What are the rules when a client wants me to sell or donate their belongings for them?

The short answer: you may sell or donate a client's belongings only when someone with legal authority over that property has told you in writing that you may, and only in the way your state allows a person in your role to do it. Authority comes from the competent owner, from an agent named in a durable power of attorney, or from a personal representative appointed by a probate court. Nothing else counts, not a daughter's phone call, not a consensus at the kitchen table.

Beyond authority sits a second layer: how the sale happens. Several states license auctioneers and, in a handful, estate sale conduct falls under that same licensing or under secondhand dealer rules. Consignment adds a title question, because the goods stay the client's property until a buyer pays. Donations add substantiation rules that decide what the client can actually claim on a tax return.

None of this is exotic. It is a paperwork discipline you set up once, then run the same way on every job. Here is how the pieces fit.

Where disposition authority comes from: client, power of attorney, or executor

Three sources, and they do not overlap as neatly as families assume.

A competent client owns her things and can direct you to sell, gift, or discard any of them. Your job is to get that direction on paper, item by item for anything of consequence, and to notice if capacity looks unstable. If she cannot recall on Thursday what she authorized on Tuesday, stop and raise it.

A durable power of attorney names an agent who may act while the principal is alive. Read the actual document. Many POAs grant broad authority over personal property; some restrict gifting, and gifting restrictions matter because "give the dining set to the grandson" is a gift, not a sale. If the instrument does not grant gifting power, the agent may not gift, and you should not be the one carrying the furniture out.

An executor or personal representative acts only after death and only once letters testamentary or letters of administration are issued. A named executor with no letters yet has no authority. Ask for the letters and keep a copy in the job file.

The document checklist before anything leaves the house

• Copy of the POA or the letters, with the page granting personal property authority flagged.
• Signed disposition authorization naming who is directing the work.
• Written list of items excluded from disposition, including anything named in a will or a personal property memorandum.
• Your services agreement stating clearly that you do not appraise, do not guarantee value, and do not determine ownership.

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State licensing for estate sales and auctioneers

There is no national estate sale license. Regulation is state by state, and sometimes city by city, so the only reliable answer is the one you get from your own state.

The patterns you will run into are these. Several states license auctioneers and define auction broadly enough that a bid based sale on site requires a licensed auctioneer, even in a private home. Some states or municipalities treat a business reselling used household goods as a secondhand dealer, with registration and sometimes a record keeping duty on certain categories. Many jurisdictions require a sales tax permit and collection on tangible personal property sold at a public estate sale, and an occasional sale exemption may or may not apply depending on how often you run sales.

Practical rule: if you conduct sales open to the public, call your state licensing agency and your state department of revenue, once, and write down the answer. If you would rather stay out of that entirely, partner with a licensed estate sale company and stay in your lane as the move manager who prepares, stages, and documents. That is a legitimate and common structure.

Consignment agreements and who holds title until sale

Consignment is not a sale to the shop. The client keeps title until the shop sells the item to a buyer. That single fact drives everything you should insist on in the agreement.

Have the client or the authorized agent sign the consignment contract, not you. You witness and file it. The moment you sign as the contracting party, you have made yourself the owner's stand in for a dispute you did not create.

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Charitable donation receipts and what a nonprofit can legally value

Charities do not appraise. A qualified 501(c)(3) will give a receipt acknowledging that it received goods, and it will describe them in general terms, but the value on the client's tax return is the donor's responsibility. Any receipt that arrives with a dollar figure the charity assigned should make you cautious rather than pleased.

The substantiation ladder is worth knowing, in outline, so you can tell a family what to collect. Small donations need a receipt from the organization showing name, date, and a description of what was given. Larger noncash gifts require the donor to file a specific noncash contributions form with the return. Above a higher threshold, the IRS generally requires a qualified appraisal, and the charity signs an acknowledgment section on the form. Household goods generally must be in good used condition or better to be deductible at all.

Your role is narrow and useful: photograph the load, produce an itemized list before the truck leaves, get the receipt signed and dated by the charity, and hand all three to the family. Then say the sentence out loud: valuation is for their CPA, not for you.

Handling proceeds: separate accounts and written accounting

Wherever possible, do not touch the money. Sale proceeds should go directly from the buyer, the shop, or the estate sale company to the client or the estate. That single structural choice removes most of your exposure.

When you cannot avoid receiving funds, for example cash from a small on site sale you supervised, run it like a trust. Client money never enters your operating account. Use a separate account, deposit within one business day, and issue a written accounting.

A worked example. A garage sale weekend yields $1,840 in cash. Your agreement charges hourly for staffing, and two staff worked nine hours each at $58 per hour, so $1,044 in labor. Do not net the labor out of the cash. Deposit the full $1,840, remit $1,840 to the client, and invoice the $1,044 separately. Netting looks efficient and reads, later, like self dealing.

The accounting you hand over should list gross receipts by channel, any fees deducted by a third party with the third party's own statement attached, the amount remitted, and the date and method. One page. Signed by you.

See how DownsizeRoute handles this for senior move management

Items you should refuse to move or sell

Some categories are not a judgment call. Build the refusal list into your agreement so the conversation happens at the estimate, not in the driveway.

• Firearms and ammunition. Transfer rules are federal and state specific. Route to a licensed dealer or law enforcement, never in your van.
• Prescription medication and controlled substances. Take back programs and pharmacy disposal only.
• Cash, jewelry, coins, and documents. Client or family retains custody. If you find them mid sort, photograph, log, and hand over the same day with a signature.
• Hazardous materials. Paint, solvents, propane, pool chemicals, old pesticides. Household hazardous waste facility, and your movers will refuse them anyway.
• Recalled goods and drop side cribs. Reselling recalled products is prohibited.
• Anything with a disputed owner. If two family members both claim the secretary desk, it stays where it is until they resolve it in writing.
• Items named in a will or personal property memorandum. Those are distributions, not disposition.

Documenting disposition so the family cannot dispute it later

Nearly every disposition complaint has the same shape: a relative who was not present becomes convinced something valuable vanished. Your defense is not memory. It is a contemporaneous record made before the item left.

Photograph every room before sorting begins, wide shots plus closeups of anything that looks like furniture, art, or a collection. Keep an itemized disposition log with five columns: item, room, decision, destination, date. Have the authorizing person initial each page at the end of each working day, while the day is fresh. Attach the charity receipts, the consignment contracts, and the dump or junk hauler weight tickets to the log.

Then send a written summary at the close of the job, to everyone the client has asked you to copy. Silence is what breeds suspicion. A weekly note listing what went where, sent to four adult children, ends most disputes before they form.

Where to keep all of this

The rules are manageable. The record keeping is what fails, because it happens in a house with no printer, on a day with three trucks, while someone's mother is crying about a piano.

DownsizeRoute is built for exactly that moment. Keep and donate decisions are recorded by room as you make them, each item carries its destination, and the floor plan tells you in advance what actually fits in the new apartment so the disposition list stops growing on move day. The family approved plan and the signed disposition log come out of the same file, which means the summary you send on Friday is already written.