How long does something have to be in the lost and found before someone can take it home.
Abandoned property is typically disposed of rather than given to members. As a nonprofit, my understanding of what people have told me is that anything with value needs to go through an auction process to dispose of it if we don’t just trash it.
Edit: To be more clear, please do not take anything from lost and found if it isn’t yours. Volunteers will handle the proper disposal in compliance with our non-profit status.
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@Bizwacky and @keoliver can elaborate however it may be that rule would only apply to property that belongs to DMS. Of course, once abandoned if that becomes our property in the same sense that’s maybe still an issue. Interesting.
I have not seen any rules regarding a time frame for lost and found to be open to others to claim.
I’m basing this on the procedures I was told for the items in the personal storage bins.
If bins belong to a member with a expired membership, they are supposed to be taken to purgatory and stored for at least 30 days after which they are considered abandoned property. Then they are to disposed of by either trashing or auction. But we are not just supposed to just take the items home.
I have advised the board in dealing with abandoned property . I do not recall if there was a rule drafted or not. I will inquire .
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Back during the project storage offsite purgatory era, this was the policy - DMS transferred custody of abandoned items to Mount Carrollton the landffill. I gather the legal generalities there were DMS had explicitly taken custody of the item(s) and as it was done without consideration, as part of the agreement the organization would eventually cease storing it as the notification/auction process used by commercial storage operations was deemed too cumbersome.
A potential wrinkle for lost & found is the items have been de facto abandoned and the organization is engaged in a Good Samaritan act without any agreement between the organization and unknown other party.
If we have to dispose of it anyways is ok for someone to have or use what someone else has discarded.
I can’t answer that question with authority.
The thinking for project storage offsite was to reduce member conflict. Prior to offsite the dumpster was actively surfed; members whose items had been purged might find them in another member’s storage spot and accuse them of theft. Offsite was out of sight out of mind - can’t say members didn’t surf the dumpster post-disposal but the initial investment was higher (you had to go somewhere) and the rewards less certain (what was hauled away last month anyway?).