Tenants “associate” put a padlock on a door

[Tim Bellnier]

I own a North Carolina single family home with a full basement and one of the basement rooms (root cellar?)  has an exterior door that now is padlocked.

The lock was put on by an associate of the tenant and the tenant does not have a key nor does my tenant desire their associate to continue storing personal possessions there.  The owner of the personal property is not on my lease, never lived there, and never received any mail at the property.  Appears they simply saw the opportunity to get free storage and now refuse to respond to any requests to remove their property.

Any reason I should not remove the lock so I can do a regular inspection of my property?

[Brad Hammond]

Hey @Tim Bellnier, that's interesting.  I would make sure you have documentation of all the correspondence with the associate.  Let them know that since they are trespassing, you will confiscate all their possessions in XX amount of days.  If that doesn't get them to remove everything, I would hold on to it for a few days, then get rid of it.  Just make sure you reached out to them multiple times and gave them ample time to get their stuff out.