Bank has a safe deposit box rented to a man and his adult daughter (she is a joint owner on the box). The man (father) recently passed away and the daughter who lives several states away wants to mail the key to the bank, and wants the bank to open the box, remove the contents and mail them back to her. After this is completed she wants the bank to close the box permanently. How do we best handle this situation and is there a form we should have her sign prior to the bank accessing the box and removing the contents? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not a lawyer, but I doubt your bank wants to assume the liability of opening the box and mailing contents to her. What if she receives the box and says something is missing? How can you prove what was in the box?

My understanding is that state laws govern the (very few) instances in which a bank may access a safe deposit box without a customer being physically present. I'm sure you'll want to check your own state's laws and/or consult your bank's legal counsel before thinking about handling this situation the way your customer is requesting.

You could get the daughter to sign a hold harmless agreement and then have the box opened, contents boxed and mailed in the presence of two employees.

What exactly is a hold harmless agreement? Is this something you could provide a sample of? I am not familiar with this document. Thanks.

I don't have a sample, but basically it's an agreement that the boxholder will not come after the bank legally if there is any dispute as to the contents of the box that are forwarded to her. It also surrenders the boxholder's tenancy and releases the box to the bank for rental to others.

It's not something you want to draw up without counsel's input, IMO.

For what it's worth, we used to involve a notary not in our employ when we did the rare box opening in this way. The notary attested to the accuracy of the inventory. I know there have been a lot of changes in notarial practice, so this may not be done any longer.

John is correct that you should not draft any hold harmless agreement without consulting an attorney.

I would not recommend that your bank open the decedent's box, remove the contents and mailed them to the daughter. I have recommended the following in similar situations:

Have the person who is entitled to enter the box but lives too far away to come into the bank appoint an agent to come into the bank with the box key. The agent opens the box in the presence of 2 bank employees and an inventory is made of the box contents. The agent signs the inventory to acknowledge its accuracy and the receipt of all the contents. The agent leaves with the contents. You have the person sign a hold harmless agreement that sets forth this procedure and provides that the agent is receiving the contents on behalf of the person and the bank has no liability for turning over the contents to the agent and/or the agent failing to turn over all of the contents to the person. You mail a copy of the inventory signed by the agent to the person so he/she can make sure he/she is getting all of the contents from the agent.

Under agency law, the principal is bound by the acts of their agent. The appointment of the agent takes the bank out of the middle and coupled with the hold harmless agreement should eliminate any possible claims from the principal.

If the daughter doesn't want to sign a hold harmless agreement or appoint an agent I would tell her that she needs to come to your bank to personally close the box and remove the contents.