What must a landlord do with clothes, items and furniture left behind by a tenant?

Attorney Tom Olsen: If you're a landlord and the tenant has moved out either voluntarily or you evicted them or they abandoned the property and you go back into the property and there are things that the tenant left behind, whether they're furniture or something else, what is the landlord's obligation to do with these items that the tenant has left behind?

Attorney Caleb Maggio: It depends, Tom. You have to ask the question, were they evicted by court order or did the lease simply terminate? If they were actually evicted with the writ of possession by a court order, you are allowed to remove the person's belongings from the premises and put it on the property line. Now, you can actually pay the sheriff when he comes to execute the writ to stand by and hold the piece while you do that.

That's for residential only, Tom. If there was not an eviction, but rather the lease terminated, then you must follow Florida statutes Chapter 715, which requires you to store the personal property, give 15 days notice to the prior tenant, which allows them 15 days to come pick up the property.

Tom: Then we're going to get finally to this texter's question, and that is, is that the tenant has been gone for a while now, he's saying for over a year. For a year now the tenant has been gone from this piece of property, but this property belongs to the landlord, this property address continues to get the old tenant's mail and continues to even get packages for this old tenant. What would you say the landlord's obligation is in that situation?

Caleb: Tom, a tenant is required under Florida statutes to provide a forwarding address when they leave, and that's specifically for security deposit purposes. If they did not do that, then the second place I would go is the post office to see if a forwarding address was left with the post office. If they haven't done that, then if you have a phone number, make a good-faith effort to contact them.

If you've done all those things and you can't find an address, then I'd say you exercise due diligence, and there's not a realistic possibility of this tenant coming back to you and suing you for the items that they didn't get or that maybe you have tossed. There would be no 715 storage requirement for things acquired after the tenancy. That only applies for things left on the premises once you evicted them or the tenancy was terminated.

Tom: While we're on that point, I would say to any tenants out there that when you do leave whatever property that you've been renting, it is really, really very important that you give the landlord your forwarding address. Even after the tenancy is over, there are certain situations where the landlord needs to contact or give notice to the tenant, and the landlord needs a new forwarding address or new address for that tenant.

Caleb: That's right, Tom. Otherwise, you're going to lose out on some of your property just like these tenants.