Submitted by Loveroffinerthings t3_zmqr8u in RhodeIsland
I’m renting kitchen space from a man that owns a full bar/restaurant. He purchased the equipment and property in the building 18 months ago, and is leasing the building from a developer that owns the whole strip mall. He doesn’t use the kitchen, just the bar, so I get free reign if the kitchen. I’ve been in the space for 24 months, so even before this man bought everything. Here is the issue; Ecolab came to him about a year ago and said “hey we left the dish machine in there when the last business closed down, but if you want to lease this machine, it’s $100/mo plus chemical costs, which must be a minimum of $250/mo”. They never followed up, until today. He doesn’t use the machine, and said it’s up to me to figure out if I want to do it or not. The restaurant had not been in use since before 2020, and someone started a commissary kitchen in late 2020, which is where I was leasing from before the current owner bought everything. My question, since I’ve maintained, and used this machine for 2 years, would it be considered abandoned? I have no idea if it’s actually their machine or not, there is just a sticker on it for service calls. Would they need to prove it’s theirs before taking it? I know some states say if you leave equipment in a space it becomes abandoned after a certain amount of time. Not sure where RI would be on this.
bluehat9 t1_j0cqu4w wrote
This sounds like a legal question and so I would urge you to not rely on information you find here.
Can you just keep ignoring them? Probably. You could contact them and say "I don't use it so if you want it come and get it or if you make me a much better offer I might accept and start using it but that is too much" - they might decide it's not worth it