What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio
I apologize if this isn't the correct place to post this question.
Here is a little background info about this situation.
My husband and I entered into a land contract in 2007, paid $5000 down and dutifully paid $1000/month and put lots of time and money into improving the property until January 2011 when we discovered that the seller hadn't paid the property taxes or mortgage in years and the house was in foreclosure.
Long story short, we were granted permission from the judge to stop payments and live rent free in the house until the time of the sheriff auction as long as we continued to maintain the property in good condition.
During that time we took the $1000 we should have been paying and put it into a savings account for a down payment on a new house with a traditional mortgage.
We closed on our new home in August of this year and were slowly in the process of moving -the sheriff auction was scheduled for 9/19/14. We also understood that after the auction we were to be given a 90 day eviction notice to vacate the property.
We started moving on 8/20/14. We still had utilities on at the house we were moving out of. Most of our large items like furniture, etc had been moved, but everything was still untouched in the finished basement. At this point we were spending nights in the new house, but still slowly moving out of the old place while we cleaned and painted the new place.
On 9/30/14 a neighbor called to tell me to come to the old house, a company had been there and posted a sign saying they found the residence to be abandoned and if that wasn't the case, there was a number to call. I promptly called the number, informed the company of the situation and they said they noted it.
Two days later I returned to the old house with a U-Haul to finish getting the remaining furniture and belongings and found that the locks had been changed, my utilities turned off and the house winterized.
I immediately called the number again and they told me I was out of luck.
After a couple of weeks of back and forth with the bank who had taken ownership of the house, they admitted the mistake, said I should have been giving eviction notice and sent a maintenance man with me to the house to let me in to get my things.
On 10/22/14 is when I was finally granted access to the house with the maintenance man. When we entered we found that my television and speakers totaling $1299.99 had been taken from the finished basement. Speaker cables had been pulled from the walls, the air hockey table flipped over, and worst of all, the hot water heater had been emptied right onto the floor - which was carpeted.
We made a police report with the Summit County Sheriff Dept. and a neighbor said she saw the man who did the lock out loading the items into his van back on 10/01/14.
I have been in contact with the company and they are refusing to pay me restitution for my stolen property by their employee.
What are my legal rights for being compensated for my property? We no longer had insurance at that house at the time since it was bank owned.
Thank you in advance and sorry this was so long!
I apologize if this isn't the correct place to post this question.
Here is a little background info about this situation.
My husband and I entered into a land contract in 2007, paid $5000 down and dutifully paid $1000/month and put lots of time and money into improving the property until January 2011 when we discovered that the seller hadn't paid the property taxes or mortgage in years and the house was in foreclosure.
Long story short, we were granted permission from the judge to stop payments and live rent free in the house until the time of the sheriff auction as long as we continued to maintain the property in good condition.
During that time we took the $1000 we should have been paying and put it into a savings account for a down payment on a new house with a traditional mortgage.
We closed on our new home in August of this year and were slowly in the process of moving -the sheriff auction was scheduled for 9/19/14. We also understood that after the auction we were to be given a 90 day eviction notice to vacate the property.
We started moving on 8/20/14. We still had utilities on at the house we were moving out of. Most of our large items like furniture, etc had been moved, but everything was still untouched in the finished basement. At this point we were spending nights in the new house, but still slowly moving out of the old place while we cleaned and painted the new place.
On 9/30/14 a neighbor called to tell me to come to the old house, a company had been there and posted a sign saying they found the residence to be abandoned and if that wasn't the case, there was a number to call. I promptly called the number, informed the company of the situation and they said they noted it.
Two days later I returned to the old house with a U-Haul to finish getting the remaining furniture and belongings and found that the locks had been changed, my utilities turned off and the house winterized.
I immediately called the number again and they told me I was out of luck.
After a couple of weeks of back and forth with the bank who had taken ownership of the house, they admitted the mistake, said I should have been giving eviction notice and sent a maintenance man with me to the house to let me in to get my things.
On 10/22/14 is when I was finally granted access to the house with the maintenance man. When we entered we found that my television and speakers totaling $1299.99 had been taken from the finished basement. Speaker cables had been pulled from the walls, the air hockey table flipped over, and worst of all, the hot water heater had been emptied right onto the floor - which was carpeted.
We made a police report with the Summit County Sheriff Dept. and a neighbor said she saw the man who did the lock out loading the items into his van back on 10/01/14.
I have been in contact with the company and they are refusing to pay me restitution for my stolen property by their employee.
What are my legal rights for being compensated for my property? We no longer had insurance at that house at the time since it was bank owned.
Thank you in advance and sorry this was so long!
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