What Can I Do About Property Left in My House

**oharatamra** · 08-05-2012, 10:32 AM

My question involves civil rights in the State of: Arizona Someone left their property at my house for 5 months now. I dont have room for it and my landlord is getting really mad because thier stuff is everywhere. I fear losing my own house because of thier things. They also have left pets, furniture and just a ton of stuff. Do i have rights to thier belongings? I have contacted them many many times and nothing they never come get it, its very frustrating! Please help me in finding out what I can do. Thanks!

jk · 08-05-2012, 10:51 AM

what does this have to do with civil rights?

and what business is it of your landlord what stuff is there?

so, was this other person a tenant or a guest? If a tenant, were they your tenant or a co-tenant on a common lease with you? or did they never live there and you simply allowed them to store some stuff at your house?

Do you have an address for them? How do you contact them?

**oharatamra** · 08-05-2012, 12:20 PM

yes they did live here for a week and then left to phoenix, and then california. And I have contacted them via phone and facebook and let them know to come get there things, and nothing. no they are not on my lease, they are relatives of my fiance and they have completly taken advantage of him and me. I did call the local police department and they said as long as i have notified them then I can basically get rid of it myself. Is that right?

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And I dont know anything about law. So I put it under civil rights I dont know.

jk · 08-05-2012, 01:43 PM

Quoting oharatamra

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And I dont know anything about law. So I put it under civil rights I dont know.

fair enough.

yes they did live here for a week and then left to phoenix, and then california. And I have contacted them via phone and facebook and let them know to come get there things, and nothing. no they are not on my lease, they are relatives of my fiance and they have completly taken advantage of him and me. I did call the local police department and they said as long as i have notified them then I can basically get rid of it myself. Is that right?

so they were a temporary guest.

When they left, was there any discussion as to the "stuff"?

do you have an address for them?

Not that it is truly relevant to your situation, you still have not explained what difference it makes to the landlord. When you rent a house, you have almost all the rights of an owner. Unless the property is illegal or causes the LL a problem with the municipality or HOA, he really doesn't have any right to say anything about what you have in your house.

**cdwjava** · 08-05-2012, 01:53 PM

Assuming that no agreement is in place where you agree to allow him to store this stuff or he is still paying rent, perhaps you might consider providing notice by certified mail that you will dispose of the property in 30 days (or longer to allow for adequate delivery time). If the owner does not retrieve his property by then you will sell or donate all of his belongings, and turn his pets into Animal Control.

I am not familiar with the laws in this area for AZ, but if you provide adequate notice and are not otherwise legally required to care fort the items, you can dispose of the property.

What some landlords have done up here is to store such property in a small storage unit, pre-pay it for 60 or 90 days, and then notify the errant former tenant by certified mail where the property is. If the guy fails to retrieve the items, the storage unit goes into arrears and the owner sells the unit and everything inside. Perhaps you can try the same thing.

**oharatamra** · 08-05-2012, 06:19 PM

Well i will enform my landlord of what you have said. I just really want it out of my house. And there was no decision, they just said we will get it in a month and its now been 5 months. I have no address for them but i just heard they are out of state. And I have notified them several times, they say "we will be there when we can" and still nothing. And I have told them hundreds of times in writing via facebook and text messages to come get there stuff.

jk · 08-05-2012, 06:37 PM

oharatamra;640134]Well i will enform my landlord of what you have said.

before you do that, can you explain how the LL knows it is not your stuff why he is objecting to the stuff being in your house?

And there was no decision, they just said we will get it in a month and its now been 5 months.

well, if somebody was leaving my house and there was a lot of their property still in the house, I would say something like;

hey, you forgot to take all this crap. Do you want me to throw it away for you?

At some point you had to have agreed to allow the stuff to remain at your house. The only other possibility is they left without you knowing they left and you were confronted with piles of stuff they left.