Former landlord possibly stealing property I left behind
Brodo Faggins
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
From May to August of this year, I lived in Las Vegas for a job I had. The landlord (homeowner) was also my housemate, but he was cool, and the rent was cheap, so whatever.
The company folded, and I moved back home to Los Angeles late August.
I had brought my Xbox 360 with me to Vegas, but since the house lacked a communal TV and my funds were already low, I just decided to leave it in the box. When I moved out, I had to do so in a hurry because I didn't want to stay an extra day and be charged rent.
And, you guessed it, I left my 360 there. As soon as I got home, I decided it would probably be fine where it was. I finally got around to tracking it down last week, and I got no response from him.
Finally, I asked my friend to go to his place and pick it up for me, but when she went inside, it was nowhere to be found. I called my landlord, left a voicemail, and e-mailed him. He replied "I'm dumping the house and already got rid of alot of things in the house."
So, right away, I'm suspecting one of two things:
A) He's hoping I'll never drive all the way back just for an Xbox, and is pretending he dumped it (which is retarded; the guy has a PS3, so he clearly understands the value of a game console)
He pawned it (the guy's been unemployed for over a year now).
Driving all the way there and finding out for myself is probably the best option, but the shoot I'm working on is on hiatus for winter, and I'm low on funds.
What should I do?
The company folded, and I moved back home to Los Angeles late August.
I had brought my Xbox 360 with me to Vegas, but since the house lacked a communal TV and my funds were already low, I just decided to leave it in the box. When I moved out, I had to do so in a hurry because I didn't want to stay an extra day and be charged rent.
And, you guessed it, I left my 360 there. As soon as I got home, I decided it would probably be fine where it was. I finally got around to tracking it down last week, and I got no response from him.
Finally, I asked my friend to go to his place and pick it up for me, but when she went inside, it was nowhere to be found. I called my landlord, left a voicemail, and e-mailed him. He replied "I'm dumping the house and already got rid of alot of things in the house."
So, right away, I'm suspecting one of two things:
A) He's hoping I'll never drive all the way back just for an Xbox, and is pretending he dumped it (which is retarded; the guy has a PS3, so he clearly understands the value of a game console)
He pawned it (the guy's been unemployed for over a year now).Driving all the way there and finding out for myself is probably the best option, but the shoot I'm working on is on hiatus for winter, and I'm low on funds.
What should I do?
Brodo Faggins on
0
Posts
-There's nothing in the contract I signed when I moved in about property left behind.
-The reason I got around to this so late was because I started working as soon as I got back home, and didn't really think something like this would happen.
When you move out, you take your shit with you, otherwise you're giving it up. How long is he supposed to hold on to your forgotten possessions for?
Xboxs are cheap. Save yourself the headache of trying to fight this and just buy a new one.
I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but that wasn't very responsible of you. I'd have assumed you left it abandoned as well.
And did your friend just walk into a house that wasn't hers without anyone being home/giving permission? That's called trespassing. With the intent to take something? Yikes. Do not tell your landlord about that. Or do it again.
I sent my friend there to knock on the door, not to trespass. The door was answered by our third roommate (whom I probably should've mentioned), and he looked through the house, not my friend. Granted, he didn't go into the landlord's room. I don't have this roommate's contact info, as it was on my old phone (now long gone).
Also, my landlord and I had a very cordial relationship, which is why I trusted him to just leave it be so that I could pick it up at a later date.
But yeah, this is why I posted. I know I have no legal action available to me, but I guess that's what I get for having to move out in a hurry.
No, no, no! That is what you get for not picking up the phone. It would've taken a minute, especially if your relationship was on good terms.
edit: That mindset in general is going to put a hurt on you in life. Take responsibility. Anyway, good luck in the future!
edit: I believe you can visit the microsoft site and remove credit cards. I told my roommate how to do it a week or two ago.
http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/legal_guides/lt-5.shtml
In the cases of property that has apparently been abandoned, where the renter was not evicted, the landlord is required to store your property safely and attempt to notify you of your abandoned property before disposing of it.
It appears that you have the law on your side. I don't recommend ever being so silly as to abandon an expensive piece of electronics and not at least call to remind the owner you want it back, but you are within your rights to pursue legal action.
Edit: A significant amount of this is going to be contingent, most likely, on you being able to prove you left an xbox there. It will be a simple matter for him to say that you did not and must be confused. Additionally, you will almost certainly have to spend more on legal resources than the item is worth. However, sometimes the threat of legal action is enough to motivate someone. Landlords notoriously know how to play the law to maximum effect for themselves, however.
Found that tenant law stuff in an article at the consumerist.
Still totally sucks though.
As for your credit card information, phone 1-800-4My-Xbox and ask them to remove it if you can't do so online.
Update: He said it gave it away to a guy. Didn't specify if it was a friend, no details, nothing. So I asked him for that guy's contact number, as I told him it makes me uncomfortable knowing that my xbox with my credit card information is out there in some stranger's hands.
As soon as I asked for that contact info, he suddenly stopped replying to my e-mails.
So, logically, I suspect he's either lying and keeping it for himself, or he really did give it to some random person out of spite.
Also, come on, clearly the CC thing isn't that big of a deal if he has had it since August.
Would it have been nice for him to at call you once and ask if you wanted it? Yes, definitely. Maybe even required by renter law. But dude, you left an XBox at someone else's house for nearly 4 months. This falls squarely on you so lessoned learned and get that card removed.
A) Have you checked the local law in your state regarding property abandoned in this way?
C) Is it worth it to you to at least threaten legal action?
D) Do you have the serial number of the Xbox, or can you get it from Microsoft?
Assuming the answer to all four is "yes," and assuming the answer to (A) is that he has to contact you before disposing of it, then you should go ahead and send a certified letter to him stating that you left it there, and that you want it back. Send copies of the emails he sent you. Then make sure he knows that if he claims he no longer has it (or fails to reply) you'll go ahead and report the Xbox as stolen (including the serial) and contact the local police, giving them his info.
Now, obviously you have some burden of proof issues. Were you to drag this into a courtroom, you'd probably be screwed. But, the question is whether he's willing to risk A) making false statements to the police and
There's a fair chance that he'll "find" it.
EDIT: And you may not even need the serial number. You can probably bluff that.
Just to clarify, leaving behind property when you move out does not mean you give up ownership of it.
However, while he wouldn't be entitled to just sell it or keep it, if he did sell it or give it away, you wouldn't really have a lot of recourse to get it back. At least not without spending more than the value of the 360.
Regardless.
If some dude left expensive shit at my house, I'd fucking call him before I gave it away.
That's just how it works.
Four months, four years, whatever. It's not your shit.
Take it as a lesson learned, and be glad it wasn't something more valuable.
Or, alternately, spend the few bucks to send a certified letter, threaten to involve the police and/or courts, and see if he "finds" it.
Not a huge investment, and potentially a significant payoff.
Unless, MichaelLC, you can suggest a reason why my earlier post (with suggested course of action) is not proper? Because "take it as a lesson learned" implies that you don't take any further action to try and recover the property.
EDIT: Basically, people here are acting like the only options are "Call Denny Crane" or "Do Nothing." That there is no low-cost option in between. This is untrue.
That's nice, but the thread's not about what you would do if someone left their stuff at your place. Chill out, calmly present other options if you know of them, and either way dial it down a notch.
I guess my point is that a lot of times in situations like this the first reaction of a lot of people is "chalk it up as a lesson learned." Implying that the damage is done, and no plausible recourse exists.
However, I've found that a fair portion of the time if you're willing to at least put in a minimal effort to changing the outcome, you can do so. It's not as hard as people think it is. Sure, if you throw up your hands and assume you can't fix it, there is zero chance you'll do so. But with a minimal effort/expenditure, you can infinitely increase the odds of a favorable outcome.
You can "learn" the "lesson" without accepting the damage. Last time we moved out of an apartment, our landlord tried to screw us around, and take hundreds of dollars from us with no justification. Most of the people I talked to had this same basic attitude; "lesson learned" and "it'll cost more to fight than you'll get back."
There was some stress involved, and a little work, and the cost of a certified letter...and I recovered like $500. The stress and work still taught me the lesson, but it was certainly worth the investment to threaten legal action. And it was a vaguely similar situation; all the landlord would have had to do is lie in court, and I was screwed. However, surprisingly few people are as lackadaisical about making false statements to police or judges as people assume they will be. A lot of times knowing that they may actually have to go to court, let alone lie in court, is enough to get people to do the right thing.
I know I should've called, but now that he's suddenly not responding to any e-mails or voicemails, I guess I'll go the certified letter route. Where do I go about getting it done?
At the post office. You'll want to put a little time and thought into crafting it; I was lucky, because for mine there were some nice templates available on the interwebs (I just had to rework it a little for the specifics). But yeah, the general gist is (depending on the laws in that state) you intend to involve the police and/or the court if necessary to get it back.
Good luck!
Probably true, yeah.
Anyway, try to get your info removed right away.
but they're listening to every word I say
Actually, if he (or a friend) did use the credit card attached to purchase stuff without his authorization, then I'm pretty sure that would make it a matter for the police. In which case it would increase his chances of getting the Xbox back.
Just sayin'.
Though, it's probably not worth pursuing just because the cost of the XBox is so low compared to how much you'd spend pursuing it. This is one case I'd say let it go and get a new one, shit sucks but you should've let him know you'd be coming back for it.
Basically, the bolded. And IIRC the OP lives in LA now, and the landlord is in Vegas? That's close enough to drive, which means threatening to take him to small-claims court is believable. If he had moved to Jersey, or something, it'd be an obvious bluff.
Edit: Which isn't to say he shouldn't send a letter, just if his landlord wasn't bullshitting him then it complicates follow-up action.