(a) Upon the payment or delivery of escheated property to the Controller, the state shall assume custody and shall be responsible for the safekeeping of the property. Any person who pays or delivers escheated property to the Controller under this chapter and who, prior to escheat, if the person’s records contain an address for the apparent owner, which the holder’s records do not disclose to be inaccurate, has made reasonable efforts to notify the owner by mail or, if the owner has consented to electronic notice, electronically, in substantial compliance with Sections 1513.5, 1514, 1516, and 1520, that the owner’s property, deposit, account, shares, or other interest will escheat to the state, is relieved of all liability to the extent of the value of the property so paid or delivered for any claim which then exists or which thereafter may arise or be made in respect to the property. Property removed from a safe deposit box or other safekeeping repository shall be received by the Controller subject to any valid lien of the holder for rent and other charges, such rent and other charges to be paid out of the proceeds remaining after the Controller has deducted therefrom his or her selling cost.

(b) Any holder who has paid moneys to the State Controller pursuant to this chapter may make payment to any person appearing to such holder to be entitled thereto, and upon filing proof of such payment and proof that the payee was entitled thereto, the Controller shall forthwith reimburse the holder for the payment without deduction of any fee or other charges. Where reimbursement is sought for a payment made on a negotiable instrument (including a traveler’s check or money order), the holder shall be reimbursed under this subdivision upon filing proof that the instrument was duly presented to him or her and that payment was made thereon to a person who appeared to the holder to be entitled to payment.

(c) The holder shall be reimbursed under this section even if he made the payment to a person whose claim against him was barred because of the expiration of any such period of time as those described in Section 1570.

(d) Any holder who has delivered personal property, including a certificate of any interest in a business association, to the Controller pursuant to this chapter may reclaim such personal property if still in the possession of the Controller without payment of any fee or other charges upon filing proof that the owner thereof has claimed such personal property from such holder. The Controller may, in his or her discretion, accept an affidavit of the holder stating the facts that entitle the holder to reimbursement under this subdivision as sufficient proof for the purposes of this subdivision.

(Amended by Stats. 2009, Ch. 522, Sec. 7. (AB 1291) Effective January 1, 2010.)