I only lived with my roommate for a month, we moved in on good faith from the landlord who let us pay 1st months rent and half the security, all of which I paid. As the month wore on, he didn't give me any money nor did he attempt to turn on any utilities in his name. After he became physically aggressive towards me, I kicked him out. He has been gone for 29 days so far. I have verbally contacted him to come get his belongings ( furniture,clothing, etc.) and he has yet to show. Am I in the wrong for asking him to pay me back before I give him his belongings? I have receipts that I paid for everything regarding the apartment and the bills, and he has no receipts to prove he purchased the furniture. The landlord is aware of all of this. Please advise on how I should proceed.

You can't hold his stuff from him. But you can take him to court. You have some good evidence.

I'm not sure about the furniture but you definitely don't have the right to withhold personal possessions as bargaining chips for unpaid bills. You can however take him to small claims court and will most likely win with all the evidence you have. You can even ask the landlord to file with you as a witness to all the goings-on.

Hope that helps!

I would never try to withhold his personal belongings from him, those I have already set aside to give them back. However, isn't there an amount of time when the possessions (aka furniture) would be considered abandoned? Therefore, wouldn't I have the right to sell them back to him, and would this be ethical?

It wouldn't be ethical. But give him 30 days to retrieve his things and then at the point if he hasn't come back for them, get rid of them.

i would never try to withhold his personal belongings from him, those I have already set aside to give them back. However, isnt there an amount of time when the possessions (aka furniture) would be considered abandoned? Therefore, wouldnt I have the right to sell them back to him, and would this be ethical?

This would be the case if YOU are his landlord. Whose name is the lease in? If you're both on the lease, then only the landlord could do this - not you. At this point it sounds like he actually could make a case against you for an illegal eviction (unless you got a restraining order and had him removed) so I'm not sure how far I'd try to push it.

Well honestly if you "kicked" him out, locked him out, you could well be in seroius trouble, since you did not do a legal eviction process, If you did not give him notice, it is possible they could actually sue you for illegal eviction. And if the actual agreement with him was thought the landlord there could even be more issues invovled.

You need to explain more on how you "kicked him out"

I'm not sure about the furniture but you definitely don't have the right to withhold personal possessions as bargaining chips for unpaid bills. You can however take him to small claims court and will most likely win with all the evidence you have. You can even ask the landlord to file with you as a witness to all the goings-on.

Hope that helps!



Sorry but this is not correct legal advice - OP had no legal right to kick him out and OP stands to have problems in Court, either as "straight" Plaintiff or through a countersuit.

You can't take matters into your own hands - you have to go through the legal system. If there was violence, then OP needed to get a restraining order. Minimally this person had to be legally evicted.

Only the landlord can evict.

Thank you all

It wouldn't be ethical. But give him 30 days to retrieve his things and then at the point if he hasn't come back for them, get rid of them.



Sorry, Momma but he hasn't been legally evicted. Disposing of his belongings can get the OP into trouble and she'll end up paying for them.

Different States have different time frames - don't know where OP is.

She never said that it wasn't a legal eviction though..

And her screen name sort of implies that she lives in New York...

She never said that it wasn't a legal eviction though..


She said she kicked him out, not that she evicted him - if she had evicted him in NY the Judge would have advised her regarding his personal belongings.

And there's a sticky about NY evictions. I know. I wrote it.