West Valley City, UT asked in Personal Injury and Landlord - Tenant for New Mexico

Q: Does Apartment Owe Me?

In April my apartment living room was flooded with about 1.5 inches of water while I was at work. The management deemed it a biohazard due to potential mold and I was not allowed in my apartment and essentially evicted on the spot. 5 days after the flood I got a call from management while I was at work. She told me that the "clean out crew" was at my apartment to begin to repair the water the water damage. I explained I was at work, Im a nurse so its hard to take the day off suddenly but I would try to get off early to remove my items. By the time I got off the office was closed. I went to my apartment and every single item I owned was gone. I called the next morning and management said the cleaning company "threw out" all my belongings. Everything. My whole life. Gone. I run my own online fine jewelry retail business and they "threw out" thousands and thousands in my inventory. Not to mention sentimental irreplaceable items. I'm devastated. Was this legal? What can I do?

1 Lawyer Answer
Tim Akpinar
Tim Akpinar
Answered
  • Little Neck, NY

A: A New Mexico attorney could advise best, but your question remains open for two weeks. One option is to reach out to attorneys to try to arrange a free initial consult for discussing a property loss claim. There are a number of issues to sort out here, in terms of insurance, records to validate the losses, how such a claim would be handled, etc., but those are things to discuss in a consult. I'm sorry for your ordeal. Good luck

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