SB 399 - This act modifies the crime of failing to return leased or rented property and changes the name of the crime to stealing leased or rented property. The following actions are added to the list of offenses that constitute the crime if the person commits the offense with the intent to deprive the owner of the property: aiding or abetting the concealment of leased or rented property; selling, encumbering, conveying, pawning, loaning, abandoning, or giving away the leased or rented property or any part thereof, without the written consent of the lessor or informing the person who receives the property that it is subject to a lease; and failing to pay lease charges after returning the property with the intent to deprive the lessor of the agreed upon charges.
Current law provides that it is evidence of the crime when a person who has leased or rented property, other than a motor vehicle, fails to return the property ten days after the owner has sent written demand by certified or registered mail to the address provided in the lease agreement. Such demand must include a statement that the failure to return the property may subject the person to criminal prosecution.
Under this act, evidence of intent to commit the crime is established if the lessee uses a false, fictitious, or not current name, address, or place of employment in obtaining the property or if the lessee fails to return the property or pay the lease charges within seven days after written demand sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the address provided in the lease agreement or the person's last known address.
Currently, failure to return leased or rented property is a Class A misdemeanor unless the property is valued at $500 or more, in which case it is a Class C felony. This act increases the property value cutoff so that the crime becomes a Class C felony if the property is valued at $1,000 or more.
This act is similar to HB 1448 (2010) and is identical to SS/SCS/HCS/HB 111 (2011).
MEGHAN LUECKE