Not yet, and probably not the way you want to. Whether the person who left was a spouse, a partner, or a roommate, their belongings are still their belongings, and Utah law gives you a process for dealing with property someone leaves behind, not a right to put it on the curb. The process depends on who the ex was and whether a divorce is pending, and skipping it can turn a box of old clothes into a lawsuit, a contempt finding, or a criminal complaint. Here is what applies in each situation.

If you are getting divorced

This is the situation with the most rules and the most risk. Until the divorce is final, everything either of you owns is either marital property, which belongs to both of you until a court divides it, or separate property, which belongs to one of you but which the court still has to identify and award. Throwing away, selling, giving away, or destroying any of it while the case is pending is a problem.

Utah courts routinely enter temporary orders, and many districts have standing orders that apply automatically when a divorce is filed, that prohibit either spouse from disposing of property outside the ordinary course of life. Violating that order is contempt. Even without a specific order, a spouse who destroys the other spouse’s property will answer for it in the property division: the court can value what was destroyed, charge it against the destroying spouse’s share, and draw conclusions about that spouse’s credibility on everything else. Destroying a spouse’s belongings in anger is also a common allegation in protective order cases, and it can be treated as evidence of domestic violence.

The right approach is to leave the property where it is, or box it and store it, document what is there with photos, and let the attorneys arrange a time for your spouse to retrieve it. If your spouse will not come get it, the decree can address it, and a spouse who is ordered to retrieve property and does not do so within a set time has a much harder time complaining later.

If the divorce is final

The decree should have divided the personal property and set a deadline for each of you to collect what is yours. If your ex left items behind that the decree awarded to them, and the deadline has passed, you have more freedom, but not unlimited freedom. Send a written notice, by text or email and ideally also by mail, stating what property is there, that they have a specific reasonable time to collect it, and that you will dispose of it afterward. Keep the notice and photos of the property. If they do not respond, you are in a strong position to dispose of it, and a later claim is unlikely to go anywhere.

If the decree did not address the property, or awarded it to you, it is yours to do with as you like. If you are not sure, check the decree before you act; the decree controls, not your memory of who bought what.

If you were never married and lived together

Utah does not treat unmarried partners as having any interest in each other’s property, so an ex-partner’s belongings are simply their belongings, and yours are yours. Throwing away someone else’s property is conversion, a civil claim for the value of what was destroyed, and in some circumstances it can be charged as criminal mischief or theft. The fact that they left, or that the breakup was their fault, is not a defense.

If your ex was a tenant on the lease, Utah’s landlord-tenant rules for abandoned property may apply, and they are specific: written notice, a holding period of at least fifteen days, and disposition afterward. If your ex was not a tenant and simply lived with you, there is no statute setting a precise waiting period, and the safe course is the same as after a divorce: written notice, a reasonable time to collect, documentation, and then disposal. What counts as reasonable depends on the value of the property and how hard it is for the ex to retrieve it. Thirty days is usually defensible for ordinary belongings. Valuable or sentimental items, such as documents, photographs, heirlooms, and electronics, deserve more care, and it is worth storing them rather than destroying them even after the deadline.

What you should never do

Do not destroy documents, identification, passports, medical records, or anything your ex may need to function. That is the conduct most likely to become a police report, and it looks terrible in any later case.

Do not sell or give away items and keep the money. Conversion damages are measured by value, and a sale creates a clear record of it.

Do not hold property hostage to force your ex to do something, such as pay money, return your things, or agree to custody terms. Judges treat that as coercion, and in a protective order context it is evidence.

Do not post the belongings for free online or leave them on the lawn as a message. It feels satisfying and it is exactly the kind of thing that gets screenshotted and filed.

If you are the ex whose things were thrown away

Send a written demand identifying what was taken or destroyed and its value. If the property was significant, talk to an attorney about a conversion claim, or, in a divorce, about a motion to have the destruction accounted for in the property division. If the destruction was part of a pattern of intimidation, it may support a protective order. Our article on what to do when an ex will not return your things covers the retrieval side, including how to arrange a civil standby with police for a pickup.

The short version

Give notice, give time, keep records, and then act. It is slower than the dumpster, and it is the difference between closing the chapter and opening a new case.

CoilLaw handles divorce, property division, and protective order matters throughout Utah. If an ex’s belongings, or your own, have become a dispute, we can help you resolve it without making it worse.

This article is general information about Utah law, not legal advice for your situation.