(a) If the rental agreement requires the tenant to give notice to the landlord of an anticipated extended absence in excess of seven (7) days pursuant to § 48103 of this Chapter and the tenant willfully fails to do so, the landlord may recover actual damages from the tenant and consider the dwelling unit abandoned.

(b) During any absence of the tenant in excess of seven (7) days, the landlord may enter the dwelling unit at times reasonably necessary.

(c) If the tenant abandons the dwelling unit, the landlord shall make reasonable efforts to rent it at a fair rental. If the landlord rents the dwelling unit for a term beginning before the expiration of the rental agreement, it terminates as of the date of the new tenancy. If the landlord fails to use reasonable efforts to rent the dwelling unit at a fair rental or if the landlord accepts the abandonment as a surrender, the rental agreement is deemed to be terminated by the landlord as of the date the landlord has notice of the abandonment. If the tenancy is from month-to-

month or week-to-week, the term of the rental agreement for this purpose is deemed to be a month or week, as the case may be.

(d) If the tenant abandons the dwelling unit, with no intention of resuming the tenancy, the landlord is entitled to the lesser of:

(1) the entire rent for the remainder of the term; or

(2) the daily rent for the period necessary to re-rent the dwelling, plus a reasonable commission, plus the difference between the rent agreed to in the prior rental agreement and the fair rental value.

(e) When the tenant has wrongfully abandoned the premises, pursuant to a notice to quit the premises or when the tenant has or upon the natural expiration of the term, and has abandoned personal property which the landlord, in good faith, determines to be of value, in or around the premises, the landlord may sell such personal property, in a commercially reasonable manner, store such personal property at the tenant’s expense, or donate such personal property to a charitable organization.

(1) Before selling or donating such personal property, the landlord shall make reasonable efforts to apprise the tenant of the identity and location of, and the landlord’s intent to sell or donate such personal property by mailing notice to the tenant’s forwarding address, or to an address designated by the tenant for the purpose of notification, or if neither of these is available, to the tenant’s previous known address.

(2) Following such notice, the landlord may sell the personal property, or the landlord may donate the personal property to a charitable organization;

(A) provided, that such sale or donation shall not take place until fifteen (15) days after notice is mailed, after which the tenant is deemed to have received notice.

(B) The proceeds of the sale of personal property shall, after deduction of accrued rent and costs of storage and sale, including the cost of advertising, be
held in trust for the tenant for thirty (30) days, after which time the proceeds shall be forfeited to the landlord.

(3) When the tenant has abandoned the premises, any personal property in or around the premises left unsold after conformance to this Section or otherwise left abandoned by the tenant and determined by the landlord to be of no value may be disposed of at the landlord’s discretion without liability to the landlord.

SOURCE: Added as § 48313 by P.L. 34-146:2 (Dec. 13, 2018), renumbered to this section by the Compiler pursuant to 1 Guam Code Ann. § 1606.

2019 NOTE: Subsection designations added pursuant to authority granted by 1 Guam Code Ann. § 1606.