You are the Landlord.  You went through the court system, and you received a judgment for possession from the court.  You filed the appropriate paperwork with the court.  You filed your warrant for removal along with the Landlord certification.  The Court Officer served an eviction notice on the premise, and you received possession of the property either by the Court Officer or through the Tenant voluntarily giving up possession of the property.  As you begin to walk through your property you notice that the Tenant left their personal property in the house.  You remember the judge stating that anything the Tenant leaves behind is abandoned property and becomes the property of the Landlord.  So, as the Landlord, what can you do with this property? 

The Abandoned Property Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:18-72 et. seq. establishes the steps a Landlord must take with a Tenants abandoned property. 

In Part 1 The Jayson Law Group LLC will look at the requirements for the Landlord to dispose of the abandoned property and the notices the Landlord must give the Tenant regarding abandoned property. 

One caveat to The Abandoned Property Act is that the language of this statute is superseded by any language contained in the lease agreement between the Landlord and the Tenant.

N.J.S.A. 2A:18-72. Disposal of remaining personal property abandoned by tenant

N.J.S.A. 2A:18-72 is the first statute in the Abandoned Property Act and states, in relevant parts, that a Landlord “may dispose of . . . personal property left upon a premises by a tenant.”  There are three requirements that must be present for a Landlord to dispose of the Tenant’s abandoned property.

1)      Notice must be given as dictated by N.J.S.A. 2A:18-73 (which we will discuss in a later post);

2)      The Landlord reasonably believes the Tenant left the property with no attention of asserting any further claim to the property; AND

3)      One of the following two conditions exist

a) A warrant for removal was executed and possession of the premises was restored to the Landlord, OR

b) Tenant gave written notice of the Tenant’s intention to voluntarily relinquish possession of the premises.

This concludes The Jayson Law Group LLC’s examination of the first section of The Abandoned Property Act. Questions? We serve businesses in Springfield, New Jersey, NEwark and beyond.   We will continue our review of The Abandoned Property Act in upcoming posts.  In our next post we will examine the notice requirements of The Abandoned Property Act.