Chain of custody on personal property in a post-eviction cleanout
I've been asked to price cleanouts on a batch of 12 units for a manager who takes back a steady number of them after eviction. Scope reads as debris removal and a make-ready clean, $95 per unit for the clean and volume pricing on the haul. Nothing in the work order says a word about personal property.
My issue is that most states require abandoned tenant property to be stored or noticed for some period before disposal, and the period and the notice differ by state, so whether a couch is debris or somebody's property is a legal question I'm not qualified to answer on site. If I haul it and the tenant comes back with a claim, the work order as written puts me holding the bag. If I bag and tag and move it to storage, I'm looking at maybe $180 a month for a 10x10 plus two hours of labor per unit, which is more than the clean pays.
How are people handling this contractually? What I'm reaching for is a clause that says the client identifies and directs disposition of all personal property in writing before I touch it, plus indemnification if their determination turns out wrong. Has anyone gotten a manager to sign that, or does everyone just price the risk in without saying anything and hope? And on the pricing side, if you do carry the storage exposure, what does that add per unit before it stops making sense to bid at all?