security deposit refund

[Linda Thomas]

Good afternoon,

I have a rental property Pennsylvania, the tenant contacted me after moving out to pick up belongings left behind on day 2 after leaving the property. In PA if they contact you within the first 10 days I am now required to hold the belongings for up to 30 days. Additionally, in PA I am required to return the security deposit or provide list of deductions by 30 days. So my question is the following: 

If they have 30 days to pick up belongings (which are a ton of items for example: 6 beds, dressers, fridge, tv's microwave, 10 bags full of clothing, toys, bikes etc) and let's say they wait till day 30 because we are already on day 25 to pick up or not that puts me in a pinch with getting them the refund or list of deductions because I have to wait a full 30 days so that means I would be mailing it on day 31? so would I be penalized and would be risking getting taken to court?

anyone ever had this type of situation happen to them? best way to handle it? any advice? 

please and thanks in advance! 

[Zachary Moon]

In PA if a tenant requires the landlord to store their belongings for up to thirty days they are responsible for the landlord's costs.

Are the belongings still in the rental? If you wanted to get them out of the rental to get it ready for your next tenant you could pay someone to move them to some self-storage place pay for a month and leave it to the tenant to have to come get it. Any costs you have in doing would be tenant responsibility so you could take that out of the security deposit. After thirty days the property is considered abandoned and you could do whatever you want with it whether that be you dispose of it, give it away or sell it. If you were to sell it, I'd escrow the money for 30 days to protect yourself from the claim of misuse.

I'm not a lawyer but this is my understanding after reading Pennsylvania Tenant-Landlord law. Your tenant just can't use you as free storage for 30 days.