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Landlord accidentally threw away boxes of personal property... What are the Tenant's rights in seeking damages?

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My fiance lives in Cincinnati and is one of many tenants living in a duplex. The landlord was removing what he thought was all garbage and/or abandoned property left over from a previous set of tenants who had moved out the month before. This was in a community basement/laundry area of the house. The landlord did NOT verify whether or not his assumtions were correct with any of the current tenants, and also failed to notify anyone of his intentions as well. Unfortunately several marked/labeled boxes of my fiance's personal property were removed/thrown away, and can no longer be recovered. As far as we can see there are no specific sections of the lease covering storage/disposal of personal property, so we'd like to know what (Ohio) tenants' rights/laws could be cited in an effort to settle ($ damages) with the landlord for his negligence and avoid the hassles of litigation in small claims court? Thank you!

Attorney Answer

1
Christopher Tamms ·
There isn't really an applicable section regarding a landlord's duty or lack thereof to hold the personal property of a tenant when he doesn't know it belongs to a tenant. You said that the property was being stored in a common area. Was the landlord aware of this and did he grant permission? A landlord has the duty to keep the common area's clean and he probably thought he was getting rid of junk. You can file a civil action for negligence and conversion (an intentional tort involving the wrongful taking of property). Whether you win the negligence claim or not will depend on whether the landlord owned you a duty to check and see what property is yours. The negligence claim has a fair short, the conversion claim (I think) is a loser unless you can show that the landlord had the intent to deprive you of your property.
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