Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: property left by friend

I believe the law allows you to sell or dispose of property left under these circumstances - but NOT if the friend was a tenant - after reasonable notice. Fifteen days should be a reasonable time if he's not far away, say within the same county, but the notice should be unequivocal, such as "....unless you pick up these items before January 27, 2008, I will dispose of them."

There is a further requirement, I think, that the disposition must be on "commercially reasonable" terms. This means if there is something worth $300 which you could take to a pawn shop and get $150 for it, you should do so rather than throw it in the trash. However, you are not required to spend your entire weekend having a garage sale; that wouldn't be commercially reasonable for $300 worth of stuff. The net proceeds after your selling costs would still belong to your "friend."

If you were a landlord, innkeeper, warehouseman, commission sales shop, common carrier, or repairman, the rules would be different, since goods left under these relationships are treated differently under the law of bailments. The idea is that if you got possession of the stuff in a deal where you expected to make a profit, you owe additional duties to the owner of the stuff. Where you are a so-called "gratuitous bailee" as here your duties to the bailor and his property are rather slight, but not nonexistent.