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Published: May 19, 2011
Author: Robert Procter
The
Wisconsin Builders Association Hot Line is a service provided for the
Wisconsin Builders Association by Axley Brynelson. Legal Hot Line
answers should be considered a general statement of applicable legal
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What can a landlord do if a tenant has apparently removed himself from the rental property but left some personal property behind?
A: If the tenant is absent from the premises and the landlord reasonably believes that entry is necessary to preserve or protect the premises, the landlord may enter without notice. Accordingly, if a tenant has left and the landlord is unable to provide the otherwise required notice to inspect the premises, the landlord may enter the premises to insure that there are no problems with the furnace, etc. See Wis. Stat. 704.05.
If landlord has determined that the tenant removed itself from the premises and left personal property, the landlord may do the following under Wis. Stat. 704.5(5):
"(5) Storage or Disposition of Personality Left by Tenant
(a) Procedure. If a tenant removes from the premises and leaves personal property, the landlord may do all of the following:
1. Store the personalty, on or off the premises, with a lien on the personalty for the actual and reasonable cost of removal and storage or, if stored by the landlord, for the actual and reasonable value of storage. The landlord shall give written notice of the storage to the tenant within 10 days after the charges begin. The landlord shall give the notice either personally or by ordinary mail addressed to the tenant’s last-known address and shall state the daily charges for storage. The landlord may not include the cost of damages to the premises or past or future rent due in the amount demanded for satisfaction of the lien. The landlord may not include rent charged for the premises in calculating the cost of storage. Medicine and medical equipment are not subject to the lien under this subdivision, and the landlord shall promptly return them to the tenant upon request.
2. Give the tenant notice, personally or by ordinary mail addressed to the tenant’s last-known address, of the landlord’s intent to dispose of the personalty by sale or other appropriate means if the property is not repossessed by the tenant. If the tenant fails to repossess the property within 30 days after the date of personal service or the date of the mailing of the notice, the landlord may dispose of the property by private or public sale or any other appropriate means. The landlord may deduct from the proceeds of sale any costs of sale and any storage charges if the landlord has first stored the personalty under subd.1. If the proceeds minus the costs of sale and minus any storage charges are not claimed within 60 days after the date of the sale of the personalty, the landlord is not accountable to the tenant for any of the proceeds of the sale or the value of the property. The landlord shall send the proceeds of the sale minus the costs of the sale and minus any storage charges to the department of administration for deposit in the appropriation under s. 20.505(7)(gm)."
If the tenant does not provide a forwarding address, the notice should be sent to the last known address, which would be the address of the rental property itself. If the tenant removed himself and there is no value to the personal property left behind, then the landlord may dispose of the property by any appropriate means (i.e., landlord may discard it).
View manual from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection for Landlords and Tenants.
For more information about the Wisconsin Builders Association Hot Line, contact Robert Procter at 608.283.6762 or rprocter@axley.com.
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