I have successfully evicted a boyfriend from my home who has never paid rent or used my address as his legal one. He owes me $16,000 in debt which he has run up on my credit card. Can I hold his personal property to barter with, as he repays the money he owes me? If not, do I have any way to get my money from him as he owns nothing but the tools and clothes I have here. He works only part time at pitiful contracting jobs, so this real property is the only real chance I have of recouping my losses. How long before it is considered abandoned and I can sell it? I am in Virginia. Thanks for your help and advice.
Heather

Did you and he sign any kind of contract along the way? Was there a lease?

First no you can not just hold his clothes and property, at the eviction he was to take his belongings with him, esp if you went though the court for the eviction.

Next you will have to sue him for the money, if you were boy friend and girl friend and he was using your credit card, the court may not agree he "owes" you the money, do you have any loan agreements, any signed agreement for him to pay you back. You will have to have all of your monthly bills, showing what he bought and prove basically it was for his use alone. So you will have to sue him for the money in court, and at 16,000 you can't even use small claims in most places, ( over the limit)

You will have to on the personal property, give him notice that he is to come and get it, beyond that what type of eviction you did, (did the court send a officer out to remove him, if so why did he not take his belongings then?

No, he moved in when he was homeless and stayed 3.5 years as my guest. He has no lease , has never done much to help me at all. The agreement was he would help finish some rooms in my HUD fixer upper house instead of paying rent, but that work has been slow and very little accomplished. He hasn't lived up to this oral agreement at all, just been using my money and good nature conning me into believing he might change. The lawyer consultation I bought said he had 30 days to move if I couldn't get him out, but I did get him out and have my keys back to house and truck. My father is staying with me for protection which has foiled his plans totally to stay there for the 30 day legal period, as he is afraid of Dad. :D I would like to sell his stuff to repay my debt if he leaves it here 30 days.

It's complicated but he was driving my truck without permission on a suspended license, stopped at a bar to drink, than planned to drive home. I caught him there demanded my keys, he refused, police called. He ran and hid from police, didn't come back to house to try to get his property as he was afraid of being arrested for driving illegally. Since then my Dad has moved in and he refuses to return because he is there to keep us company, which ex-boyfriend is furious about. He wants to brow beat me into letting him continue staying here for free but I am done with him. My family is supportive and helpful.We have not barred him from staying there as the law said he has 30 days to leave, Dad works much better as the 'elephant in the room". :>)

I agree with the Father... you can't hold his property as payment for the debt. And you can't "dispose" of it after 30 days, since he is legally living there for the next 30 days and his stuff has a right to be there. And then you need to hold onto it for a "reasonable" amount of time, to be sure that he has actually abandoned it, before you can dispose of it. And a "reasonable time" is probably at least a month, maybe more, depending on how valuable the item is. You can't make it difficult for him to get his stuff either. And, if you choose to disregard all of that, he can take you to court for stealing his stuff, and make you pay to replace it.