the property is considered abandoned. If a client came to me with this issue, I would tell them to make every effort to contact the other person in good faith, documenting your attempts. If he hasn't replied within 90 days, the property is abandoned and you can dispose of it as you see fit.



There is also GA statute 44-7-55 that says:

A writ of possession authorizes the executing officer to remove a tenant's personal property and place it on some portion of the landlord's property or on other property that the landlord designates and the officer approves. The landlord owes no duty to the tenant regarding it. After the writ is executed, the
property is regarded as abandoned.
 
what do you mean by "post it in your browser"?
For example if using IE as your browser, put link where you would put any website you want to bring up. AdjusterJack posted what the attorney said in link.
 
here it is more detailed.........FRIEND NEEDED A PLACE TO STAY FOR 2-3 DAYS. they receive no mail here. never given any keys. never paid rent, utilities, etc. it has now been 6 months. all of a sudden one day they said they were leaving on Wednesday(2 days away). i own home. they left a huge pile of their stuff on driveway, which i assumed they were coming to pick up in a day or two(since it was initially inside and they moved it outside prior to leaving. FYI-they did not stay in a private room, THEY SLEPT ON THE FLOOR OF TOOL/FREEZER ROOM!!! of which i had to enter at least 2x/day and I did enter!!! After they had been gone almost a month, I had found 2 auto bulbs, which needed to go in the trunk of Oldsmobile in driveway. I opened trunk and it was packed full! Wondering what it was, i found countless items of mine along with their stuff. NONE OF THIS STUFF BELONGING TO ME HAD ANY BUSINESS BEING IN THAT TRUNK AT ALL!!!! Actually the stuff of mine that was in there was behind lock and key!! At that point, I made the decision NOTHING of theirs was leaving here without me going through it. I AM NOT A THIEF LIKE THEM, SO IF IT DID NOT BELONG TO ME, I CERTAINLY WOULD NOT TAKE IT. My stuff I found is still in garage in a box. Along with my items i found, I found a notary stamp(belonging to someone else), 3 gift cards with the paper card attached signed from me and my mother!, my credit card number and name wrote down w/ card verification code, all kinds of paperwork, w/people's personal info on it, RX in someone else's name, etc. Most of stuff that belonged to me, had my name engraved on it or an "E" marked on it w/ sharpie pen. We have since found out there was fraudulent charges on our Home Depot card in the amount of approximately $6100.00. I found an etching of our old HD credit card in their stuff. Where do I go from here?
 
i do not have $$ for atty. The only thing i can call theft is my stuff. Is it okay i went through all of it after i found stolen items in trunk of Oldsmobile?
 
I can't follow what happened with the car. Was it your car? Their car? Someone else's car? I wouldn't worry too much about that stuff as it was not actually stolen. What you need to report are the charges to your card. Then freeze the card they have not yet used, and probably others you have as well.
 
i do not have $$ for atty. The only thing i can call theft is my stuff. Is it okay i went through all of it after i found stolen items in trunk of Oldsmobile?

Start by filing an official police report.

Once that is done, ask the police what other options you might have.
 
it was MY car.they had placed the trunk down but not closed it hard enough where it would latch. All I can figure is when they came back to get their stuff in driveway, they would have access to it. Yes, it was my stuff in trunk, AND IT WAS STOLEN!(REMOVED FROM BEHIND LOCK AND KEY!)
 
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