Can I legally remove my personal possesions from someones elses property?

Question

So called friends have some possesions of mine in thier house. Now we are not speaking and they wont let me have them back! Nice I know!!! If I can get into their house (without breaking in!), am I within my rights to remove my property? Can I be arrested for it, if I have receipts to show the property is definately mine. Dont ask me to try negotiation - I have tried that and they are acting like children by sulking. Help please!

Answer 1

not without their consent. So you have to go to a lawyer. Sad enouth.

Answer 2

If you break in you could be arrested for Burglary, Criminal Damage ect as you no longer live there.

If you have taken resonable means to gain your property back and they have not worked there are several ways including a court order.

If you are going to attend the property you can ask the police to provide a presence this can be done by attending your local stn and making an appointment as its not an emergency or police matter and in these situations police are only there to prevent a breach of the peace they have no powers to do anything else to help you.

They cannot gain entry for you or help you remove your items. Both parties must be present so there is not a property ownership dispute and police will be there to prevent a Breach Of Peace.

Answer 3

Assuming you are in England or Wales -yes, you may...but.....

1. You have no power to enter, but entry is not a criminal offence so long as you don't use force. i.e. if they let you in, you can pick up your stuff and go.

2. If you can somehow get in whilst they are not there and take your stuff - fine - BUT I WOULD COUNSEL YOU AGAINST THAT. It would be all too easy for them to accuse you of burglary, and whilst you probably wouldn't get charged you would have a very unpleasant time of it - and it would put you 'in the wrong'.

3. The police will, at the moment, see this as a civil dispute and will not want to be involved. They are unlikely to attend if you phone them as it is not their role to get involved with civil matters.

4. However, if you make it plain to the people thaht you want your property back and make sensible arrangements for them to return it e.g. through a third party, and then they fail to do so without a reasonable excuse, you could then report them for theft of the property.

Now, many police officers will not want to take such a report, but tell them that you have the full elements of a theft under s.1 of the Theft Act 1968 and that will get them thinking:

. They know that they shouldn't have the property - dishonest appropriation
. There is tangible property
. It belongs to you (and you can prove it)
. By not returning it to you without a reasonable excuse and after a reasonable request, they are assuming the rights of the owner - intent to permanently deprive.

If the police still don't want to take a report or deal with it, remind them that under the National Crime Recording Standards they are required to take a crime report unless there is credible evidence that a crime has not occurred.

So sit down, write them a letter asking for them to return your property in a reasonable way. Give them a time limit - say a week - send it to them recorded delivery or post it through their letter box with a witness to verify what you have done and see what happens.

Keep the letter simple and don't rake up the past. Just say that they have two egg cups or whatever of yours, that they can give them to Bill Smith by next 8th November if they don't want to give them to you personally and that you will consider taking appropriate legal action if they fail to do this.

GOOD LUCK!!!

Answer 4

Interesting. 'If you can get into their house (without breaking in)' Im not sure i know exactly what you mean by this. But if you are on their property without their permission (express or implied) then you are trespassing. Simple. You need to remember that in criminal law motive is IRRELEVANT. It doesnt matter that you stole bread to feed your starving family, what matters is that you stole bread. Same with trespass. It doesnt matter that you trespassed to retrieve your own property, all that matters is that you trespassed.

Its very difficult, even with a reciept for everything, because how can it be proved that the reciepts were for that exact thing? maybe you had one and they also had one, if you get what im saying. If as suggested above, you had a policeman to watch you, how does he know the situation is as you say it is? Maybe you gave them a gift and fell out now want it back? anyway you get the idea.

Im waffling, but best thing to do would be to report the items stolen. Because, obviously they are stolen. It doesnt matter that when they had them they were borrowing them or what. As soon as their intention turns from going to give it back to keeping it, its theft. The policemen should then beable to get a warrant to search the property, find the stuff, return it to you and your 'friends' get a criminal record. everybody wins!!

If you fancy getting a pop at compensation, i think you'd beable to get them for trespass to property aswell. Worth a try.

If none of the answers on here do it for you, just go to the citizens advice bureu.

Answer 5

In SC you should see a magistrate and get claim and delivery papers that allow you to legally retreive your property from someone else's possession. A law enforcement officer may escort you when retreiving your items. Your state should have a similar process. Don't waste the time of the local sheriff's office if you don't have your proper paperwork in order, as a general rule, they won't get involved until the judge issues paperwork.

Answer 6

Go to small claims court and get an order for them to release your property to you. Take a police officer with you and pick up your property. If they dispose of your property and will not reimburse you the price of your property, the court (in Georgia) will allow you to take items from their home to hold until either they pay you for your possessions or return your possessions to you.(The amount of items you are allowed to seize does not have to equal the value of your property. It can be much greater.. You have to hold it for 30 days and can then sell or keep it at your option.

Answer 7

I'm sure it doesn't matter where you live, they probably call it the same thing. We do things here called "domestic stand-by's" it is when somebody is moving out and they know there will probably be problems, they call the police and say look, I just need to get my stuff and I don't want any problems. The police show up and we stand there and make sure that things don't "get out of control". Make sure you do bring your receipts because it would be their word against yours and we would have no way of knowing who's stuff is whos. Something else you might want to do is take them to civil court and sue to get yours tuff back. Try the domestic standby route first and if that doesn't work then sue. But don't go in the house, that is only a path to possibly going to jail.

Answer 8

You have the right to have your property back, but you don't have the right to enter their home without their permission. Thats called Breaking and Entering, and you will be arrested. Instead call your local law enforcement, and ask them for an escort to these peoples house so you can retrieve your belongings. Don't forget those receipts, otherwise its your word against theirs and then there is not much they can do. It then becomes a cival matter and has to be resolved in the courts.

Answer 9

There are people suggesting to you that the police will help, sadly they do not always want to get involved. However if you do have this problem say to the police that you think there will be a breach of the peace when you go round to collect your belongings, due to the attitude of the people that have your belongings. Push the point because the police are duty bound to stop any breach of the peace and will if pushed then come with you. Be strong and stand up for yourself........... good luck!

Answer 10

call the local law enforcement for the jurisdiction of the area where your personal property, Ask for assistance in retreving your property from the residence. They should send out an officer to help with the matter. Having a good amout fo evidence of what is yours and what is not will help the matter along quite nicely. because if it comes down to "He said, She said" the law will fall to the owner of the residence. There shouldn't be too much hassle, and the office can keep everything on the nice.

Answer 11

Yes you can. It's taking a risk because if you just walk in it might be tresspassing but if the cop is mad they can charge you with burgulary w/ occupant inside which is serious. If you call the police they will be able to resolve it. I've seen an episode of cops were the this guys GF did the same thing to him and the cops allowed him to get his stuff back if he could prove it was his.