You cannot abandon real property
A helpful precedent can be found in a 1995 trial court ruling in Pennsylvania on the question of abandonment of real property. It is commonly noted that one can abandon personal property by acts that clearly show an intent to relinquish ownership. At the same time, Dean Eduardo Peñalver has shown environmental laws, among others, so heavily regulate the ability to discard personal property, that the “right to abandon” is more illusory than real. Eduardo M. Peñalver, The Illusory Right to Abandon, 109 Mich. L. Rev. 191 (2010). When we try to find out the rules about abandonment of real property, we will not find them because traditionally one is not empowered to abandon real property even if one intends to do so. That is because owners have duties as well as rights, including the duty to pay property taxes and to avoid causing a public nuisance, among others. For an example …