My boyfriend spent the week in the hospital a few weeks ago and was not able to pay his rent. So while he was in the hospital his roommates (one the homeowner and one the homeowners gf) kicked him out, changed the locks and prevented him from getting all of his property (some mine) until he paid. He has been living there since April of 2012. As far as the lease goes, there wasn't one. Just a verbal agreement including my boyfriend and the homeowner only. No one else. Not his girlfriend and not me.They first charged him $200, $100 for the week he was in the hospital and $100 for the week before that. Well when he was kicked out the H.O. girlfriend told him that he can't get his stuff until he comes up with their money. Well since it would take him a weeks worth of work to gather the money she then charged him another $100 for his stuff being there although she is the one who prevented him from receiving his stuff. I told my boyfriend to go to the cops from the beginning because I'm pretty sure that its illegal to hold his stuff hostage, but he didn't want to get the law involved and wanted to be as civil with them as possible so he played by their rules. Well yesterday (3 weeks later) he handed them the money and met them at the house where his stuff is. (they just moved into their new house and so all that was left there was his few items) well when the girlfriend comes to unlock the door and let him in, we discovered that his TV is missing, his dresser, and our 4 snakes, tanks and accessories. All items adding up to $1430 worth of property. My boyfriend asked where the stuff was and her response was "you screwed us so now we're screwing you" . We restrained ourselves from an argument knowing that we were about to now get the cops involved and drove off.
My questions are:

Is their actions illegal?
And do we have a solid case

We are going to the police tomorrow and getting a hold of the lawyer as well. Im just looking for some insight until then.

State of Virginia by the way

My bf spent the week in the hospital a few weeks ago and was not able to pay his rent. So while he was in the hospital his roommates (one the homeowner and one the homeowners gf) kicked him out, changed the locks and prevented him from getting all of his property (some mine) until he paid. He has been living there since April of 2012. As far as the lease goes, there wasn't one. Just a verbal agreement including my bf and the homeowner only. No one else. Not his gf and not me.They first charged him $200, $100 for the week he was in the hospital and $100 for the week before that. Well when he was kicked out the H.O. gf told him that he can't get his stuff until he comes up with their money. Well since it would take him a weeks worth of work to gather the money she then charged him another $100 for his stuff being there although she is the one who prevented him from receiving his stuff. I told my bf to go to the cops from the beginning because im pretty sure that its illegal to hold his stuff hostage, but he didnt want to get the law involved and wanted to be as civil with them as possible so he played by their rules. Well yesterday (3 weeks later) he handed them the money and met them at the house where his stuff is. (they just moved into their new house and so all that was left there was his few items) well when the gf comes to unlock the door and let him in, we discovered that his tv is missing, his dresser, and our 4 snakes, tanks and accessories. All items adding up to $1430 worth of property. My bf asked where the stuff was and her response was "you screwed us so now we're screwing you" . We restrained ourselves from an argument knowing that we were about to now get the cops involved and drove off.
My questions are:

Is their actions illegal?
and do we have a solid case

We are going to the police tomorrow and getting a hold of the lawyer as well. Im just looking for some insight until then.

State of Virginia btw


What they did was illegal - you have to evict someone. He obviously cannot expect to live rent free, but he still needs to be evicted. One problem appears to be that there was no agreement about the dollar amount of the rent.

I don't understand why your property was there, but you were not a tenant. As far as the snakes are concerned, the time to go to the Police was when he was locked out so that they could be properly cared for. Or did you go to the house and feed and care for them when he was hospitalized and/or locked out?

I think your only option is going to be Small Claims Court for the missing/damaged items.

The snakes were in the house, uncared for, for at least three weeks? That is most definitely not going to sound "good" in Court.