Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Washington
A friend of mine moved in my house with all of his belongings Sept. 28, 2008 and moved out Jan 15, 2009 and left everything of his here in an 8X10 shed & 1/2 of my barn are full of junk. He took 1 load of stuff out in May and hasn't been back. He is getting unemployment so I know he can afford a storage unit now. I have told him if he plans on coming back to get anything it had better be everything. I drew up an agreement and tried to give it to him and he refused to take it. I am on SSI disibility & can't afford to put his stuff in storage. So what can I do? He has not paid me anything for storage and paid very little for rent while staying.
I would like to sell whatever I can and donate some, the rest of his stuff, most of it is junk I would have to pay to take to the dump. His clothes & personal family pictures I will store for him. Thank you Sincerely Jason
1 Answer from Attorneys
Jason,
If you and your "friend" have no rental agreement and you never agreed to store his stuff indefinitely or until he was ready to remove it, then if I were you, I'd do this: Write him a letter and mail it by certified mail with a return receipt. E-mail him a copy as well, if he has e-mail. In the letter, recite the facts you have given above, and tell him that he has 30 days to come get all his belongings before you consider them abandoned and will use, sell, or donate them at your leisure. Tell him he needs to arrange with you to pick it up, and that you will allow him access to your property once (maybe twice if you feel like being nice) to retrieve all his stuff.
If he fails to respond or do anything, then have at it. If he responds, then that's great too because it means he's taking responsibility and hopefully he'll get all his stuff and save you the trouble of disposal.
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