Q: Can a landlord lock someone out, then take all of their possessions and tell everyone you didn't leave anything behind?
My landlord kick me out because I was behind on rent a month and a half. I met him in court where we stipulated for an agreement of $200 I owed him if he would give me 30 days to move out. He agreed and I went home and started packing. On the date in which I was supposed to pay he would not except the money from me and hung up on me. Then ran to the court the next morning and filed noncompliance. I missed my court date for filing a hearing because I was in the hospital and he evicted me 72 hours later by sherrif. Received an illegalabandonment letter and I took him to court or year later and sued him for my belongings value. I won my case for $5600 lien. When I try to collect he wanted to bargain with my own belongings. I told him that proves he perjured in court and then I went to my apartment and took pictures and all my stuff is still there. When I told him I had pictures he sent me at check. But my stuff is all still in there. Based on his perjury can I sue for my belongings?
A:
I personally do not do debt collection, but I believe as part of your judgment you can get the costs and attorney's fees back for going after this debt. Thus, I would suggest finding a local debt collection attorney to discuss, with them taking your case on a contingency basis so you can hopefully collect all of your money, and the attorney getting paid too.
They could also look into other causes of action, though suing for possession would likely not work since he has already been ordered to pay you for those.
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