Foreclosure/Abandoned Personal Property

[Dinesh T.]

I was the winning bidder in a foreclosure sale on a property in Connecticut and will close next week. I have learned from the neighbors that nobody is living in the property for the past 2 years. After closing, I plan on immediately changing the locks. 

I would like to hear your stories on surprises when you open such properties. What if you find personal belongings? Notice of abandonment? Potential tenant lockout? What precautions should I take before/after changing locks?

-Dinesh.

[Mindy Jensen]

@Dinesh T. , it is my experience that a foreclosure will have been winterized - especially in CT and especially if it is a condo, so that would be a smaller worry.

As for anything left behind, garbage, such as used tissues and candy bar wrappers can be tossed with no worries. Ditto perishable items such as food - and go ahead a plan on that refrigerator being absolutely disgusting. Open it quickly to double check, but if you see anything inside, close it immediately and make plans to replace. 

Anything that is worth more than $1, I'd document. Do you have any storage space you can put things? I'm guessing there won't be much in the property - my experience with foreclosures is that they have been cleaned out - but I've never purchased in CT.

Check out this document, almost the very first paragraph says, "Duties of finder: “Any person who finds and takes possession of any article of the value of one dollar or more shall report the finding of such article to the police department of the municipality in which he finds such article within forty-eight hours from the time of such finding. The finder of such article shall, at the time of reporting, furnish to the police department the date, time and place of finding, his name and address and a description of the article found, and, within a period of one week from such finding, shall deliver such article to the police department.” Conn. Gen. Stat. § 50-10 (2015)."