76-1432. Remedies for absence, nonuse, and abandonment.

(1) If the rental agreement requires the tenant to give notice to the landlord of an anticipated extended absence in excess of seven days as required in section 76-1424 and the tenant willfully fails to do so, the landlord may recover actual damages from the tenant.

(2) During any absence of the tenant in excess of seven days, the landlord may enter the dwelling unit at times reasonably necessary.

(3) If the tenant abandons the dwelling unit, the landlord shall take immediate possession and shall make reasonable efforts to rent it at a fair rental. If the landlord rents the dwelling unit for a term beginning prior to the expiration of the rental agreement, it is deemed to be terminated as of the date the new tenancy begins. Total absence from the premises without notice to landlord for one full rental period or thirty days, whichever is less, shall constitute abandonment.

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Annotations

Abandonment of leased premises occurs when a tenant, with the intention to terminate contractual rights to exclusive possession or control of leased premises, voluntarily relinquishes or vacates the leased premises. Mason v. Schumacher, 231 Neb. 929, 439 N.W.2d 61 (1989).

In the absence of a tenant's explicit abandonment of residential premises, legitimation of a landlord's self-help recovery of the leased premises during the first thirty days of the tenant's absence may depend on unequivocal but circumstantial proof of the tenant's abandonment. Mason v. Schumacher, 231 Neb. 929, 439 N.W.2d 61 (1989).

Subsection (3) of this section does not abrogate or displace common law concerning abandonment of real estate leased for residential purposes. Mason v. Schumacher, 231 Neb. 929, 439 N.W.2d 61 (1989).