Topic: Safety Deposit Boxes
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Is there any law on how and when a safe deposit box can be drilled for non-payment?
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We are not aware of any Illinois law or regulation that expressly addresses drilling safe deposit boxes for nonpayment until the property in the box is presumed abandoned or your bank receives letters of office, another applicable court order, or a small estate affidavit requiring you to open the box and remove its contents. As…
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An individual who claims to be next of kin for a deceased customer wants to use a small estate affidavit to acquire property from the deceased customer’s safety deposit box. Do we have any responsibility to examine the contents of the safety deposit box to determine whether this really is a small estate?
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No, we do not believe that a bank is required to examine the contents of a safe deposit box before turning them over to the affiant under a small estate affidavit. Illinois law limits the use of a small estate affidavit to estates that do not exceed $100,000 in value. The Illinois small estate affidavit…
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We have two safe deposit boxes (for two different customers) that are both five years’ delinquent in paying their annual rental fees. We have sent multiple notices, the last of which was sent certified mail, return receipt requested. Both customers signed their return receipt cards but have made no other contact with the bank, and their fees remain outstanding. Is this an indication of interest, or can we drill the boxes and turn the contents over to the state?
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Yes, an apparent owner’s return of a signed return receipt for a notice regarding unclaimed property sent by certified mail would constitute an indication of interest under the Illinois Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (Illinois RUUPA). However, you still may be entitled to drill the boxes and remit property in the boxes to the Illinois…
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We did not send notice to our customers that property held in their safe deposit boxes would be reported as abandoned property until September 22, leaving fewer than sixty days before we must report and remit the property to the Illinois Treasurer. Is it too late to remit the property to the Illinois Treasurer this year, and are we required to send a second notice to these customers by certified mail?
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No, it is not too late to report and remit abandoned property held in the safe deposit boxes this year. We contacted the Illinois Treasurer’s office about this question (without using your bank’s name) and were told that if the sixty-day notice period will expire shortly after the November 1 deadline, you should delay filing…
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Our safety deposit box contract states that in cases of delinquencies, we may debit any of the customer’s accounts and access our customers’ boxes to collect their contents to satisfy delinquent rental payments, provided that we give our customers thirty days’ notice. What Illinois law or regulation allows this practice?
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We believe that Illinois law would allow a bank to apply a valid right of setoff to recover delinquent safety deposit box rental payments. Illinois courts have long confirmed banks’ setoff rights, which can arise either contractually (when a loan agreement or account agreement provides for a right of setoff) or under common law when…
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We have two approaches to keeping records of the times when customers access their safety deposit boxes. Some of our branches have an electric time stamp. At the branches that lack electronic time stamps, our employees handwrite the date and time when customers access their boxes. Both methods are documented in our written procedures as acceptable. If we present evidence of safety deposit box access in a court proceeding, would there be any concerns about the validity of our handwritten records as opposed to the time-stamped records?
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No, we would not anticipate any issues concerning the validity of handwritten records of safe deposit box access solely because such records are handwritten. We are not aware of any law or regulation stating that handwritten records should be viewed any more or less favorably than electronically generated records. For example, the Illinois Rules of…
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We are in the process of refunding customers who overpaid their safety deposit box fees, and some of the refund checks are for less than $1. Does Illinois law address whether there is a de minimis amount that does not have to be refunded?
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No, we are not aware of any Illinois law that would allow you to forgo refunding overpaid safety deposit box fees, even in very small amounts. We recommend reviewing the terms of your safety deposit box account agreements to determine whether they entitle you to retain overpaid fees in small amounts. If your agreements do…
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We are in the process of closing one of our branches and are working with safe deposit box customers to move their items. We haven’t been able to reach approximately thirty customers about their boxes. These customers are current on their payments, but they have not responded to our letters or phone calls. How can we move those boxes?
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We recommend reviewing your lease agreements for the safe deposit boxes and notifying your customers as required in those agreements. We are unaware of any law that directly addresses drilling a safe deposit box when the lessee is alive and is current on lease payments, which would be the case here. Whether and when you…
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We have abandoned safe deposit box contents stored in our vault from the 1970s. The contents are mainly sentimental items (birth certificates, a will, receipt for a jewelry purchase, an infant’s hospital bracelet) stored in manila envelopes and identified by only the customer’s last name and box number. Do we need to escheat these items to the state even though there is no known monetary value and the only identifying information is a last name? If we don’t escheat them, do we have to continue holding these items or can we dispose of them?
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Yes, we believe that these items must be reported and remitted to the State Treasurer under the Illinois Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (RUUPA). The Illinois RUUPA requires that tangible property held in a safe deposit box is presumed abandoned if unclaimed five years after the expiration of the lease or rental period for the…
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We rented a safe deposit box to a customer who is now deceased. The customer’s spouse provided us with a death certificate and a small estate affidavit that was used to sell the customer’s vehicle. Is this documentation sufficient for us to provide the spouse with access to the box?
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Yes, we believe that a small estate affidavit is sufficient documentation for the spouse to access the safe deposit box. The Illinois Probate Act requires financial institutions to grant access to safe deposit boxes in accordance with a valid small estate affidavit. The Safety Deposit Box Opening Act requires financial institutions to allow a person…