Dealing with Tenant Abandoned items in Garages

[Gordon Olson]

I live in Minneapolis and am looking to house hack for my 1st property ever! My concern is, if I buy a duplex 1)am I required to allow usage of a garage on one side and 2) in the case a tenant leaves without removing their belongings from the garage do I have to hang onto it?

If I specify in the lease that any leftover items will be discarded of the day after moving am I allowed to do that in MN? I want to avoid having to put the tenant's stuff in storage and paying storage fees, etc. I'm also concerned that even if that is the case I would continually wind up getting stuck with paying to dispose of tenant's stuff.

Can I charge a monthly rental fee for the garage as well even if it's already attached to the property? I mostly want to buy a duplex in a way where if tenants leave I won't get stuck paying to store or dispose of their stuff. Thanks.

[Tammy Ziegler]

Hi Gordon! I am a fairly new landlord in Minneapolis and have had the benefit of some great advice from folks who are active on here. I'm happy to help pass along what I have learned in the last few months. 

First off, get a copy of this: 

https://homelinemn.org/publications/landlordsguidetomnlaw/

It will answer so many of your questions, both from understanding the letter of the law, but also for practical advice on what commonly happens in real life. Even better, it is MN specific! Thanks so much to Tim Swierczek at iLoan who helped me get a mortgage on my triplex and gave me a copy of this. I keep it on my desk and refer to it often. There is a chapter on abandoned property.

On your specific questions, 1. no, you certainly do not have to include garage access in your lease, or even off-street parking at all. My building is in an area with ample on-street parking and none of the tenants care about the garage. You can offer it to a tenant for extra, rent the garage to someone else (say, someone who needs to park a sports car for the winter), or just keep it for yourself. If it is a multi-space garage with no separation between the bays, consider that it will be difficult to rent just half to someone for their exclusive use. 2. yes, you will have to hang on to any abandoned property (whether in the garage or elsewhere). This is a state law and no, you can't legally immediately discard any abandoned property. You are legally required to hang onto it for 28 days and you can't legally hold the belongings "hostage" til they pay storage fees. Since you have to return security deposits within 21 days of the tenant vacating, you can certainly get stuck with storage or disposal fees that you can't deduct from the deposit and aren't worth going to court over. It is nice to think you could somehow avoid ever having to deal with abandoned property, but that just isn't realistic. This is a cost of doing business and frankly, it would be common to have to deal with some of this even when just buying a single family home.

Keep in mind if you buy a property with existing tenants on a lease you will have to honor that lease. So, you may want to ask the property is cleared of all tenants when you purchase it (making that the seller's problem to get them and all their belongings out before you take possession). In this competitive market, good luck with that. It would be great if some abandoned property was your biggest concern!