What landlords must do with personal property left behind after eviction or abandonment, under Ala. Code § 35-9A-423
Alabama gives landlords one of the most straightforward abandoned-property rules in the country. Under Ala. Code § 35-9A-423, part of the state's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, once a tenancy has ended you are not locked into a lengthy storage-and-sale process. If a tenant leaves property in the unit more than 14 days after termination, you have no duty to store or protect that property and may dispose of it without obligation.
That said, the rule is narrower than it first appears. The 14-day clock runs from lawful termination of the tenancy, not from the day the tenant seems to have left. Getting the timing and the abandonment determination right is what keeps a disposal from turning into a conversion claim.
Follow these steps precisely to protect yourself from liability under Ala. Code § 35-9A-423:
The operative language of Ala. Code § 35-9A-423 is short: if a tenant leaves property in the unit more than 14 days after termination pursuant to the chapter, the landlord has no duty to store or protect the tenant's property in the unit and may dispose of it without obligation.
The load-bearing word is termination. The 14 days do not start when a tenant stops showing up. They start when the tenancy has actually ended under the chapter — the lease expired, you properly terminated for nonpayment, the tenant surrendered possession, or a court entered a judgment for possession. If you dispose of belongings before the tenancy is legally over and the 14-day window has run, you are exposed to a claim for the value of the goods.
Once both conditions are met — termination plus 14 days of property left behind — Alabama does not require you to inventory the items, hold a sale, or track down the tenant.
Many states force landlords through a notice-then-store-then-sell sequence and require any surplus from a sale to be returned to the tenant. Alabama does not. Section 35-9A-423 imposes no pre-disposal notice requirement, no minimum storage period beyond the 14 days, and no duty to sell property or account for proceeds. The statute simply authorizes disposal “without obligation.”
In practice, that means you are not required to mail a right-to-reclaim letter, publish a sale notice, or cut the former tenant a check for anything left over if you choose to sell the goods. If you do sell rather than discard, nothing in the statute compels you to remit a surplus.
Even without a legal mandate, disciplined landlords photograph and date the unit's contents before clearing it and keep a short written record of the termination date and the disposal date. If a former tenant later disputes what happened, that timeline is your defense that both the termination and the 14-day condition were satisfied.
Section 35-9A-423 gives you a bright-line test alongside the usual fact-based judgment. In addition to any other means of determining abandonment, a property is considered abandoned if electric service to the unit has been terminated for 7 consecutive days.
That 7-day electric-service presumption is a useful anchor, but it is a floor, not a substitute for common sense. Removed furniture, a returned key, unforwarded mail, and unpaid rent all support an abandonment finding. Where the facts are ambiguous, the safer path is to complete a proper eviction and obtain a judgment for possession rather than relying on abandonment alone — that gives you a clean termination date from which to count the 14 days.
Absence is not the same as abandonment. If your lease requires the tenant to notify you of an anticipated extended absence in excess of 14 days under Ala. Code § 35-9A-304 and the tenant willfully fails to do so, you may recover actual damages. During any tenant absence of more than 14 days, you may enter the unit at times reasonably necessary to protect it.
If the tenant does abandon the unit, Alabama still expects mitigation: you must make reasonable efforts to rent it at a fair rental. That duty does not take priority over your right to first rent your other vacant units, so you are not required to favor the abandoned unit over comparable inventory.
There is no federal statute governing how a private landlord disposes of a residential tenant's abandoned belongings — this is entirely a matter of state law, and in Alabama that is Section 35-9A-423. Federal considerations enter only at the edges: tenants on active duty may have protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and federally subsidized leases can carry their own disposition terms.
Two Alabama-specific carve-outs matter. First, Chapter 9A does not cover every rental — owner-occupied buildings with two or fewer dwelling units, among others, fall outside the URLTA, so the 14-day rule may not apply and common-law principles govern. Second, manufactured and mobile homes have a separate procedure under Chapter 12A (for example, Ala. Code § 35-12A-14 for abandonment upon a tenant's death), which carries its own notice and timing requirements. Confirm which chapter governs before you clear a unit.
This summary reflects Ala. Code § 35-9A-423 as enacted by Act 2006-316 and amended by Acts 2011-700 and 2014-279, current as of 2026. It describes the general rule under Alabama's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act and is not legal advice. Because outcomes turn on the exact termination date, the type of dwelling, and the facts of each abandonment, confirm the current statute and consult an Alabama attorney before disposing of a tenant's property.
There is no separate storage period. Under Ala. Code § 35-9A-423, if property remains in the unit more than 14 days after the tenancy is terminated, the landlord has no duty to store or protect it and may dispose of it without obligation.
No. Section 35-9A-423 imposes no pre-disposal notice requirement. Once the tenancy has ended and property has been left for more than 14 days, the landlord may dispose of it without first sending a reclaim notice. Documenting the termination date and dated photos of the contents is still a prudent precaution.
It starts at termination of the tenancy under Chapter 9A — lease expiration, a proper termination, surrender of possession, or a court judgment for possession — not merely when the tenant appears to have left. Disposing of belongings before the tenancy is legally over and the 14 days have run creates liability.
In addition to any other evidence of abandonment, Section 35-9A-423 provides that a property is considered abandoned if electric service has been terminated for 7 consecutive days. Other facts — removed furniture, a returned key, unpaid rent — also support an abandonment finding.
No. Alabama's statute does not create a sale-and-account-for-proceeds process. It permits disposal “without obligation” and does not require the landlord to sell items or remit any surplus to the former tenant.
Not directly. Manufactured and mobile dwellings have a separate abandonment procedure under Chapter 12A of Title 35 (for example, Ala. Code § 35-12A-14), with its own notice and timing rules. Confirm which chapter governs the unit before clearing it.
Statutory citation: Ala. Code § 35-9A-423. Laws current as of 2025, verify against your state's current statutes before acting. Last updated July 14, 2026. This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed attorney for your specific situation.
