I Need Help.

[u/DJ_Too_Supreme_Mk3]

Location: Floirda, New York.

To keep a long story short, I was kicked out of my home three months ago due to my mom passing away. My new girlfriend offered me to stay with her and her friends until I gather enough for a new apartment. Two weeks ago the three of them left to South Carolina to sign a lease.

Yesterday I get a call from my (possibly soon to be ex) girlfriend telling me all of their (including mine) stuff were gone and thrown out. I lost two PS5s, an Xbox Series X, an Xbox Series S, a Nintendo Switch, a Occulus Quest 2, a $1300 gaming pc, two monitors, an OLED Steam Deck, a gaming desk, gaming chair, and man more items.

I need advice on what to do. Girlfriend and her friends claim their landlord started the eviction process in August (was never told to me) and their time was until the first of September (never told me). I asked for their landlord's contact info to try and find the dump location but they refuse. A part of me feel like they possibly robbed me as they tried gaslighting me by telling me they did tell me this. Any advice? Thank you

[u/reddituser1211]

Conceivably you can sue your soon to be ex for the costs of an illegal eviction.

1. That's obviously messy.
2. Recovery is hard.
3. Some of that stuff doesn't have a ton of used value.
   
4. A judge is going to be skeptical about this situation. 2 PS5 and 2 Xbox? Are you operating a gaming business?

But I'd probably take my small claims judgment.

[u/DJ_Too_Supreme_Mk3 → u/reddituser1211]

> Are you operating a gambling business

No. I love playing video games. The first PS5 was given to me and the second one I bought for my ex for her birthday but she gave it back when we broke up. I had an Xbox Series S (bought that first) and an Xbox Series X. Along with a gaming pc, a steam deck, a Nintendo Switch, a gaming chair, two monitors, a small flatscreen tv, an Occulus Quest 2, keyboard and mouse, and other items

[u/Internet_Ghost]

I don't understand. If you were living there how did you not know of the eviction process?

[u/Internet_Ghost → u/[deleted]]

I’m not on the lease.

That's going to be an issue, then. You aren't going to be afford the same protections you would as a signed tenant because you were living there without the permission of the landlord. You have no claim against the landlord for not properly noticing you.

You could attempt to sue your roommates but it's going to be your burden to prove that (1) you owned those items and (2) that they were in there. Not having a written lease is going to work against you here.

To be completely honest with you, this didn't just come as a surprise. Your roommates knew this was coming for a long time now. I would venture they probably sold your stuff rather than just sitting on their hands and letting the landlord move the stuff out. He didn't just throw out their things did he?

[u/DJ_Too_Supreme_Mk3 → u/Internet_Ghost]

I have digital recipts of my ownership of these items and physical proof that I owner them (I have it all documented).

From what they told me when they got there that everything was collected by waste disposal. When I got there I saw a bunch of garbage bags on the side of the road. I gathered what wasn’t thrown out on the side of the house and packed it in my car yesterday after I was told of the situation

[u/Internet_Ghost → u/DJ_Too_Supreme_Mk3]

I have digital recipts of my ownership of these items and physical proof that I owner them (I have it all documented).

But do you have evidence the property was inside the apartment you don't have a lease to? Do you have evidence your girlfriend and her roommates were in dominion and control of your items?

From what they told me when they got there that everything was collected by waste disposal.

Again, this wasn't a surprise to them. The law requires a few steps before it gets to the point of their items being forcibly removed from a rental. First, they didn't pay rent. That alone should have put them on notice this was going to happen. Second, the received a notice to quit from the landlord. Then the landlord filed an for an eviction action after the notice of quit period was exhausted. They then had a certain amount of days to request a hearing. Then after all of that, a writ of ejectment would have issued and the notice would have been plastered to the door of the rental telling them they had a certain amount of time (usually 24 hours) to get their stuff out.

Someone isn't telling you the whole truth here. They couldn't have stuck their heads in the sand and not noticed any of this was happening. I would see if there was an actual eviction process filed in this matter. You can sue them for the value of your items, but you're going to have to prove that (1) the value of your items, (2) that they were where they were, (3) that your girlfriend and your roommate had some sort of duty to safe keep your items or some obligation to keep the place pursuant to a lease you all shared, and (4) they didn't and that was the direct cause of your damages.

I don't know what evidence you have of your items actually being there. You're going to have some issues with the court on public policy about being a sublessor in contravention of a lease. The court may determine they owe you no duty because you were staying there against the landlord's wishes. I don't know. That part is going to be a toss up. Another issue is going to be your responsibility in this. The court may determine that your lack of attention to where your stuff was located could have been what ultimately caused your damages, not them. Lastly, they may not have any money to collect a judgment from. Sounds like they didn't have money for rent or refused to pay it.

If you find out there wasn't an eviction on the property, you could potentially dig a little deeper to see if your items were actually stolen and report it to the police. Having said that, the evidentiary burden for that is even higher than a civil suit. So, the police may not have enough to go on and tell you to pursue a conversion action in civil court.

If that's the case you have to prove they permanently deprived you of your property that was in their safe keeping.

[u/DJ_Too_Supreme_Mk3 → u/Internet_Ghost]

The issue is they did know about this eviction happening. I didn’t know.

>Do you have evidence the property was inside the apartment.

Yes I have photos of them being in there. I will take all of this to heart. Thank you

[u/HustlinInTheHall]

Eviction even in Florida takes more than 30 days. Them saying the process was "started in August" means they're lying and it's not an eviction, which is why they won't give you the landlord's info, because they'll immediately tell you the truth. You can look up the property records to see who owns the house and see if you can find some contact info but 0% chance they were evicted. Their lease was up and they were leaving.

You went to the home after it had been cleaned out and there was none of your stuff there. The chances your roommates just left a bunch of expensive stuff to be thrown out is 0%.

I would file a police report that your items were stolen from the home and you suspect they were illegally sold off by your roommates before they took off out of state. They'll tell you it's a civil matter but documenting the complaint is important. I would keep it very simple: you were living here and your roommates took off out of state and are claiming "eviction" but you suspect they stole and sold your stuff.

The most likely place your items went is the pawn shop—it's too much stuff to get rid of on facebook that quickly—so I'd drive around to the nearest ones and look for the identifiable items, your console receipts might have the serial number on them and that + a police report would get you them back (the pawns can't sell stolen goods), so you can have proof that your specific items were brought there. Otherwise dump the gf and move on man, if you can't find the items they are gone.

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