IBA Compliance Connection

Your go to source for compliance!

Can we drill a safe deposit box if rent goes unpaid for twelve months? Our current practice is to wait until the box must be reported to the state as abandoned – after five years – but our safe deposit box agreement authorizes us to forcibly open the box after a six month default and sixty days written notice. We would like to shorten our practice and drill earlier, if possible.

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While the Illinois Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act requires your bank to report and remit safe deposit box property five years after the lease expires, it does not prevent you from drilling the box before that date. The Act expressly recognizes the practice of drilling safe deposit boxes and selling the property before remitting the property to the state. At the appropriate time, a safe deposit box lessor either must remit the property held in the box or remit “any surplus amounts arising from the sale thereof . . . . subject to lien of the holder for reimbursement of costs incurred in the opening of a safe deposit box as determined by the holder’s regular schedule of charges.” 765 ILCS 1025/2(d) [Repealed effective 1/1/18].