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Moved Without Notice, Cotenant Damaged, Stole and Refused Return of Belongings

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  • 05-22-2011, 09:40 PM
    AMParis
    Moved Without Notice, Cotenant Damaged, Stole and Refused Return of Belongings
    My question involves a roommate in the State of: Florida

    After desperately needing a place to stay on short notice, a 'friend' allowed me to move into her house that she was renting for the past 3 years from her landlord. She said I could move all of my furniture and items into the basement and either set up and use that as my room for $500 a month or keep them down there and live upstairs in the small bedroom for $400/mnth. I did the latter, keeping everything very organized and kept to one corner (I don't own too many things and they all were stackable, leaving over 3/4 of the basement that was never used still wide open). We agreed that I would only stay there until I found a place more permanent.

    She specifically said that I would not pay utilities until after the first couple of months, if I was still there which kept changing each month, especially since she originally made it seem that they were included in the total amount.

    I stayed there from February 5th until April 30th and moved right out because I could no longer afford to be there. I gave no notice, but there was never an aggreement of how long I would stay or how much notice to give.

    Over the three months of living there, I did pay $86 towards her "utilities" one month, and $50 the next month. She went through my items in the basement and would randomly bring them upstairs without my permission, like my TV, my coffee table, my 4 very expensive chairs, paint supplies, all of my cleaning supplies and 2 large drawer units with my clothing in them. There would be parties into the early hours of the morning, random people were living on the couch, and always had a house full of people, while I had no lock on my door. My car was wrecked and while I was trying to work with insurance and get it fixed through an authorized auto shop, she arranged a tow truck to show up one morning and forced me to sign it to them and have it taken to her friend's father's shop or she would have it removed from the property (2 days later she had a broken down vehicle brought in and put in it's place). The shop took 3 months to fix it and is the reason I am in financial difficulties now (having to cut back on work due to no car and taking cabs/rides into work cost me $$). I just got the car back on Thursday.

    After moving out, I tried to come back several times to get my things, only she would continuously state that I needed to set up an appointment with her (I had the keys but she started to deadbolt the home, the only key I did not have) and give her a 24hr notice or 2 days. I would not always have the luxury of doing this when I am trying to get help to move on a whim, and when I tried to tell her, she rarely would answer.
    Last week I finally decided to just tell her 5 hours in advance I needed to come get my things, and I did so...she was at work, there were 6 others home, she told them to refuse entry. I called the police and had them come to assist me, only while they were hiding the drug paraphernalia upstairs, they were also trashing my things downstairs, throwing things all over, stealing items, and slicing into my leather chairs. When I was about to leave after loading as much as we could, she returned home and started to literally throw my items out of the house, screaming and throwing a fit about how I should not be allowed to do this with her not home.

    I did not speak to her through all of this, and the cops tried to make her calm down over nothing...she had already either gave away or sold or hid my 52" LCD TV without my knowledge, and she/her friends stole my nice coffee table, and my entire Wii system (that was practically brand new and only played 2 times, it was packed away in the original boxes) and several other items and very expensive shoes...all the damage and stolen property I have photos of and/or receipts, as well as witnesses who saw them when they helped me move them into her place to begin with (she tried to tell the cops that all of the items were hers and nothing was mine, they didn't quite believe her). She then changed her story to that I owed her $55 for utilities which she came up with after I moved out, to that I owed rent for moving w/o notice so she was keeping my things, to all the trouble could have been avoided if I just made an appointment.
    I have threatening text messages from her and all communication was through saved texts messages. She is the type that would retaliate (obviously from the damaged/stolen things) and I had to have her banned from my place of work.

    What all can I take her to court for? Stolen property: $3150, Damaged property: $1,350. I take care of my things and work hard for them, so this was a huge hit to me. She really doesn't have anything so I don't even know what all will happen if I take her to court and she cannot pay if the ruling is in my favor. :wallbang:
  • 05-23-2011, 09:27 PM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Moved Without Notice, Cotenant Damaged, Stole and Refused Return of Belongings
    You can take her to small claims court for whatever damages you believe you can prove in court, up to a maximum of $5,000. If she has no money to pay a judgment, then... she has no money to pay a judgment.
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