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

In New Hampshire, a landlord must store, with reasonable care, the personal property of a tenant who has moved out voluntarily or by eviction for 7 days after the tenant vacated, during which the tenant may take it back without paying rent or storage fees, and may then dispose of it without notice to the tenant. The 7-day storage period is the only requirement before disposal; the statute requires no written notice and says nothing about sale proceeds. The rule does not apply to residential real estate covered by RSA 540-A:4, VII(c), which concerns people occupying without permission, or to shared facilities rented under RSA 540-B. The same section separately bars a landlord from willfully holding or denying a tenant access to the tenant’s property other than by proper judicial process. This is RSA 540-A:3, VII.

WhatNew Hampshire
Belongings left behindStore 7 days, then dispose without notice
What the statute requires firstNotice, a waiting period or storage before disposal

What the statute says

“During this period, the tenant shall be allowed to recover personal property without payment of rent or storage fees. After the 7-day limit has expired, such personal property may be disposed of by the landlord without notice to the tenant.”

Quoted word for word from the section’s text.

Source

RSA 540-A:3, VII

Read the statute in the New Hampshire Revised Statutes (General Court of New Hampshire): gencourt.state.nh.us.

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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