Q: I bought a house a year and half ago. The previous owners left farm equipment and yet to remove from my property.
I have offered to give them money for the trashed equipment but there is no answer. When can I take ownership?
A: Unless there is a contract provision or exchange of correspondence relating to this property, property left on site at closing is a violation of the broom clean provisions of most contracts, and you have no obligation to store it.
1 user found this answer helpful
A:
There is no way I can determine whether this issue was dealt with at or prior to closing, by a survival agreement or language in the contract. The proper person to respond to this inquiry is the lawyer who represented you on the purchase.
#LegalQ&A
A:
I think you have two options here:
1. You can use the property if you like and eventually (10 years I believe) have title passed to you without doing anything, this is called "adverse possession." Just make sure that the owner knows you are in possession that you are using for yourself against his claim of ownership.
2. You can sell the equipment and put the proceeds with the state of new york unclaimed property fund and after a period of time if it's unclaimed you can make the claim, I believe that would be about 10 years as well, but you can check on the NY unclaimed property website.
1 user found this answer helpful
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