Title 40 — Public Buildings, Property, and WorksRelease 119-73
§1309 Preservation, sale, or collection of wrecked, abandoned, or derelict property
Title 40 › Subtitle SUBTITLE I— - FEDERAL PROPERTY AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES › Chapter CHAPTER 13— - PUBLIC PROPERTY › § 1309
Summary
The GSA Administrator may make deals to save, sell, or collect wrecked, abandoned, or derelict property that is under U.S. control and should belong to the Government. The Administrator can pay people who report or turn in the property, but the Government’s costs under each deal cannot be more than the money it actually gets from the property.
Full Legal Text
Title 40, §1309
Public Buildings, Property, and Works — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
The Administrator of General Services may make contracts and provisions for the preservation, sale, or collection of property, or the proceeds of property, which may have been wrecked, been abandoned, or become derelict, if the Administrator considers the contracts and provisions to be in the interest of the Federal Government and the property is within the jurisdiction of the United States and should come to the Government. A contract may provide compensation the Administrator considers just and reasonable to any person who gives information about the property or actually preserves, collects, surrenders, or pays over the property. Under each specific agreement for obtaining, preserving, collecting, or receiving property or making property available, the costs or claim chargeable to the Government may not exceed amounts realized and received by the Government.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Historical and Revision Notes
Revised SectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large) 130940:310.R.S. § 3755; Pub. L. 89–30, § 4, June 2, 1965, 79 Stat. 119. The words “or of any moneys, dues, and other interests lately in the possession of or due to the so-called Confederate States, or their agents, and now belonging to the United States, which are now withheld or retained by any person, corporation or municipality whatever, and which ought to have come into the possession and custody of, or been collected or received by, the United States” in section 3755 of the Revised Statues [sic] and “debts, dues, or interests, which shall not be paid from such moneys as shall be realized and received from the property so collected, under each specific agreement” are omitted as obsolete.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
40 U.S.C. § 1309
Title 40 — Public Buildings, Property, and Works
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73