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

In Tennessee, in counties covered by the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, a landlord who retakes an abandoned unit must remove and store the tenant’s belongings for at least thirty days before selling or disposing of them, and where the abandonment rests on rent fifteen days late plus signs of moving out, must first post and mail a notice giving the tenant ten days to respond. A tenant’s unexplained or extended absence for thirty days or more without paying rent is prima facie evidence of abandonment and lets the landlord reenter without the notice. When abandonment rests on rent fifteen days past due together with facts showing the tenant has permanently left, such as removing substantially all possessions or voluntarily ending utility service, the notice must be posted at the premises and sent by regular mail to the premises address, must state that the landlord intends to remove the belongings if the tenant does not make contact within ten days and to dispose of them if they are not reclaimed within thirty days, and must give a telephone number and mailing address for the landlord. If the tenant answers within the ten days and says they intend to stay, the landlord must use the judicial process to recover possession. The tenant may reclaim the belongings during the thirty-day storage period; after it the landlord may sell or dispose of them and apply the proceeds to unpaid rent, damages, storage fees, sale costs and attorney’s fees, and must hold any balance for six months after the sale. The chapter applies only in counties with a population of more than seventy-five thousand according to the 2010 federal census. This is Tenn. Code §§ 66-28-405, 66-28-102.

WhatTennessee
Belongings left behindStore 30 days; notice with 10 days to respond first
What the statute requires firstNotice, a waiting period or storage before disposal

What the statute says

“… the landlord shall remove the tenant’s possessions and personal effects from the premises and store the personal possessions and personal effects for not less than thirty (30) days. The tenant may reclaim the possessions and personal effects from the landlord within the thirty-day period.”

Quoted word for word from the section’s text.

Source

Tenn. Code §§ 66-28-405, 66-28-102

Read the statute in the Tennessee Code (Tennessee General Assembly): capitol.tn.gov.

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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