You should have been given notice and/or 30 days to vacate the property. As far as stealing your personal items you should called the police and reported all your items stolen. Have a itemized list of everything that was taken and destroyed and make sure that this itemized list is included in the police report. Also have a copy of your lease or rental agreement. Get a copy of your utility bills. This way it will show that you lived there. Armed with all of that you should be able to make a good case at small claims court.
What state do you live in? My daughter was actually threatened with a bulldozer and physically being removed by land lord my other daughter had her belongings taken by landlord and never got anything back.
I don't have the answer but a question....My landlord started proceedings for eviction due to lack of paying rent....Then my hot water heater breaks and electric in my apartment only works on half of it....I lived in a complex and have 2 school age children...So we started to stay at my boyfriends place....I called the office and told them and they did nothing to fix it....I returned almost daily to pick up items and see if they fixed it....Now I was wrong for not paying my rent....I was mailed paperwork from the court stating eviction process had started....that was mid january...my boyfriend and I decided to just find a house together....I guess February 11th they cleaned out my apartment claiming they tried to reach me (they had work cell and my mothers number) but only called my mother because they found my birth certificate....I went to my apartment on February 11th in the afternoon and ALL my things were destroyed and taken (beds, tv's, kids clothes, toys, pictures broken etc...) I live in Florida and from what I read they are supposed to put all my items in a locked storage unit?? Is this true and at this point can I inform the police of these actions??
This is simply outrageous. The landlord or the agent cannot damage your property or belongings in any way. Including stealing which is a crime by itself. You can complain against this incident to the police.
A Land Lord can not lock you out of the property unless it is court ordered by a judge that you have been evicted, by which point you have a certain amount of time to be out. Usually a Judge who orders an eviction, will give you anywhere from a 72-24 hours to be out. Perfectly legally. If you are not out by then, the Land lord does have the right to lock you out of the house, and have the city marshall remove you from the property.
What ever is left in the house by that point becomes the sole property of the property owner. In other words your stuff left in the house then becomes the property of the Land Lord. Which they may do how they wish with your things. They can pawn it or sell it to get some value that you owe them from it. It's savage but it can be done.
But they must take you to court first and have a court order to evict you before any of this can happen! If there is no order from the judge and/or you are moved out before the court order runs out, the Land Lord can NOT lock you out of the property, and can NOT touch your belongings. But if you are there past the court ordered eviction time period, then the Land Lord has all rights to do this.
