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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2017
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    2

    Exclamation Is Someone Who Sells My Property Without Permission a Thief

    My question involves personal property located in the State of: pa
    Me and my fiancées things were in a trailer at his parents house. We lived in their house, not the trailer. We suddenly left, and we had to leave some things behind. We never said they could sell our stuff. Can his father sell our stuff that we owned without our permission if it was on his preoperty? I'm talking about household items, clothes, the list goes on. Since we had to leave some stuff behind, did that automatically make it his belongings? Or does that make him a thief since we were not informed that he sold our stuff.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    California
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    20,594

    Default Re: Is Someone That Sells My Property Without Permission a Thief

    How long were you gone? Did his father know how to contact you? Did he ask you to remove the items? Have you contacted the local police and asked THEM about this?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2017
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    2

    Default Re: Is Someone That Sells My Property Without Permission a Thief

    Um I'd say around march 6. No 30 day warning, and yes he did he could of contacted us easily. And no he did not ask us to remove everything. And no I wanted other opinions

    Quote Quoting cdwjava
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    How long were you gone? Did his father know how to contact you? Did he ask you to remove the items? Have you contacted the local police and asked THEM about this?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    California
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    20,594

    Default Re: Is Someone That Sells My Property Without Permission a Thief

    So, you left the residence two months ago, effectively abandoning your property there? And you gave him no instruction on the disposition of your property?

    When you asked him why he sold your stuff, what did he say?

    And who was your or his emergency contact?

    It seems, under PA law, that the landlord has to notify you in writing of their intent, and you have ten days to respond. If, however, you had no forwarding address, and your emergency contact was his father, you may be in a bit of a quandary.

    You and your boyfriend are free to file in Small Claims Court for the value of the loss should you wish. If his father failed to follow the proper rules regarding the disposal of abandoned property, you may prevail.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
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    7,056

    Default Re: Is Someone That Sells My Property Without Permission a Thief

    I'm not convinced that this is a tenant-landlord situation without knowing the facts of the arrangement.

    But it would be a constructive bailment where the circumstances create an obligation upon the custodian to protect the goods if not tenant-landlord.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    California
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    20,594

    Default Re: Is Someone That Sells My Property Without Permission a Thief

    It certainly sounds like it would be to me., They lived with his father, then they left with their stuff behind. In most states no written lease or contract is required to establish this relationship. But, PA may define these relationships differently. The states I am familiar with would tend to define this as a landlord-tenant relationship ... unless, of course,the OP and her boyfriend were living on a couch and the stay was short.

    In either case, this is almost certainly going to be a matter settled in a Small Claims or other civil court.

    It is also possible that PA grants a person on whose property crap is abandoned - and NOT a landlord-tenant relationship - a relatively quick chance to dispose of it. I found the ten day notice rule to be rather swift, so they may have something similar for abandoned stuff.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    Default Re: Is Someone Who Sells My Property Without Permission a Thief

    Are you stating that nothing happened -- no requests for you to collect your stuff, no indication that your fiancée's father wanted the stuff gone -- between the time you filled up his trailer with your stuff and the time it was sold? You understood you could use his trailer as a storage unit, indefinitely and for free, and he never said one word to the contrary before telling you that your stuff had been sold? Because the facts of what happened can affect your legal rights.

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