QUESTION
When can I throw away a customer's property?
Asked on Jul 20th, 2013 on Business Law - New Jersey
More details to this question:
I own a custom framing store in NJ. People often bring works of art they either created or bought and I frame them. People are required to leave a 50% deposit. We call them when their order is ready to picked up but there are some orders that have been here for over three years with numbers that are either disconnected or never picked up. The orders that are never picked up that up a lot of space and I would like to know if I'm legally allowed to throw them out after a certain period. The invoice I originally give the customer when they drop off their item states we are not responsible for orders not picked up in 6 months.
1 ANSWER
I believe the law requires you to be reasonable. That said, for the future, I would and a notice to my claim tags that indicated that unclaimed property would be disposed of after a certain period of time (six months is probably reasonable). Certainly, it would seem to me that a three-year lapse of time, with invalid phone numbers to try to contact the owners, would be a reasonable period of time for you to be able to begin disposing of unclaimed property. To be doubly sure, call your insurance company to see what they think, just in case someone makes a claim, and you need to file with your insurance company for indemnification.
Answered on Jul 23rd, 2013 at 12:30 PM