What can a landlord do with a tenant’s belongings left behind in Arkansas?

In Arkansas, all property a tenant leaves in and about the premises when the lease ends, voluntarily or not, is considered abandoned and the landlord may dispose of it as the landlord sees fit without recourse by the tenant. All property the tenant places on the premises is subject to a lien in favor of the landlord for the sums the tenant agreed to pay. When a sheriff executes a writ of possession in an eviction and the tenant is still in possession 24 hours after service, the tenant’s belongings are removed to a public warehouse or another reasonably safe place of storage under the landlord’s control until the court’s final determination. If the court rules for the landlord and awards money, it orders the belongings sold in a commercially reasonable manner, with the proceeds applied first to storage, then to the judgment, and any excess paid to the tenant; if it rules for the tenant, they are restored with storage charged to the landlord. This is Ark. Code §§ 18-16-108, 18-17-913, 18-60-310.

WhatArkansas
Belongings left behindMay dispose of it once the lease ends
What the statute requires firstNo waiting period before disposal

What the statute says

“Upon the voluntary or involuntary termination of any lease agreement, all property left in and about the premises by the lessee shall be considered abandoned and may be disposed of by the lessor as the lessor shall see fit without recourse by the lessee.”

Quoted word for word from the section’s text.

Source

Ark. Code §§ 18-16-108, 18-17-913, 18-60-310

Read the statute in the Arkansas Code (Arkansas General Assembly): arkleg.state.ar.us.

The linked sections open Justia’s free copy of the code, because the state’s own site has no stable address for each section.

Checked against the statute on November 15, 2026.

This is a summary of a published statute, not legal advice. Rules change, local ordinances can add to them, and the terms of a specific lease may differ. Check the citation and speak to a lawyer before acting.

How Seayora uses this rule

Seayora keeps a lease’s end date and every notice sent through it, with the date it went out, in the lease record — so the dates a rule like this one counts from are on file rather than remembered.

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