ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 198
(Senators Fanning, Ball, Kessler, Ross, Schoonover, Wooton,
Deem, Snyder,
Sharpe, Love, Hunter, Mitchell, McCabe, Sprouse, Anderson, Helmick and
Plymale, original sponsors)
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[Passed March 13, 1999; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact section six, article six, chapter
thirty-seven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to amend and reenact
section three, article three-a, chapter fifty-five of said
code, all relating to tenants' personal property left on
leased property; allowing for entry and repossession of leased
property by landlord or housing authority; allowing the
landlord or housing authority to dispose of abandoned personal
property upon repossession; requiring notice to the tenant of
the disposal of personal property; allowing holders of
security interests to claim the abandoned personal property;
proceedings in court for wrongful occupation of residential
rental property; allowing for the disposition of abandoned
personal property after an order of possession; requiring landlord to store personal property left on property for
thirty days after order of possession in certain
circumstances; permitting tenant to claim personal property
left on property; requiring landlords to store personal
property worth more than two hundred dollars for sixty days;
and allowing tenants and persons with security interests
within sixty days to claim the personal property upon payment
of reasonable removal and storage costs.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section six, article six, chapter thirty-seven of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted; and that section three, article
three-a, chapter fifty-five of said code be amended and reenacted,
all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 37. REAL PROPERTY.
ARTICLE 6. LANDLORD AND TENANT.
§37-6-6. Desertion of leased property; entry; recovery of rent,
disposition of abandoned personal property; notice.
(a) If any tenant from whom rent is in arrear
s and unpaid
shall abandon abandons the
demised premises leased property, and leave the same uncultivated or unoccupied, without goods thereon subject to distress sufficient to
satisfy such rent, the
lessor landlord or his
or her agent
may shall post a notice in writing in a conspicuous part of the
premises property, requiring the tenant to pay
such the rent within one month.
If the
same be rent is not paid within that time, the
lessor landlord shall be
entitled to possession of the
premises property, and may enter thereon, and
the right of
such the tenant
thereto to the leased property shall
thenceforth be
at an end.
But the The
landlord may recover the rent
owed up to the time when he
or she
became entitled to
the possession.
(b) If any tenant of a housing development operated by a
housing authority abandons the leased property when rent is not a
condition of the lease agreement, the housing authority shall post
a notice in writing in a conspicuous part of the property,
requiring the tenant to respond in writing within one month stating
that he or she has not abandoned the leased property. If the
tenant does not respond in writing within one month, stating that
he or she has not abandoned the leased property, the housing
authority shall be entitled to possession of the property, and may
enter thereon, and the right of the tenant to the leased property
shall end.
(c) Upon regaining possession of the property, the landlord
or his or her agent or housing authority may take, dispose of or
otherwise remove the tenant's personal property without incurring
any liability to the tenant or any other person. To dispose of the tenant's property under this section, the landlord or housing
authority shall give a written notice to the tenant that shall be:
(1) Posted in a conspicuous place on the property; and
(2) Sent by first-class mail with a certificate of mailing,
which provides a receipt of the date of mailing, in an envelope
endorsed "Please Forward", addressed and mailed to the tenant at:
(A) The leased property;
(B) Any post office box held by the tenant and known to the
landlord or housing authority; and
(C) The most recent forwarding address if provided by the
tenant or known to the landlord or housing authority.
(d) The written notice required under subsection (c) of this
section shall state that:
(1) The leased property is considered abandoned;
(2) Any personal property left by the tenant must be removed
from the property or from the place of safekeeping, if the landlord
or housing authority has stored the property, by a date specified
in the written notice that is:
(A) Not less than thirty days after the date the written
notice was mailed; or
(B) Not less than sixty days after the date the written
notice was mailed if the tenant has notified the landlord or housing authority that he or she is on active duty in the armed
forces of the United States;
(3) If the personal property is not removed within the time
provided for in this section, then the tenant forfeits his or her
ownership rights to the personal property, and the personal
property becomes the property of the landlord or housing authority.
(e) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (c) of this
section, if the abandoned personal property is worth more than
three hundred dollars and was not removed from the property or from
the place of safekeeping within the time period stated in the
notice required in subsection (d) of this section, the landlord
shall store the personal property for up to thirty additional days
if the tenant or any person holding a security interest in the
abandoned personal property informs the landlord of their intent to
remove the property:
Provided, That the tenant or person holding a
security interest in the abandoned personal property pays the
landlord the reasonable costs of storage and removal.
CHAPTER 55. ACTIONS, SUITS AND ARBITRATION;
JUDICIAL SALE.
ARTICLE 3A. REMEDIES FOR WRONGFUL OCCUPATION OF RESIDENTIAL RENTAL
PROPERTY.
§55-3A-3. Proceedings in court; final order; disposition of abandoned personal property.
(a) If at the time of the hearing there has been no
appearance, answer or other responsive pleading filed by the
tenant, the court shall make and enter an order granting immediate
possession of the property to the
petitioner landlord.
(b) In the case of a petition alleging arrearage in rent, if
the tenant
shall file files an answer raising the defense of breach by the
landlord of a material covenant upon which the duty to pay rent
depends, the court shall proceed to a hearing on such issues.
(c) In the case of a petition alleging a breach by the tenant
or damage to the property, if the
defendant shall file tenant files an answer raising
defenses to the claim or claims set forth in the petition, the
court shall proceed to a hearing on such issues.
(d) Continuances of the hearing provided for in this section
shall be for cause only and the judge or magistrate shall not grant
a continuance to either party as a matter of right. If a
continuance is granted upon request by a tenant, the tenant shall
be required to pay into court any periodic rent becoming due during
the period of such continuance.
(e) At the conclusion of a hearing held under the provisions
of subsection (b) or (c) of this section
, if the court
shall find finds that
the tenant is in wrongful occupation of the rental property, the court shall make and enter an order granting immediate possession
of the property to the
petitioner landlord. In the case of a proceeding under
subsection (a) of this section, the court may also make a written
finding and include in its order such relief on the issue of
arrearage in the payment of rent as the evidence may require.
The
court may disburse any Any moneys paid into court by the tenant in
accordance with the provisions of this section
may be ordered to be
disbursed to the parties as may be appropriate under the findings
of the court.
(f)
The court order shall specify the time when the tenant
shall vacate the property, taking Taking into consideration such factors
as the nature of the property (i.e., furnished or unfurnished)
, the
possibility of relative harm to the parties
, and other material
facts deemed relevant by the court in considering
the time in which when the tenant
might reasonably be expected to vacate the
property premises, the
court shall in its order specify the time by which the tenant must
remove himself from the property. The order
shall further provide that if the tenant
still continues to wrongfully
occupies
occupy the property beyond such time
, the sheriff shall forthwith
remove
him the tenant, taking
such precautions
as are necessary to guard against damage to
the property of the landlord and the tenant.
(g)
In the event an appeal is taken and the tenant prevails
upon appeal, the relief ordered by the appellate court shall be for
monetary damages only and shall not restore the tenant to
possession if the term of the lease has expired, Absent absent an issue of
title,
retaliation retaliatory eviction, or breach of warranty
, and in the event of an appeal wherein the tenant prevails, if the term of the lease
has expired the relief ordered by the appellate court shall be for
monetary damages only and shall not restore the tenant to
possession. During the pendency of any such appeal
, the no tenant
shall be is not entitled to remain
in possession of the
leasehold property if the period of the tenancy has
otherwise expired.
(h) When an order is issued pursuant to this section granting
possession of the property to the landlord, and the tenant fails to
remove all personal property by the date and time specified by the
order issued pursuant to subsection (f) of this section, the
landlord may:
(1) Dispose of the tenant's personal property without
incurring any liability or responsibility to the tenant or any
other person if the tenant informs the landlord in writing that the
personal property is abandoned or if the property is garbage;
(2) Remove and store the personal property after the date and
time by which the court ordered the tenant to vacate the property.
The landlord may dispose of the stored personal property after
thirty days without incurring any liability or responsibility to
the tenant or any other person if (i) the tenant has not paid the
reasonable costs of storage and removal to the landlord and has not
taken possession of the stored personal property or (ii) the costs
of storage equal the value of the personal property being stored;
or
(3) Leave the personal property on the property. The landlord may dispose of personal property left on the property
after thirty days without incurring any liability or responsibility
to the tenant or any other person if the tenant has not paid the
landlord fifty dollarsthe reasonable costs of leaving the personal property on
the landlord's property and has not taken possession of the
personal property."
(i) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (h) of this
section, if the personal property is worth more than twohree hundred
dollars and was not removed from the property or place of storage
within thirty days with the required fees paid as provided in
subsection (h) of this section, the landlord shall store the
personal property for up to thirty additional days if the tenant or
any person holding a security interest in the abandoned personal
property informs the landlord of their intent to remove the
propertysixty days. The tenant or any person holding
a security interest in the personal property may recover the
personal property from the landlord within the sixty days:
Provided, That the tenant or person holding a security
interest in the personal property pays the landlord the reasonable
costs of storage and removal.
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