Mom's house is full of her departed friends' items. Can these be disposed of?

Ken, send a text that states if you DO NOT hear from the family of, mom's friend, by a given date, like 1 week, you will take that as the answer they DO NOT want to deal with his stuff and you will be disposing of everything. Make it crystal clear that on day 8 you will be proceeding with the clean out of his unwanted stuff. Maybe reiterate how long you have been trying to reach them.

Check the law where the house is, most states have a 30 day rule, after 30 days it is considered abandoned property and now belongs to the property owner, to do with as they see fit.

Can’t say I’m advising it exactly, but in your shoes the stuff would be thrown out without apology

At this point, I would drag the stuff outside. Then I’d text whoever and say they have 14 days to pickup or it will be hauled away.

JoAnn has a lot of good ideas below about documenting and trying to send a bill to the deceased’s estate. I’d definitely try that.

My two cents is that if you are now being ghosted, you’ll never hear from them again. They know all that’s left is junk and they don’t want it.

Unfortunately I only have a sisters phone number and she is ghosting. They got what they wanted out. I have to go there and take a look, move stuff. get mail, return cancelled cable and internet equipment get an exterminator, forward her mail, move her land line to a cell.......hopefully there is not too much junk

This is what I did.

Nephews*, leach of a GF, left her junk at my Moms saying it would only be a month. Its a long story, but it took me a year to contact her, she had moved out of state. I typed up a letter saying that I thought a year was long enough to pick up her stuff and she had 30 days. If not gone by then it would be trashed. I sent the document to my nephew via email, he downloaded it to his phone and texted it to her. (this way she did not get my addy) She never picked it up so it was trashed. Found out a while later Nephew was paying for her storage unit. Yes, another letter telling her there would be no more payments made. She had 2 weeks to call owner and set up payment. He called me and told me she never called so he had to trash the unit. Asked if Patrick had anything in it, no. If owner had checked her credit he would have never rented to her.

*Nephew has challeges and at the time was very young. Maturity is one of his problems. This woman took advantage of his good nature.

Thank you. I will wait a month then try to document. The stuff is clothes, and junk if no worth. The family removed "valuables" weeks ago and have not responded. The friend had moms credit card which they could not find when they were able to he reached. The card was immediately canceled. I just heard there are now roaches lift behind. Uggg

I am so aggravated for you. The estate of this "friend" should be responsible for cleaning out the friend's stuff. Shame on the family for leaving this to you to deal with. I wouldn't worry too much about the family coming back and blaming you--if they do, you can send them the bill for the junk haulers.

Being of a careful nature myself I would contact all you have contact for and give them a one month notice.
Then, again and being of a careful nature I would stop by my local police station or sheriff office and ask the rules on this as to whether state law or city ordinance requires you to post notice, and where, when, and for how long.

My only fear is that someone will just want to "mess with you", claiming they weren't notified and that there was all this valuable stuff and just in general give you trouble. I think you are wise to try to avoid that trouble. Sure do wish you good luck. Just give a call or stop by local sheriff. The call 1-800-JUNK type haulers to get it gone.

There are companies that will remove everything for you . We did that with My Moms stuff cost $650 . NO REPLY means They don't want to be responsible . What I have done Is Place a ad On CL Under Free and People will come and Pick up stuff, same with Next-door .com

Make sure you have proof *in writing* that you attempted to contact them (or video yourself calling them and leaving a message, include the date). Give them a deadline. Tell them what you will do with the items if you don't hear from them. Then when the deadline passes, do what you told them you would do with that stuff. They obiously don't care and you should try to not overthink it.

Generally speaking, depends on your state, 30 days is all you have to give. If they aren't responding, then take that as they don't want it. Keep the records of your calls. Send ONE more Text message that says, "It has been (however many days) since.......If you don't want these items, I am disposing of them starting next week (or however long it is until the 30 days is up.) and then get rid of it. You don't have to actually start next week, you just giving them the warning that this is their final notice.

Send them a letter with a date on which you will dispose of the possessions. I assume they don’t care because it’s hoarder junk.

Give them like a month to come remove the rest. Or get their permission to dump it.