§ 1370.Power of Controller to Sell Or Lease Personal Property

Personal property sitting unclaimed does the original owner no good and can lose value the longer it sits, so Section 1370 gives the Controller wide latitude to convert it into cash. The Controller may sell or lease personal property at any time, and in any manner, without the section tying that authority to a fixed schedule or a single required method.

The Controller can also execute leases directly on behalf of and in the name of the State of California, rather than needing some other official to sign on the state's behalf. That flexibility sets up the more detailed rules the rest of Article 3 supplies for particular kinds of property, like securities in Section 1371 and real property sold at public auction in Section 1373, while this section establishes the baseline authority over personal property generally.