How can I get my sister’s personal belongings back from the caretaker's house?

Her son owns her things, not you, but three years is usually the statute of limitations for suing someone, which is what I'd have recommended. If you want to give it a shot, you can sue her in small claims court, but it would have to be her son, not you, as you have no claims whatsoever on her things even if her son backs you up.

I'd advise letting it go and moving on. The time has passed to have any real chance of getting anything back.

I hope you have a paper trail because after 3 years I agree its abandoned. You should have seen a lawyer as soon as you were told the items would not be turned over to you. If your sister wanted you to have her things, then she should have put it in writing. The hospice Nurse could have written everything down and witnessed it. A notary could have been found to come to the house and notarize it. Paperwork could have been sent to you. Then you would have something to take to a lawyer.

My nephews friend was evicted from her apartment with enough warning to move out before the police were brought in. Mom allowed her to bring some of her stuff and store it in the an out building on Moms property. She told Mom she would return for them in a month. A month went to 10 months and no pick up. I wrote a letter informing her that I was giving her till a certain date to pick up her stuff which would make a year. I told her in the letter that if her belongings were not picked up by that time, it would be considered abandoned and would be trashed. And it was, because she made no attempt to get it. I did keep out personal items, like her children's pictures. I again wrote a letter telling her that I was willing to mail these things if she gave me an address to send them to. (These letters were texted to my nephew and he sent them onto her. Yes, we know she received them because her replies to my nephew were not very nice) She chose not to send an address. Mom ended up in care and the house cleaned out for sale. Those personal items had to be trashed.

I think you have waited too long. There is a statute of limitations, usually 2 yrs, to bring a lawsuit. I think you are beyond that.

Im very sorry for your loss.

You can ask, but the obvious answer is that the stuff has been abandoned for three years and anything that wasn't unwanted and tossed now belongs to the person it was left with.

If you can keep things nonconfrontational, you may be able to get back photographs and paperwork like birth and marriage certificates or passport. The kinds of things that are compact and that people may feel weird putting in the trash.

If they won't give it to you, maybe you could arrange to get them a few prepaid boxes from the post office and they can send that kind of thing to the son if you think he'll share.

Dont pick fights over garage sale type stuff.

Reyeskemper, so sorry about the passing of your sister. Unfortunately I had difficulty reading your post as there is no punctuation which can cause a "sentence" to read one way or another.

Since the caregiver was a family friend, was there any arrangements made for her being paid? Or was she not paid at all?

Sounds like since your sister didn't have a Power of Attorney, she also didn't have a Will. If there was no Will, was there a Probate? A probate judge would have decided who got what, and since your sister had a son, he would have inherited most of the things and those items you wanted, he could give to you.

Consult a lawyer to write a letter to the caregiver requesting the items be returned