In my last and only prior eviction the tenant abandoned their property and we got rid of it on our own. Initialy we checked on having the Sheriff’s office remove it and they said it would cost 200-300 dollars and would take a couple of weeks for them to do it. We were able to do it on our own immediately and it only cost us 100.00 plus we were able to rent the property immediately.
My question is- Can we legally remove th tenents possessions ourselves if the property is not abandoned but is a legal eviction?
this is a tricky question and depends on the laws of your state; many times there is a specific procedure for disposal of tenants belongings that appears to be “abandon”.
I am in Michigan. I checked the state law and with the courts before removing the property. Michigan law says that if the property is abandoned you have to hold it for a minimum of 30 days depending on it’s value. The tenant did not show up in court and refused to remove her things from the property.
We asked her to remove them several times and met with her at the property so she could remove her things, she never removed them. At one point she met us at the property and told us she would be right back. She never returned. She also turned off the utilities. They remained off for approximantly 40 days while we went through the eviction process.
After we received the legal eviction, we tried to pay to have the possesions removed but there was a backlog of a couple of weeks (is this normal?). So we asked if we could remove the possesions ourselves and were told yes.
Does this mean we can move that the tenant we are currently evicting after we receive a legal eviction? This tenant has not abandoned the property and the utilities are still on in their name…the situation is different and I have not been able to find clarification on this in the law.
I’m in Calif and the laws a bit different. While everyone bags on Calif for being tenant-friendly, here you can remove the stuff, but you have to store it (but charge them storage fees!). The really niffy thing is you can hold their “stuff” until they pay or after some period of time sell it to cover the fees (the latter is what I had to do after a tenant bailed out).
I would guess in MI after 30 days it is considered abandoned and its yours do with as you please. As for removal immediately after eviction, it sounds like its a pretty casual process and the sheriff does it as a public service/courtesy.
Three-day notice
Court papers served
Court (judge rules in my favor)
72 hours for tenant to vacate
if not vacated appt. for sherrif to oversee tenant removal (and belongings)
If anything left after – I can toss.