Tenant Abandoned Property

[kp0421]

Our tenants have disappeared. They have been gone for almost 7 days, but are paid up through April. They gave a friend, who has visited the property in the past, their keys to the apartment. He told us that they are both in violation of their parole (we stupidly did not do background checks on them before renting to them) and have left town to avoid going to prison. He said they asked him to move all of their property into a storage unit.

We varified that at least one of the two tenants has been determined to be in violation of their parole by the state.

Do we, as landlords, need to be concerned that their friend is moving their property out? If they suddenly appear a month from now and say they did not want their friend to take their property, are we then liable? (We are not giving him access to the property, he has keys given to him by our tenants.)

Their friend is worried that he may be braking the law because he is storing property for two people who are in violation of their parole. Should he be worried?

 

[seniorjudge]

I'd be careful in giving someone else's property away.

 

[kp0421]

Just an update on our situation:

We changed the locks and posted a notice saying that the tenants would need to remove the property or provide us with something in writing allowing someone else to remove their property. We called the tenants and left message saying that someone has a key to their place and wants to take all of their stuff. Therefore, we changed the locks to protect their possessions until we hear differently from them.

Their friend stopped by on Sunday and said he would get a letter from them. Ironically, the tenants also called this past weekend saying that they would send a letter to their friend that says he can remove the property.

Just yesterday, the friend calls and says he has the letter. I told him he can come by any time and we will let him in to get the property.

Last night, we found that someone - likely our tenants - busted through the sliding glass door and removed some electronics and family photos. On a side note - it is completely legal in the state of Kansas for a tenant to break into the apartment that they rent. It then becomes a civil matter whether or not they pay for repairs for the damage done.

We called the police who said that since the tenant is not present to report the burglary, it would go down as vandilism - since they busted out the sliding glass door.

Shortly after the first officer showed up, another stopped by. He said that he has a warrant for the arrest of one of our tenants. We gave him all the information we had, then boarded up the door.

Lessons learned - Trust no one and do thorough back ground checks

 

[CarpeVeritas]

odd advice

I'd be careful in giving someone else's property away.

If someone who is
1) a known acquantence and
2) has the key to the apartment and
3) removes personal belongings which are not in your possession and
4) you do not assist them,
then in what state is that considered giving someone else's property away.

I think the outcome would have been better to have let the friend remove the stuff the first time and the break-in would not have happened.