Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in New York

You make claim against the landlord, maybe. If you have insurance of your own, notify your insurance company but state that you are not making a claim at this time. Your landlord should have written the lease with a clause that requires you to insure the contents and "waives subrogation." If you have such a clause in your lease then your sole remedy is against your own insurance. But talk to a shark anyway because the removal of the roof your garage (yes, it's yours until the lease expires) may mean that all bets are off.

Landlord has two lines of insurance. First, his property insurance should cover something for property of others in his custody, care and control. Theory is: when landlord took the roof off the garage he took possession of the contents. Note that he exercised care in respect of the contents by adding tarpaulins.

EVEN IF LANDLORD DID NOT HAVE A LEGAL DUTY TO PROTECT THE CONTENTS, HE TRIED TO DO SO. HE DID SO CARELESSLY, RESULTING IN WATER DAMAGE TO YOUR STUFF. HE IS LIABLE FOR THE DAMAGE. MAYBE HE HAS INSURANCE. MAYBE NOT. MAYBE YOU GET PAID ANYWAY.

SECOND, Landlord should have liability insurance for cases just like this. The difference is that if there is both prioperty insurance and liability insurance, take the property insurance first.

You really need an adjuster, not an appraiser. Contact me thru the Lawguru email system and I can give you the names of adjusters and claim handlers.

Claim looks good from here.