Is this theft?

[Kaitlyn698]

My landlord gave me a 3-day notice for non payment of rent. the next day she accepted a money order from me. 3 days later, she gives me a hand-written note about a bag of gargabe on my patio and says she will still go thru with the eviction. she removed the garbage bag from my patio, and also took all my property from the patio also and locked it up in storage that i cant access. i had chairs, tables, a car seat for my baby, and other things. is this theft? can i file a police report on her?

[ohiolandlord]

It appears to be. You can file a police report but the police probably won't do much about it. I would think you're landlords actions amount to an unlawful eviction and you could file in court against her on that (you have not provided enough facts for me to determine that here). If she wants to proceed with a court eviction against you, I assume she would have to provide you with another three day notice with that reason specified in the notice.

http://www.ohiolandlordtenant.com/unlawful_evictions.html

[Kaitlyn698]

Thanks for the info. I actually called the owner of the Property yesterday, and she said that the patio is not part of my apartment and therefore they are allowed to take what they want. But I dont think thats right. Are they then allowed to get ladders to climb to tenant's balconies and just take stuff? I called the police and they said that I can file a report and they will help get my stuff back, but I am going to give the landlord another day to return it on their own. I already told them when I talked to them that I was thinking about filing a report, so maybe that will prod them to return my things faster. Also, heres another question. According to the ORC, the garbage on my patio is a violation of the ORC and the lease. The ORC says that the landlord must give you a 30 notice to fix the violation before they can try evict you for that reason. Well, my landlord said "we dont it it that way. we give you a few days to fix it and thats it". How can they do that, when it's the LAW to give a tenant 30 days to correct the violation?

[ohiolandlord]

The landlord is breaking the law and any eviction filed on that basis alone would be very difficult to maintain.