Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Massachusetts

Re: Landlord with holding property

If you failed to move out by the execution date, and the execution was properly levied by a constable or sheriff, the landlord was obligated to pay for the property to be stored at a bonded warehouse.

MGL c. 239, s. 4(f) gives you the right to access items of personal value only. The warehouser has a lien for the cost of storing the property.

4(f) "The defendant may access his stored property once, without charge or payment of storage fees, either to inspect the property or to remove items having primarily personal or sentimental value, or both Items having primarily personal or sentimental value, shall include but not be limited to photographs, passports, documents, funeral urns, and the like. All personal property stored under this section may be reclaimed at any time upon payment of all storage fees lawfully owed by the defendant. If the property is sold at auction, the defendant shall be entitled to purchase the property in bloc or in parcels, regardless of the terms of the public sale. The failure of any third party to pay money owed by him to the warehouser shall not affect the rights of the property owner to reclaim property under this subsection."

If a bonded warehouser is properly holding your belongings after proper service of an execution for possession, what you describe is legal, not "holding my personal belongings for ransom."

If you were present at the time of execution for possession, you had the right to tell the sheriff or constable to leave your property at the street and not take it away.

If the landlord simply put your property somewhere WITHOUT following the law, you have a claim against him or her. I'm guessing, though, that the law is being followed.