Rules of thumb to determine what is trash versus valuable in abandoned home - Alabama

[Tyson Begly]

I recently bought a tax certificate in Russell County, AL.  The house is clearly abandoned, as there is no power or water, and the house is completely overgrown.  We've also had a sign on the front door for more than 2 weeks with no response.  However, there is always a chance someone could redeem later or the tax sale could be void.

I wouldn't consider anything in the house "valuable".  There are some trash bags of stuff such as books, an old couch, an old mattress, some clothes and some old family portraits.  Attached are a couple of pictures to create a visual.  I can't imagine any one item is worth more than $100, but it's a 3 bedroom house full of this stuff.  There is too much stuff to put everything in storage.

If I wasn't worried about a later redemption or void sale, I would hire someone to throw away everything in the house. However, since I have that risk, I feel like I should assess if anything should be kept just in case someone comes back and ask for it.  Are there any types of rules of thumb (e.g. keep clearly personal items, or items over $100 value) that you would suggest?  In cases where houses were redeemed later, I would be curious as to what was considered "trash".  

[Denise Evans]

@Tyson Begly, To quote my own book on tax sales:

Rule Two assumes that if it looks like garbage, it is abandoned garbage. Put more eloquently, the Alabama Supreme Court said, “Though ordinarily there exists a presumption that one does not intend to abandon his property, this presumption is not attendant where the article claimed to have been abandoned is generally considered valueless.”[1] Photographic evidence that the contents of a tax sale property were all damaged, heavily soiled, or not worth the cost to haul to the dump, would seem to indicate “valueless” abandoned property. In that case, the investor would be protected if it helped the personal property on its trip to the landfill.

[1] Milford v. Tennessee River Pulp & Paper Co., 355 So.2d 687, 689 (Ala. 1978)