Does anyone who owns rental property know the ramifications of a tenant being in jail?

I would think if the rent is being paid it’s not abandoned. It probably will take a few months to make a “paper trail” of the rent not being paid (as I assume it’s not).

You need a lawyer who is knowledgeable about real estate law in your state. I would think (but do not know) you cannot just assume it’s abandoned and clean it out and rent it out to someone else. You may be subjecting yourself to a lawsuit.

Is only this month’s rent due, or previous months as well?

I know the rules vary so much by state. I think there are legal definitions of abandonment, so I don’t know how much weight your lease will have there. Here in NY you would be required to store the personal effects, even if “abandoned”.

You can contact a lawyer, or you can go to the courthouse and try to the the legal info you need directly.

Good luck. It’s a lot harder to be a landlord than I could have imagined.

Yep, it’s been abandoned. So you can clean it out. But I would store the left belongings for a period of time, most likely at least six months and maybe a year. Toss the food, but store the rest. The storage cost is recoverable if they come for their stuff.

And you can write the tenant at the county jail and ask him to have a relative come get the stuff. That way it’s all passed out of your hands.

(You may want to ask the police if the tenant that disappeared is wanted or been reported missing.)

This varies so much from state to state that you really need the advice of an attorney in your jurisdiction to tell you how to get possession of your property back.

But, nothing would stop you from modifying the lease with the tenant who’s in jail. Write him a letter and asking him if it’s OK for you to toss the food, store his stuff, clean the place and lease the premises to somewhere else.

What state are you in?

@jca the rent has not been paid for this month. I am willing to store whatever crap is still in there.
@Cupcake I am in Texas. It is only this months rent thus far. Other variable is that the lease is up July 27th so the worst that can happen is that it sits vacant for two months. As for the personal belongings, Texas law states that the owner of said property has up to 3 years to make claim on in. They have to pay storage, moving, etc., fees but it is still a long time.
@zenvelo, @redheaded1 good idea on the contacting the tenant. I know his nearest relative is in Oklahoma but surely he has friends he could contact.

Varies too much by state. Although, most of the warmer states have pretty lax rules. It’s usually easier to evict or consider a place abondoned in those states, but that is a generalization and you would have to check the laws. If you rented it with the help of a realtor, the realtor should help you get the questions answered, or of course a lawyer could. The details of the lease agreement is only valid if it complies with the law. Law trumps the written contract. If the contract is a standard contract provided by your realtor, most likely it does comply with the laws.

If it is legally abondoned, they haven’t paid their rent, and you are willing to store the goods, and you have made an attempt to get in touch with them, certified letter is best, then I think you should be able to clear out the apartment and rent it.

What state are you in?
In CA it would still be considered abandoned but if I were the least bit worried I would get an eviction based on the non payment. Here if there is less than $300 (yard sale value) in property left you can just trash the stuff after a 10 day notice of abandonment is posted and mailed to the last known address.

@Judi I can get an eviction. I have enough for that but by the time I do it their lease will be up so why bother. Do you know if being in jail makes a difference on the abandonment? I mean he did not actually “abandon” it. He was hauled off. (Theft and storing stolen property in the apartment, just part of the eviction justification).

Do you have anything in lease about use of residence for illegal activities ?

That would trump abandonment, by the use of apartment for storage of the stolen property.

I have had more abandonment a than I want to admit because a person is in jail. My experience (although I never had it tested in court) is that if the person does not intend to abandon the property they will contact me or someone else who will contact me. I don’t think a judge would be inclined to side with a person who not only doesn’t pay the rent but also gets thrown in jail. I’m not an attorney but that’s the logic I have relied on for 20+ years.
My experience has been that cockroaches scatter on the sunlight. Chances are slim that he will try to come back to you, especially if you went so far as having the notice sent to the jail.
Just to be safe, take pictures and document all the useless trash you have to haul out of there in order to re rent it. If something seems to have significant value store it and if he comes back charge him storage fees.
We held on to a brand new set of tires for over 10 years once.
Good luck!

@rojo: Please post an update as to what you find out and how things turn out.

JCA
The Update Lady

I can’t believe how lenient the landlord laws are outside of NY.

Follow-up.

I was able to finally contact the roommate. He had been living with friends for the past month or two. Evidently he got tired of coming home and finding strangers in his house, not to mention having his things stolen. I got him to sign a Notice of Surrender stating that he had abandoned the unit and was surrendering it back to me.

I also managed to get hold of the jailed tenants mother in another state. She had been in contact with him (he wanted her to bail him out, she wouldn’t). She was supposed to speak with him over the weekend and tell him to sign the Notice of Surrender I am sending that also states that he has abandoned the unit and surrenders the property back over to me.

Hopefully these Notices of Surrender will satisfy the legal end of things, save me the time and expense of eviction and allow me to get the unit back on the market before the next school term.

Written into the Notices is the right to the full deposit and any property still inside the unit for purposes of resale to help offset the outstanding charges. Not that it will be much, most of it appears to be from the craigslist “free to a good home” category (Anyone want a big boxy 32” tv that works; kinda?, How about a mattress and boxspring, with sheets and a pillow that no telling how many others have used?). But at least I can get the unit back up to rentable condition and get it back on the market before next semester. I did agree to box up whatever minor personal possessions (wallet, ss card, jeans, cell phone, etc) that I find and send it to his mother. She is paying the mailing costs and offered to reimburse me for my time, which I declined.

Costs to me: This months rent and late fees, next months rent (their lease was up in July), cleanup and haul off, insect extermination,

Savings to me: Court costs, filing fees, legal fees, and the possible loss of several thousand dollars income from a rentable property from several months of a protracted fight over the legal status of the unit.

@rojo: Maybe if you can get the unit cleaned up and ready for a new tenant, you can get it rented out for part of July.

Thank you for remembering to update and for the update!

JCA
The Update Lady