Abandoned Personal Property Disposal

This is not about abandoned personal property of a tenant. We maintain a vault for the storage of film negatives and tapes for various individuals and companies in the entertainment industry within the So. California area. Some of the elements are stored and a storage fee is charged / paid while other elements are stored as an accommodation while the client(s) has our company doing other work with the elements such as converting to DVD, creating copies in tape or digital format, etc.

Here is the problem. Over time we have had several clients leave their elements with us even after the work we have performed has been long completed. The periods of storage range from about a year to over 7 years. We've made several attempts to locate and contact the client to request that they retrieve their property. Clients who can be located have been sent certified / registered letters notifying them to make arrangements to retrieve their respective material within 60 days from the date of the letter or we will take steps to dispose of the property. Many of these clients have failed or refused to respond to the letter. Some of the clients cannot be located, e.g. the company is no longer in business, the iindividual and/or company has moved and there is no forwarding address.

Each element (tape or film negative) has a value in terms of stock of less than $100. We do not know the intrinsic value to the individual client.

We wish to know what further steps we need to take, if any, in order to dispose of the property in any manner (sale, recycle, trash).