Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

There is pretty specific statutory law (Civil Code section 1951.3) governing what a landlord may do, and how he/she/it may do it, upon belief that a tenant has abandoned the leasehold. What constitutues abandonment is more a matter of fact and reasonable belief, and your facts seem close except for the personal property left behind, which clouds the abandonment issue.

I suggest you do two things: get ahold of one, or better, two, of those self-help paperback law books on how to be a landlord, or tenants' rights (being sure they focus on California), and read what it or they has/have to say about abandonment by a tenant and facts that tend to show abandonment; and

Look up Civil Code 1951.3 and read and print out the text so if you decide there is an abandonment, you'll have the process handy. The code section is too long to quote here.