PA Abandoned Property Laws: Tenant Rules, Penalties, and Claims

Pennsylvania’s abandoned property laws run on two separate tracks. Unclaimed financial assets like dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, and forgotten insurance payments are held by the State Treasurer under the Disposition of Abandoned and Unclaimed Property act (72 P.S. § 1301.1 et seq.), and you can claim them at any time, for free, with no deadline. Physical belongings a tenant leaves behind in a rental unit are governed by Section 505.1 of the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 (68 P.S. § 250.505a), and a landlord who skips the required notice process can be ordered to pay three times the value of what was thrown out. Which set of rules applies to you depends entirely on what kind of property you’re dealing with.

Unclaimed Money Held by the State Treasury

Banks, insurers, utilities, and other businesses that lose contact with an owner must eventually hand the property over to the Pennsylvania Treasury. The point at which they must do so is set by a “dormancy period.” For most property types the period is three years of no owner activity, and activity means something the owner actually does: a deposit, a cashed check, a response to a statement. Interest the bank credits on its own doesn’t count.¹

Three years covers most of what people are looking for: checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, life insurance proceeds, uncashed dividend checks, stock holdings, utility deposits, and safe deposit box contents. A handful of categories run on different clocks:

Traveler’s checks: 15 years from issuance
Money orders: 7 years from the date payable
Regulator-ordered utility refunds: 2 years after the refund became payable
Gift cards and gift certificates: 2 years after the redemption period expires, or 3 years from issuance if no redemption period was specified
Property from a corporate dissolution or insurance demutualization: 2 years from the distribution date

If you’re the person trying to get money back, the dormancy period doesn’t affect you. Once funds reach the Treasury they stay there indefinitely, and you can file a claim whenever you want.¹

How to Search for and Claim Unclaimed Property

The Pennsylvania Treasury runs a free search tool at patreasury.gov through its Bureau of Unclaimed Property. You can search your own name or the name of a deceased relative without creating an account, and there is no fee at any point in the process.²

If you find a match, what happens next depends on the type of claim. Some are flagged for “Money Match,” meaning the Treasury has already verified enough information to send payment without more paperwork from you. If you get a Money Match notice, you don’t need to do anything: the check arrives in roughly 45 days.²

Standard claims require more. You’ll need to sign the claim form, attach a copy of a photo ID such as a driver’s license, and have the form notarized if your particular claim has a notarization section.³ Claims for a deceased owner’s property generally need a death certificate and proof of your authority as heir or executor. Finished claims can be uploaded through the Treasury’s online portal or mailed to the Bureau of Unclaimed Property, P.O. Box 1837, Harrisburg, PA 17105-1837.²

Watch Out for Finder Companies

Anyone who charges a fee to help you locate unclaimed property in Pennsylvania must be certified as a “finder” by the Treasury, and finder fees are capped at 15 percent of the claim value.² On a $10,000 claim, that’s $1,500 for a service you can perform yourself for free on the Treasury’s own website. If someone contacts you offering to recover unclaimed property on your behalf, the same search and claim tools are already available to you at no cost.

Belongings Left Behind in a Rental Unit

The rules change completely when the property is tangible: furniture, clothing, electronics, tools, or anything else a tenant leaves in a rental. Section 505.1 of the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 controls this situation, and it protects both sides by forcing the landlord through a formal notice process before anything can be thrown away.⁴

Property can be treated as abandoned only under one of five conditions:

A written lease has expired and the tenant vacated.
A court entered an eviction or possession order, and the tenant left and took most of their belongings.
A court-ordered eviction was actually carried out.
The tenant provided a written forwarding address and vacated, taking substantially all belongings.
The tenant left without indicating any plan to return, rent is more than 15 days late, and the landlord has posted notice of the tenant’s rights.

One line a landlord cannot cross: a landlord may never dispose of or take control of personal property inside a unit that someone is still living in, regardless of lease status. If any of the five conditions stops being true, the landlord’s authority to treat the belongings as abandoned disappears.⁵

The Required Notice and Storage Process

Before touching the belongings, the landlord must send written notice to the tenant by first class mail. The notice goes to the rental address and to any forwarding address the tenant provided, including emergency contact addresses.⁴

The notice must follow a form substantially like the one in the statute. It states that the personal property at the address is considered abandoned, gives the tenant 10 days from the postmark date to either retrieve the items or contact the landlord to request storage, provides the landlord’s phone number and address, and explains that storage will last up to 30 days from the postmark date at a location the landlord chooses, with the tenant responsible for the cost of storage.⁵

If the tenant responds within 10 days and requests storage, the landlord must hold the property for up to 30 days from the notice date and make it reasonably available for pickup. Throughout that period, the landlord has to handle the belongings with ordinary care. If the tenant doesn’t respond within 10 days, the landlord may dispose of the property.⁴

Penalties for Skipping the Notice Process

A landlord who violates any provision of Section 505.1 is liable for treble damages, reasonable attorney fees, and court costs.⁴ Treble damages means three times the value of the property destroyed or disposed of improperly. Throw out $3,000 worth of belongings without sending the required notice, and the tenant can recover $9,000 plus legal fees. The notice itself is straightforward; the expense comes from ignoring it.

Situations Where the Standard Rules Don’t Apply

Deceased Tenants

If a tenant dies and leaves belongings in the unit, the abandoned property rules do not apply. Disposition runs through Pennsylvania’s probate system under the Orphans’ Court.⁵ A landlord who treats a deceased tenant’s things the same way they would treat an abandonment is making a serious legal mistake; the estate and next of kin have rights under probate law that displace the landlord-tenant process.

Protection From Abuse Orders

If a landlord conducting an eviction-related disposal knows about or has been notified of a protection from abuse order covering the tenant or an immediate family member, the timelines lengthen. The landlord must wait at least 30 days from the date of notice before disposing of property, and must provide storage for 30 days if requested.⁵

Active-Duty Servicemembers

Federal law adds a further layer for anyone on active duty with property in storage in Pennsylvania. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, no one holding a lien on a servicemember’s property may foreclose on or enforce that lien without a court order, and this protection runs through the entire period of military service and for 90 days after it ends. The definition of “lien” is broad enough to cover storage facilities, repair shops, and dry cleaners. A storage facility that auctions a servicemember’s belongings for unpaid rent without a court order commits a federal misdemeanor. Even with a court order, the court must stay the proceeding or adjust payment terms if military service has materially affected the servicemember’s ability to pay.⁶

If Your Business Is Holding Dormant Property

Businesses aren’t just potential claimants; if you operate one in Pennsylvania, you may be a holder. Any entity holding property past its dormancy period must file a report with the State Treasurer by April 15 of the following year, with a written request for an extension of up to six months available.⁷ The report must list the owner’s name, last known address, and the nature and value of the property. Failing to file can bring fines of $100 per day up to $10,000, and refusing to actually deliver the property to the Treasurer is a misdemeanor.⁸ The Treasury offers a Voluntary Disclosure Agreement that waives penalties and interest for businesses coming into compliance after missed filings.⁹

Also Worth Checking: Federal Unclaimed Money

Not every source of unclaimed money runs through the state. If the IRS mailed you a refund check to an old address, it likely came back undeliverable; the “Where’s My Refund” tool on irs.gov lets you check the status using your Social Security number, filing status, and the exact refund amount. People who never filed because their income was below the threshold can still claim a refund within three years of the original deadline, particularly if taxes were withheld.¹⁰

The federal Treasury Hunt tool for unredeemed savings bonds shut down on September 30, 2025. Under the SECURE Act 2.0, the search for unclaimed Treasury securities has shifted to state unclaimed property programs, which means the Pennsylvania Treasury’s own search may now surface savings bond results that previously appeared only in the federal system. You can also search through the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators at unclaimed.org.¹¹ For unclaimed insured deposits from failed banks, the FDIC maintains its own search tool at fdic.gov.¹²

Tax Treatment When You Get the Money Back

Reclaiming unclaimed money from the state isn’t a taxable event on its own, because the money was always yours. Any interest the state paid while it held the funds is a different story: that interest is taxable income. When interest payments reach $10 or more, the paying entity reports the amount to the IRS on Form 1099-INT, and you include it on your federal return.¹³ Small claims usually stay under that threshold, but a large dormant account that sat with the state for years can generate a reportable amount.

1
Pennsylvania Treasury. Pennsylvania Code Title 72 – Disposition of Abandoned and Unclaimed Property
2
Pennsylvania Treasury. Unclaimed Property
3
Pennsylvania Treasury. Bureau of Unclaimed Property – Claim Checklist
4
Pennsylvania General Assembly. The Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951
5
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 68 P.S. 250.505a – Disposition of Abandoned Personal Property
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3958 – Enforcement of Storage Liens
7
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 72 P.S. 1301.11 – Report of Abandoned Property
8
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Pennsylvania Code 72 P.S. 1301.25 – Penalties
9
Pennsylvania Treasury. Holder Reporting
10
USAGov. Undelivered and Unclaimed Tax Refund Checks
11
TreasuryDirect. Treasury Hunt
12
FDIC. Bank Failures
13
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-INT, Interest Income