Legal Question in Family Law in Pennsylvania

my granddaughter will not come and get her belongings I have emailed her 3 times and texted her in the past How long do I have to wait to get rid of her things. She came in Jan to get her clothes Everything has been here since Aug of 2012


Asked on 4/17/13, 7:18 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Why don't you send her a real letter instead of email and text messages? Emails and text messages do not count and she may or may not have received them.

If you don't know her current address, get it. Write her a letter and send it certified, return receipt requested, or via FedEx/UPS with signature confirmation so you know that she actually gets it. Keep a copy for you and make sure its dated.

Give her 10 days in the letter to come and get her stuff. If she does not make suitable arrangements within this period, tell her that her stuff will be disposed of.

Take an inventory of each of her possessions and value each item even if you think its junk. Take a picture of each item too. If you do not hear from her in 14 days, then take her stuff to Good Will or the Salvation Army. They will usually hold her stuff for 30 days. If she contacts you after 14 days but after you have taken her stuff there, you can tell her where it is at. After that time it will be disposed of.

She has 2 years to sue you for conversion of her property so that is why it is important for you to take a detailed inventory and get a valuation and send the written letter and keep a copy of it. You want to protect yourself from any claims by her that you disposed of her stuff without her knowledge and you want to protect against any claims by her that she had a really valuable item there.

If her items are valuable or over $500, then you may need to get more specific appraisals (i.e, a coin collector would appraise a coin collection, an antique appraiser would appraise an antique and so on).

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Answered on 4/19/13, 9:12 pm


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