§ 1533.Not In Interest of State to Take Custody of Tangible Personal Property

Not every item a holder reports is worth the state's trouble to collect, store, and eventually sell, and Section 1533 gives the Controller a way to opt out of the least valuable tangible items. Within 120 days after receiving the report required by Section 1530, the Controller can determine that taking custody of a particular piece of tangible personal property isn't in the state's interest and notify the holder of that decision in writing.

Once that determination is made, the property takes a different path entirely. It gets excluded from the published notice Section 1531 otherwise requires, it never has to be delivered to the Controller, and it doesn't escheat to the state at all. The holder is left holding property the state has affirmatively passed on, rather than property waiting in the pipeline for eventual state custody.