Need advice for a friend whose stuff was mistakenly discarded...
4A friend of mine recently suffered from an unfortunate series of events:
- She is moving to a new house, managed by a Real Estate Company.
- Her new Landlord allowed her to move in some of her stuff last night prior to the move-in date of today.
- She moved her stuff last night.
- Landlord hired Cleaners (contractors), who discarded ALL of her stuff from last night. Landlord claims that he told them not to touch her stuff. (Approximately $3k-$4k from a quick estimate)
- This morning, she gets a panicked call from the Landlord, who apologizes profusely and offers to reimburse, but doesn’t have that much.
- Landlord claims that he will pay her in installments.
Sadly, my friend doesn’t have renter’s insurance. (I know!)
What are the best ways that my friend can protect herself and attempt to be restored? Should she file a suit? Make an agreement for the Landlord / Real Estate Company to sign regarding free rent / installment payments?
Landlord claims that the Cleaners claim that the discarded items are gone. I suggested pressing them for recovery from the garbage truck / compactor / dump site.
What are my friend’s avenues of recourse against: 1) the Landlord, 2) the Real Estate Company, 3) the Cleaners? What are the Landlord’s avenues of recourse against the Cleaners? (He’s young and is likely sh*tting his pants about this.)
Should my friend hire an attorney? If so, how much would this be likely to cost and what is a reasonable expected outcome?
Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.
- 4 comments, 9 replies
- Comment
Reddit posts can be full of shit or not, but there is some kind of legal thread on Reddit where people discuss this situation et of thing.
Perhaps it’s one of these?
@f00l Thanks, I appreciate the link. I had just posted a clone of this question on /r/legaladvice.
@SirLouie
I don’t think there is an “instant solution” here.
I would try actually going to the cleaning company and trying to track the truck and the trash. Sometimes you can find stuff. You have to make a huge fuss and not give in.
The other thing is to calmly, rationally, try to think what is wanted for compensation/restitution and how to work toward that.
Also the landlord should have insurance that will cover this. If the landlord doesn’t, have little sympathy with the landlord here.
Also the landlord owns property and therefore has resources.
Small claims court or a lawyer might help but I dunno.
Badly needed: a list and all other documentation (photographs s receipts invoices purchase records etc) of lost items.
@f00l I believe the Landlord is a peon employee or contractor hired by the Real Estate Company. I do not know the full relationship. The Landlord is a young person who as far as I know doesn’t own the property.
@SirLouie
Then the company who owns the property is liable. The landlord acted legitimately as an employee. The cleaning crew was a legit hire. Company is liable for errors on their side.
The company has insurance to cover this. It’s not the kid’s job to pay for it.
Or the company can pay and then try to collect from the cleaning company.
However, I can’t predict what the property owner will do to their employee, or whether they will be assholes.
@f00l You mention that the company [probably] has insurance to cover this. Could you elaborate on that? The landlord claims that it has to come out of his pocket since it wasn’t the company’s doing.
The reason I ask is because I own property, and I wonder what would happen if I hired someone to manage a unit and then this sh*tshow happened. What insurance of mine would cover the person I hired’s mistake?
@SirLouie You’d need business insurance probably. If you had umbrella insurance maybe you’d be covered but often insurance companies separate personal and business. Talk with your insurance agent to see where you stand.
@SirLouie I’d start by checking into general liability, and ask specifically about this type of situation. If it doesn’t cover it, a decent commercial agent will tell you what kind of policy does.
@SirLouie
I don’t own rental property and am no expert. I don’t know what insurance would cover a property owner/landlord who didn’t buy property or commercial insurance.
You said the property owner was a company. Unless the company is run by morons who don’t mind losing all, they almost certainly have insurance to cover all sorts of risks. The bigger the company, the more their policies will cover.
File a police report. That “cleaning company” is crooked.
@therealjrn
Yeah I have my doubts about them. Good chance some of the cleaning crew have the stuff.
That’s bullshit.
The “Cleaning Company” has not thrown the stuff away.
Those places go through stuff, looking for ‘reusable / resellable’ stuff.
The bastards want to keep her stuff. I’d be driving to that damn company & demand my crap back.
Stuff like this pisses me off!
ps… @therealjrn is right. They are crooked.
I’m a real estate agent and this sounds a little strange to me because the landlord is the owner here in NJ. They may hire a property manager or such to work on their behalf but the owner is the actual landlord and is responsible if authorization was given to move belongings in a day early. I know when I deal with rentals and things like this come up we always have something in writing or emails to refer back to if needed incase something goes wrong so that we as a real estate company are not to blame. That’s our worst nightmare, a lawsuit or the drama and stress of an unfortunate event out of our hands. I would press the cleaning company, realtor (the office’s broker is the main person to go to as they’re in charge of that office and what goes on in the offices transactions) and also this landlord and whoever he works for. I hope there’s an email or something proving she was allowed to move her bringing in early. And I agree with the previous person, the cleaners didn’t throw it all away. I know for a fact that the main company my office and many others nearby use for clean outs don’t just throw everything away. I even call the owner when I’m looking for something specific like a nice sofa for a college kid or a high end vacuum for another. And within days he’ll call me with something! The clean out people have to know where the stuff was discarded if so. Any contractor or clean out company I’ve ever heard of or dealt with pays for the dumpsters to discard the items that are actually garbage or of no value. They have to know where it went or where they regularly discard their items. Especially in bulk. Good luck! An attorney is also good to call for advice. Not sure if it’s worth the money to hire one in the long run but you can call a few for a “consult” and that will point you in the right direction of who’s responsible.