Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Previous owner of home left furniture in house after closing. 6 days after after we got keys, they are asking for furniture back. Are we now the legal owners? California.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Probably, but would depend on the terms of your contract too be sure.
I disagree with the previous answer. A sale of real property also conveys "incidents" to the real property, such as fixtures, appurtenances and easements. See Drake v. Martin (1994) 30 Cal.App.4th 984. However, loose personal property within a building on the real property would not fall into any of those categories, and I cannot find any authority holding that furniture which is not fixtures (by virtue of being installed into the real property, etc.) is conveyed by the deed or by the failure to remove it prior to the close of escrow. On the contrary, there are some cases suggesting that a refusal to allow the sellers to come and get their left-behind furniture may be a conversion of the furniture, making you potentially liable for its value. All of this could, to be sure, be altered by contract, but otherwise I'd be very cautious about asserting ownership.