4 ms·

What is the legality of leaving your stuff on someone else's property? Unwanted UPS packages, phone books, door tags for the local Chinese restaurant, "newspape

What is the legality of leaving your stuff on someone else's property? Unwanted UPS packages, phone books, door tags for the local Chinese restaurant, "newspapers" that are actually just all advertising, landscaping business cards weight down with rocks. This is all trash; how are people able to legally dump it in my driveway? Is it actually illegal but such small stakes that nobody ever gets the proper authorities involved? Is there some loophole in the law that allows you to dump your junk on someone else porch if it's filled with ads?

deleted 3y ago
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bluGill 3y ago
That will depend. Littering is a separate area of laws from mail. And this is in Canada which will have different laws. There is also customs involved here which is another tricky area. In the US if it is addressed to you, then it is yours to do with as you like, but if it is addressed to someone else (and misdelivered) you have to make it available to the intended receiver.
ke88y 3y ago
> Is it actually illegal but such small stakes that nobody ever gets the proper authorities involved? In the USA: Basically yes, but with various incantations required depending on the state to make it illegal. The "too small stakes" part is uniform. In my state, in the USA, it's technically abandoned property the moment it's left and you don't need to post a sign or make an attempt at contacting the owner. After a certain amount of time, with reasonable attempts to give notice, you can start charging storage fees. The law is written to work best for things like abandoned cars or furniture in mind, not nuisance mail, but there's jurisprudence establishing that there was broad legislative intent. The door tag thing might even fly. But for something like a door tag, damages would never be worth the filing fees even after hundreds of years of storage. It would have to be a real "fuck you" move because damages would be like hundredths of a cent against mid 2 figure filing fees. In this case I think the subject of the article would actually have a case and real damages, in the USA, in my state. But more importantly: the business owner has to either show up in small claims or pay a lawyer to do so. It's certainly a way to get a company to cut shit out for the cost of a filing fee, even if damages awarded are trivial. And in this case I think a judge would be very sympathetic.

deleted 3y ago

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bluGill 3y ago

That will depend. Littering is a separate area of laws from mail. And this is in Canada which will have different laws. There is also customs involved here which is another tricky area. In the US if it is addressed to you, then it is yours to do with as you like, but if it is addressed to someone else (and misdelivered) you have to make it available to the intended receiver.

ke88y 3y ago

> Is it actually illegal but such small stakes that nobody ever gets the proper authorities involved? In the USA: Basically yes, but with various incantations required depending on the state to make it illegal. The "too small stakes" part is uniform. In my state, in the USA, it's technically abandoned property the moment it's left and you don't need to post a sign or make an attempt at contacting the owner. After a certain amount of time, with reasonable attempts to give notice, you can start charging storage fees. The law is written to work best for things like abandoned cars or furniture in mind, not nuisance mail, but there's jurisprudence establishing that there was broad legislative intent. The door tag thing might even fly. But for something like a door tag, damages would never be worth the filing fees even after hundreds of years of storage. It would have to be a real "fuck you" move because damages would be like hundredths of a cent against mid 2 figure filing fees. In this case I think the subject of the article would actually have a case and real damages, in the USA, in my state. But more importantly: the business owner has to either show up in small claims or pay a lawyer to do so. It's certainly a way to get a company to cut shit out for the cost of a filing fee, even if damages awarded are trivial. And in this case I think a judge would be very sympathetic.