Tenant goes to prison

[Donald Swan]

I have a tenant that went to court for his 5 or 6th OWI.  He will be in prison for 18 months.

I'm trying to find out if he has any family in the area.  Other than that, I don't know what I can or can't do.

I do know that I can't leave it unoccupied for 18 months.

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Donald Swan:

Your laws address this: https://www.nolo.com/legal-enc...

This has happened to me several times. The last one was a husband/wife that killed their toddler. They were jailed locally, so I literally set up a visitation at the jail and handed them a letter that essentially said I know they aren't coming back and I need permission to let someone into the unit to empty it. They gave me names and phone numbers, I made some calls, and those family members came to take the laptop, a couple flatscreens, and a couple cars. Everything else was left behind, and it was a lot! 

I put everything in storage and sent notice to the jail. I told them everything was in storage and they could authorize someone to pay and pick up but they would have to pay unpaid rent, utilities, cleaning, repairs, moving, and storage costs. They couldn't pay and family didn't step up. 60 days later, I sent a lien and auction notice. I auctioned the items two weeks later and made enough to pay about 3/4 of what they owed, which is a win in my book.