(a) If the amount due for the use of any safe or box in the vaults of a financial institution is not paid for one year, or such other period as may be fixed in the contract of renting of such safe or box, the financial institution, at the expiration thereof, may cause to be sent to the person in whose name the safe or box stands on its books, a notice in writing that if the amount then due for the use of the safe or box is not paid within 60 days from the date of the notice, the financial institution will then cause the safe or box to be opened in the presence of an officer duly authorized by the governing body and of a notary public not an officer or in the employ of the financial institution, and the contents thereof, if any, will be sealed up by the notary in a package upon which the notary will distinctly mark the name and address of the person in whose name such safe or box stands upon the books of the financial institution and the estimated value thereof. The package so sealed and addressed, when marked for identification by the notary, will be placed by the notary in one of the general safes or boxes of such financial institution. The notice shall be sent in a postage prepaid registered letter directed to that person at his or her post office address as recorded upon the books of the financial institution, and at his or her last known address.

(b) The proceedings of the notary shall be fully set forth in the notary's own handwriting and official seal in a book to be kept by the financial institution for that purpose. After such contents have been so placed in general safes or boxes, the financial institution shall be required to use only the degree of care required of a bailee for the sole benefit of the bailor notwithstanding the contract of renting requires a higher degree of care during the period of renting. (Added 1999, No. 153 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. Jan. 1, 2001.)