I had a listing with a small retail center and put a tenant in one of the emptied spaces. The tenant signed a 3 yr lease and moved in. After 3 months into the lease, i got a letter from RE attorney representing tenant ordering agent (that would be me) and the landlord to terminate the lease. This was almost a yr ago and i not sure exactly what the reasons were. However, if i can recall, the letter said something about tenant wants to terminate the lease due to unforeseen economic downturn and the corportation won't be able to fund the tenant to sustain their business. Upon receiving the letter, i started make some phone calls. called the tenant seveal times and didn't return my calls and was able to talk to the attorny but he wasn't much helpful at all. so i went to the retail center see if i can catch them there. sure enough, they had already move their stuff except a few cabinets and a atable and disappeared long before i got there.
Now, about a month ago, the landlord called me and wanted me to do something about their belongings left behind. She found a tenant wants to move into the space and she wants me to do something about the stuff. keep in mind people, my contract with the landlord is already expired at this point and the landlord doesn't want to be responsible for the belongings and only person she could turn to is me because I put them in there. So being a good broker, i decided to call those flakes again a million times. that's right, you guessed it. i called them numerous times and nothing happened.

what should i do with those stuff that was left behind?

thanks!

I wouldn't touch any of it.Usually if the tenant leaves it and it's attatched it becomes property of the landlord. If it's random junk left behind each state has their own property disposal laws.

"landlord doesn't want to be responsible for the belongings" and YOU do?

What they are asking you to do is outside the scope of your liscense and they are trying to shift liability to you to fix their problem. Sounds like to me the landlord needs to contact their attorney to get legal advise about how to best dispose of the property.

Super is right. It is the landlord's responsibility. He needs to contact an attorney or paralegal services specializing in evictions to advise him on posting the necessary notices of abandonment of personal property and the mandated timelines which must be strictly followed.

Expired listing contract or not, you should not be involved. I know I'm supposed to say "real estate law is state specific," but I can almost bet that any Furniture, Fixtures, & Equipment left behind by the prior tenant becomes the property of the landlord and not the broker...and it is the landlord's responsibility to handle it.

I believe your responsibility should be limited to forwarding a copy of the letter to the landlord (if they didn't receive a copy) and let the landlord run with it from there.

Now, since you've already been involved, I would consult your broker, who I presume will tell you the same thing, and then tell the landlord that after consulting with your broker the FF&E are the responsibility of the landlord and they will need to handle.

thanks El!