GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1991

H	1 

HOUSE BILL 1012

Short Title:  Clarify Landlord/Tenant Law.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Representatives Barnes; and Colton.
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Referred to:  Commerce.
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April 19, 1991

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO CLARIFY CERTAIN PORTIONS OF LANDLORD AND TENANT LAW.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  Article 1 of Chapter 42 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:
"§ 42-14.3.  Limitations.
Unless specifically provided elsewhere in this Chapter, no leases of residential property shall contain a waiver or otherwise deny the rights conveyed to lessors and lessees by any provision in this Chapter."
Sec. 2.  G.S. 42-25.9 reads as rewritten:
"§ 42-25.9. Remedies.
(a)	If any lessor, landlord, or agent removes or attempts to remove a tenant from a dwelling unit in any manner contrary to this Article, the tenant shall be entitled to recover possession or to terminate his lease and the lessor, landlord or agent shall be liable to the tenant for damages caused by the tenant's removal or attempted removal. 
(b)	If any lessor, landlord, or agent seizes possession of or interferes with a tenant's access to a tenant's or household member's personal property in any manner not in accordance with   G.S. 42-25.9(d), 42-36.2, 44A-2, or 44A-4, the tenant or household member shall be entitled to recover possession of his personal property and compensation for any actual damages suffered as a result of such wrongful action.
(c)	The remedies created by this section are supplementary to all existing common-law and statutory rights and remedies.
(d)	If any tenant abandons personal property of five hundred dollar ($500.00) value or less in the demised premises, or fails to remove such property at the time of execution of a writ of possession in an action for summary ejectment, the landlord may, as an alternative to the procedures provided in G.S. 42-36.2 or G.S. 44A-2(e), deliver the property into the custody of a nonprofit organization regularly providing free or at a nominal price clothing and household furnishings to people in need, upon that organization agreeing to identify and separately store the property for 30 days and to release the property to the tenant at no charge within the 30-day period. A landlord electing to use this procedure shall immediately post at the demised premises a notice containing the name and address of the property recipient, post the same notice for 30 days or more at the place where rent is received, and send the same notice by first-class mail to the tenant at the tenant's last known address. Provided, however, that the notice shall not include a description of the property.
(e)	For purposes of subsection (d), personal property shall be deemed abandoned if the landlord finds evidence that clearly shows the premises has been voluntarily vacated after the paid rental period has expired and the landlord has no notice of a disability that caused the vacancy. A presumption of abandonment shall arise 10 or more days after the landlord has posted conspicuously a notice of suspected abandonment both inside and outside the premises and has received no response from the tenant.
(f)	Any nonprofit organization agreeing to receive personal property under subsection (d) shall not be liable to the owner for a disposition of such property provided that the property has been separately identified and stored for release to the owner for a period of 30 days."
Sec. 3.  G.S. 42-36.2(b) reads as rewritten:
"(b)	Sheriff May Store Property. – When the sheriff removes the personal property of an evicted tenant from demised premises pursuant to a writ or order the tenant shall take possession of his property. If the tenant fails or refuses to take possession of his property, the sheriff may deliver the property to any storage warehouse in the county, or in an adjoining county if no storage warehouse is located in that county, for storage. The sheriff may require the landlord to advance the cost of delivering the property to a storage warehouse plus the cost of one month's storage before delivering the property to a storage warehouse. If a landlord refuses to advance these costs when requested to do so by the sheriff, the sheriff shall not remove the tenant's property, but shall return the writ unexecuted to the issuing clerk of court with a notation thereon of his reason for not executing the writ. If the sheriff has collected the costs of storage from a landlord and has stored the tenant's personal property, a lien for such costs arises in favor of the landlord. The landlord must exercise that lien in accordance with G.S. 44A-2 and G.S. 44A-4.  If the tenant's property is sold at a warehouseman's lien sale, the landlord may satisfy his lien for advancing the storage costs out of any remaining balance of the proceeds from the sale."
Sec. 4.  G.S. 44A-2(e) reads as rewritten:
"(e)	Unless otherwise agreed between the lessor and lessee,  any lessor of a house, room, apartment, mobile home, office, store or other  demised premises has a lien on all furniture, household furnishings (except clothes, food, and medicine), trade fixtures, equipment and other personal property to which the tenant has legal title and which remains on the demised premises if (i) the tenant has vacated the premises for 21 or more days after the  paid rental period has expired (in case of ejectment, the 21 days start after the sheriff has padlocked the premises), and (ii) the lessor has a lawful claim for damages against the tenant, and the claim is not on appeal. This lien shall be for the amount of any rents which were due the lessor at the time the tenant vacated the premises and for the time, up to 60 days, from the vacating of the premises to the date of sale; and for any sums necessary to repair damages to the premises caused by the tenant, normal wear and tear excepted; and for reasonable costs and expenses of sale. The lien created by this subsection shall be enforced only by sale at public sale pursuant to the provisions of G.S. 44A-4(e). This lien shall not have priority over any security interest in the personal property which is perfected at the time the lessor acquires this lien."
Sec. 5.  G.S 44A-2 is amended by adding a new subsection to read:
"( e2)	If the last paid rental period has expired, the tenant has vacated the premises and not informed the landlord of any intent to remove the tenant's remaining personal property, and the landlord has a judgment for possession of the premises for more than 10 days, then the landlord may remove and store the tenant's remaining personal property.  However, the cost of such storage will not become a lien on the tenant's personal property until the requirements of subsection (e) above are met.  Prior to any such lien attaching, the landlord must release all such personal property of the tenant upon the tenant's request.  If all of the conditions of this subsection are met and the landlord reasonably determines that the personal property left on the premises is worth less than one hundred dollars ($100.00), instead of storing it the landlord may deem it abandoned and donate it to any charitable organization."
Sec. 6.  This act becomes effective October 1, 1991.