Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Virginia
Holding of tennants possessions
A tennants is renting a single wide home from the landlord. She has been there for 4 months. She is on disability. The landlord says she owes him 1,000. She only owes him 300. She is in the process of moving to another location as she notified him that she was moving, meanwhile she was put in the hospital with lung cancer and had surgery. Her family wants to get her moved out of the trailer and into her new place before she comes home but the landlord is holding all of her possessions and will not let anyone get them out. He says he's going to sell everything and get the money she owes him out of her belongings. He has not gone to court and gotten any kind of paperwork telling her is has taken possession of her things and she had no notice of him doing anything to sell her things. Can he legally do this? She is in the hospital for 10 more days and has nowhere to go to when she comes home. She is 61 years old and on disability.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Holding of tennants possessions
The tenant can file a Warrant in Detinue in the general district court to secure the return of her property or a judgment against the landlord for the value thereof.
Re: Holding of tennants possessions
No, the landlord must go to court and file
a lawsuit. The law already provides expedited
procedures that greatly benefit landlords. The
landlord cannot make up his own rules for
doing this. He must file an Unlawful Detainer
action in court. THe court will give a quick
turnaround for the landlord's benefit. But he
doesn't get more than that.
If the woman is renting the premises, then she
has the right to do anything she wants with it,
short of harming it. She can move furniture in,
she can move furniture out, she can keep it
completly empty or fill it full of boxes, short
of doing any injury to the premises.
Therefore, if the woman wants to move everything
out of the trailer home, the landlord cannot
stop her.
Technically, the landlord is already in breach
of the lease by restricting the woman's freedom
to use the trailer home freely as she desires.
Therefore, the landlord is already in breach
of the lease contract. As a result, he cannot
charge for the period of time when he is
restricting her free use of the property.
Of course, if the woman concedes that she owes
$300, she needs to pay what she owes, including
to remove any legal claim that the landlord
might have.
I would call the Sheriff and say that the landlord
is preventing her from removing her belongings
and have the Sheriff there at the same time you
are there to remove the items.
I would also file a Warrant in Detinue, as
suggested by my colleague. Go to the clerk of
the court in the County where the premises are
located and ask for the forms. The Clerk will
not want to give you legal advice, but will
show you how to fill out the form. If you
ask ONLY about the forms, you will end up getting
a lot of good advice on what to do. Set a date
as soon as they will allow you to.
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