Real Estate & Property Law

DISPOSING OF ABANDONED PROPERTY

Here is a recent question that is a little different:

"We have sent emails, posted notices with photos for over a month about bikes in our garage. We are down to 5 unclaimed bikes. Is there any law preventing us from giving away these bikes to whomever we wish?"

There is not a law to address this specific situation in an HOA that I know about. Yes, there are some laws related to what to do with abandoned property, and it depends on how someone came about having it on premises. I do not know of any appellate cases in California on the subject and its not likely a case about bikes in a garage will get there. However, I can see how there could be plenty of scenarios where people might leave things behind without saying word one about what to do with the property.

I am going to assume that the HOA, if it disposes of personal property belonging to another, would be treated the same as a landlord. In that case, one would go to the contract or rental agreement, or statutes on landlord and tenant law to find out what one can do with property that appears to be abandoned. You could do that research yourself on the California state website www.ca.gov by navigating to the California Codes, clicking on "Civil Code" and then using the words "abandoned property" for the search. If too many statutes come up add the word "landlord".

I am not going to do the search for you, or give legal advice, but that is a place to start.

Why is it important to speculate about what role the HOA would be scrutinized under? Because the rules for dealing with abandoned property in a rented storage unit and apartment or garage are probably quite different than for landlords. And you have to know where to look. There are sure to be notice requirements in either case prior to disposition of the property. The requirements are probably laced with the cavaet that the law applies "unless there is an agreement to the contrary".

And the likelihood that the owner of the property will return to make a claim for the property disposed of is a key factor as well. If the owner of the property still lives in the HOA, or might be back, it raises the risk of something happening - like a legal claim - if the property is removed.

One thing a board can do is store the property for a reasonable period of time, maybe even survey the neighbors (to add to the documentation that the Board was diligent in trying to find the owners), and check the governing documents to see what "due process" notice is required, before curing a violation in the common area.

Prospectively, if residents are allowed to store items in the carports or garages, or a community garage, or anywhere on site, a board could adopt a rule on disposing of abandoned property, which would of course have to be circulated to owners before final board adoption under Civil Code Section 1357.100 statutes before implementation.

For this association, with the bike issue, I would ask more questions and ask to review the governing documents before ruling definitively on the question.

(And no, I am inviting unsolicited work to do, just explaining what would be required to answer a question like this.)

Full post as published by California Condo & HOA Law on November 01, 2008 (boomark / email).