Guns found in house by new homeowner.

An interesting discussion. Here's a twist for you to ponder.
A friend had a small house that he rented out to an older single man. The man passed away in the home and, after the authorities were done, the remainder of his relatives were allowed in to retrieve whatever they wanted. After they were done, he and I went through the house as he had made arrangements with the local fire department for them to use it for "practice". In our walk-through, we discovered a single-shot 20 gauge and a Marlin 60 .22LR rifle. We checked with the relatives and they had no interest in either gun so my friend kept the shotty and let me have the Marlin for my help in mowing the grass at this house. We both had FOID cards already (req. in Illinois) so no problems there.
You never know WHAT you will find.

 

It is very common for the relatives to just divvy up personal property amongst themselves, especially with small estates. I think there is some limit to how much of an estate there is before probate is required. It seems to me it is not very much.

In Illinois you cannot transfer any firearm to someone without a background check. If the "relatives" did not go through that background check process before allowing you to have the firearms they may well have been in violation of the law. I think in a legalistic sense you had custody of the estate's property and the relatives should had given you some kind of form stating they were the legal heirs.

 

This happened about 10-12 years ago. This was before put that stipulation on "F2F" sales/transfers. IIRC, that didn't get put into law until 2016.

 

I bought a house in Indiana last June and the sales contract specifically
stated all items in or on the property becomes the property of the buyer
at closing. I payed a lot of attention to this because I didn't want to deal
with the seller coming back later and saying I want this or that back.

I dont know how a gun would play into this.

Jimmy

 

Let me see if I understand your position correctly.

Unattached moveable personal property can not be claimed by the new owner of the house.

The previous owner of the house can claim the property after the sale of the home has been completed.

You have not answered my question as to how long the previous owner of the house has to reclaim their property. Is it months or even years?

Since your position is claiming unattached property left behind in a house after the sale is theft then wouldn’t the statute of limitations apply? Not going to research California law but for sake of argument probably 5 years in most States.

So the new owner of the home is required to save the property until statute of limitations runs out to avoid being charged with a crime.

It would also logically follow that since the new homeowner has to keep the property he is also required to keep it in the condition it was left in. Failure to do so would make him subject to a civil lawsuit for damages. So the homeowner is required to provide storage space even if requires renting a storage unit to do so.

 

I think it is not theft but conversion.

 

If Frank allows... I'll share some real life experience of 1st hand knowledge of how this plays out with non gun personal property.

I was a licensed agent for several years in AZ with the largest realestate company in the US. I've take classes given by the designated broker / VP of said company as well far nore than the required continuing ed classes including agency and contract law. Well over 200 transactions. (Also managed over 100 rental units for over 6yrs)

Assuming it's valuable and not trash...

Seller leaves stuff behind. All done thru their respective agents (no direct contact), Buyers agent contacts Sellers agent who contacts Seller. If no reply in a couple days... repeat but Buyer gives seller a deadline to remove the stuff; customarily 30 days. After that they get rid of it by tossing, sellling, or donating.

If it's so much stuff, including trash, the buyer can request the escrow company to with hold funds, if they notify soon enough, to be used to clean it out. Same basic process can and is done when the final walk thru reveals the house wasn't left 'in like conditions'.

Typically what happens is the buyer deals with it. Since there is no record or proof of what was left behind buyer tosses, gives away, or sells anything that was left.

That's what happens most of the time in real life.