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Landlord removed stuff to dumpster with no notice

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Landlord removed stuff to dumpster with no notice

Postby Lori » Sun Jan 20, 2008 10:46 pm

My daughter is a student at Sunny College in NY she rented an apartment with 2 other students. Their lease was from Aug 20 to Dec 20. On Dec 20 she receive new lease and there was a new landlord on the lease. They were never notified. She came home signed the lease wrote the check for $1700.00 for semester. Few weeks went by and landlord finally picked up lease and check from post office on Jan 8th on 10th she receive letter and check back because he says she broke the previous lease and no one was in contact with him to let him know they were interested, also he said that the lease that she received was not good and he had not issued it that it came from the old landlord. We tried to work out with him but he was not very nice. We made arrangements to remove her stuff a week later he was in agreement to that. Two day before we were to go there she gets a call from her other roommate that he was throwing out everything in a dumpster. Every thing that my daughter had in other parts of the house are gone. Stero,toaster oven,dvd's,cable box and router. Other people in the house lost a laptop, play station 2 and other various items. What course of action do we have. Can anyone help with suggestions
Lori
 
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Joined: Sun Jan 20, 2008 9:04 pm

Postby cardinalfang » Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:50 am

It sounds like the tenants have a cause of action against the landlord for conversion (= theft or wrongful destruction of property) and can sue for money damages. If the landlord is sued in a city or district court, the suit can proceed as a small claim if it is up to $5,000, or as a regular civil case if the claim is for over $5,000 up to $15,000. In town and village courts the limit for civil claims is $3,000.

Good luck with this.
cardinalfang
 

Dumpster

Postby Emeraldstar » Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:22 am

Hi All
Aside from making a list of the items that were discarded as well as reciepts if you have them, you may find helpful any contracts to confirm services such as the laptop for dates in your posession.
This may be a long shot since the LL hired to co that came with the dumpster, but I'm thinking it would help if there is any way you could obtain confirmation of their service from them to also have a date/address when this disposal was done. See if any neighbors would sign a noterized statement they observed the disposal.
Speak with an atty if there are any damages towards such a short notice of non renewal.
Good Luck
Emeraldstar
 
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Joined: Sun Dec 18, 2005 2:01 am


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