Q: The new landlord threw away over $2000 worth of my possessions in storage downstairs without informing me. What do I do?

A: The rent obligation is independent of any tort or contract liability the new owner or management company has for disposing of your belongings. Therefore, pay the rent if you want to remain living there or face a distress for rent action. You can sue the property owner/management company or whomever you blame for throwing out your belongings. You must specifically describe each item so that it can be identified, and prove each item's fair market value (used, not new replacement value). You can testify as to your opinion about its worth, but it is much more likely you will be believed if you print out or screen capture similar condition items for sale on CraigsList, ebay, Amazon, newspaper classified ads, etc. I suppose if you have original purchase receipts, that will at least show what you paid for it and that it did in fact exist (better if you have photos, but I doubt most people take photos of their belongings). I'm guessing after the old landlord died, the family cleaned out the property as part of the estate process and readying the property for sale or rent, and assumed your property was the deceased landlord's. Either there is a breach of an agreement to provide safe storage of your belongings, or negligence in throwing out items that did not belong to the property, or both. If this occurred as part of the probate estate process, by the Personal Representative, then you may need to sue the PR of the estate.