Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Recovery of costs of disposing of abandoned property

Your leases should contain provisions relating to storage and use of toxic and hazardous materials.

You don't say whether this was a self-storage or a more conventional rental, e.g. warehouse in an industrial park, retail space or whatever. There are special laws relating to mini-storage in the Business & Professions Code -- see sections 21701 et seq.

Also look at Civil Code sections 2081-2081.6 re unclaimed property (applicable to carriers and warehouses) and the general rights and duties of a bailee (Civil Code 1813-1878, roughly. Then, there is a huge portion of the Code of Civil Procedure devoted to escheatment of abandoned property to the state at roughly CCP sections 1500-1599.

If your problem is more concerned with cleaning up a mess left behind rather than safeguarding, selling, returning or whatever of property with possible value, you may be barking up the wrong tree by looking for a statute. Keeping in mind that one or more of the statutes MAY still govern the former tenant's rights to some degree, you perhaps should be thinking about the common law of breach of contract, negligence and trespass.

I would consider (if the former tenant can be found and could pay a judgment) suing for some combination of causes of action based not on a statutorily-created relationship or set of duties.

You should have covered this problem in your contract. If you did, sue for breach. If you didn't, sue for implied breach. Also, sue for trespass. Consider whether there is an environmental tort as well.