I own a bicycle repair shop in San Francisco, CA. We often have bicycles in for repair that do not get picked up. How long does a bike have ...

Question

I own a bicycle repair shop in San Francisco, CA. We often have bicycles in for repair that do not get picked up. How long does a bike have to be left in order to be considered abandoned? Once it is, do we have the right to sell or give away said property?

Answer

Unlike motor vehicles and some other kinds of property, and unlike dry cleaners and some other service industries, I know of no law specific to bicycle repairs covering abandoned property. Therefore you would come under the law of "bailment." For a voluntary bailment, which is where you take possession of another person's property by agreement, if you intend to terminate the bailment you must give "reasonable notice" that you will dispose of the property if it is not collected. If the property is not picked up a reasonable time after the notice, then you may dispose of it. If you sell it, you must remit the proceeds to the owner of the property, but may deduct your actual out of pocket expenses of disposing of it, and you may set-off any debt they have to you (such as repair charges) before sending them the balance, if any. If you want to avail yourself of this process, however, I strongly recommend that you make sure to get current address, phone and email for your customers and give notice by each method whenever possible. What is a reasonable time is hard to say, so make sure you give enough time that no court could consider you to have moved too fast. Lastly, you should probably have something written up on your receipts or claim tickets or whatever you give the customer when they leave the bikes, that notifies them of the process you will use, such as if not claimed in 30-days you will give 30-days written notice of intent to sell the bike, and if not claimed after notice is given the bike will be sold, or something like that. Doesn't need to be complicated.