My question involves personal property located in the State of: New Jersey
This is my situation:
I am a recently graduated student who still plans living in local college town. The lease for the house I lived in this past year just expired on May 25th, and my new one did not start til June 1st, so there was a period between leases where I needed a place to store my belongings.
My new landlord told me I could put my stuff in the basement until the house was ready to be moved in to. The old tenants had ruined the house, destroying doors and walls that needed to be repaired. I was out of town during the move out day, but my housemates were able to successfully move my belongings to the basement, along with some of theirs.
When i return back to town, I go to the house to grab some of my belongings from the basement, and many valuables are missing. Things like TV, xbox, camera, etc. All bags, drawers, suitcases, etc were open and looked through. The only people in the house during that time period, were the workers hired by the landlord, but I have strong reason to believe that the ex-tenants were also around to retrieve some of their old belongings. I am under the impression that it was these ex-tenants who had seen the things in the basement and taken them before leaving.
So, Im left wondering, what now is my appropriate legal action to take? I am moving into the place tomorrow, and will get the police report done before I move my things from the basement. The landlord talked to both the workers and the ex tenants, who denied taking anything. Can the landlord be held responsible for the losses? How about the ex tenants, since many locks and doors were broken as a result of their damage to the house? The landlord plans on suing them for the damages, could this be tacked on to that? My landlord has never dealt with this before, so he has left it to me to work through, although he said he will help and give any information as necesary.
Thanks.

