TODO_LEGAL_REVIEW. Legal statements on this page need review by a Florida attorney before launch.
Questions people ask
Before the surrender date: straight answers.
What happens to belongings, a house and a bank box during years away. Where a question is legal rather than practical, we say so and point you to the attorney.
Belongings stay wherever they were left, under the control of whoever holds the lease, the storage contract or the keys. The jail or prison decides what a person may keep inside. Everything outside needs a named person, usually an agent under a power of attorney, to look after it.
A sentence does not pause a lease, a storage contract or a car loan. Everything a person owned on the day they went into custody stays where it was, and someone on the outside ends up deciding what becomes of it. Often nobody decides. A lease that goes unpaid ends on the landlord’s terms. A storage unit that goes unpaid is handled under the storage contract, which the renter signed and probably never read.
The full answer →A house remains the owner’s property during a sentence unless a court orders otherwise, while the mortgage, property taxes and insurance keep coming due. Unpaid Florida property taxes lead to a tax certificate sale, then a possible tax deed sale. An agent named in a power of attorney pays them.
A Florida power of attorney needs the principal’s signature, two subscribing witnesses and a notary’s acknowledgment. The agent must be a natural person 18 or older or a qualified financial institution with trust powers. Inside a jail or prison, the notary and witnesses are arranged with the facility first.
Florida’s signing rules for a power of attorney do not include a lawyer. The principal and two subscribing witnesses sign, and a notary acknowledges the document. Whether a homemade form grants the powers a lender or vault will accept is a question for an attorney to answer before signing.
Valuables left during a sentence usually go to a relative’s home, a self-storage unit, a bank safe deposit box or a private vault. The deciding factors are who can get in while the owner is away, how far ahead rent is paid, and whether a signed inventory exists.
Preparation before a sentence comes down to four decisions: who holds legal authority to act, where papers and valuables are kept, how recurring bills get paid, and who stays in contact with the facility. Anything that may be part of the case stays put until the defense attorney says otherwise.
The IRS can levy, or seize, the contents of a safe deposit box to collect unpaid federal tax after giving notice. The power reaches a private vault box as well as a bank box, and both honor valid legal process. No storage puts property beyond a federal tax levy.
Safe deposit box agreements bar hazardous materials, perishable goods and anything illegal to possess, and some facilities also bar firearms. The rental agreement for each box sets the exact list, and the facility decides at intake whether an item is accepted.
Each bank sets its own rule on whether a safe deposit box requires an account there. A private, non-bank vault rents boxes on their own, with no bank account involved, and identifies each renter against government-issued photo ID before the rental begins.
In Florida, property in a bank safe deposit box is presumed unclaimed if the owner has not claimed it within 3 years after the rental period expires, and passes to the Department of Financial Services. A private vault’s rental agreement sets what happens when rent lapses there.
Settle it before the date, not after.
A short call is usually enough to know whether a box is the right answer. If it is not, we will say so. Attorneys and family members are welcome to call on a client's behalf.