When a mortgagee obtains possession of a property (i.e. during foreclosure, after foreclosure deed obtained or by eviction), a frequent question is: what to do with personal property left on the real estate?

Because what to some is trash, to others is treasure, a value judgment must be made. In any event a written inventory should be made. If all of the inventory is judged to be trash, you can dispose of it as trash at the risk that the owner will sue you alleging you wrongfully disposed of his treasure.

If any part of it has significant value (another value judgment), it should be put in storage with a private storage company with you and the mortgagors stated to be the owners (giving the mortgagors last known addresses), This will require that you must pay several months rent, but you have cleaned the real estate for re-sale. By regular and certified mail, you should notify the mortgagor of where the property is stored.

You should stop paying the storage rental ASAP, thus causing the storage place to follow a statutory process to sell the stored property and the mortgagee will be notified of this sale. You should ignore this notice. After the storage sale, you will be liable for the remaining unpaid storage charges.

Although the above process will cost you, it is the only way to avoid being sued by mortgagors who believe that their treasure was wrongfully trashed by you.

The basic value judgment you must make is what is truly trash. A detailed description of everything trashed and /or following the above is your only safe-harbors. Your attorney has no greater ability to make the “truly trash” judgment than you.