Do I have a claim against my landlord?

By Brenda

I have not been served any evicition papers except for a 3 day notice in the beginning of February.  I have willingly been moving out of a shabby rental house in the last few days and have kept the landlord informed as to when I would return the key and have my belongings off of the property.  I went to the rental house on Friday evening to pick up some things after work (as much as I could load in to my car) and noticed that someone had entered the home, left EVERY light on in the house and moved some things around.  I knew it was the landlord but I just left a note on the counter asking them to leave the lights off and notifying them that were illegally entering my home. I gathered my stuff and went on my way.  My car had been broken down over ther weekend and I did notify them in writing that I would be getting the rest of my belongings on Monday and would then return the key tothe office once I was finished.  I came to the house yesterday, as I said I would, entered and found that all of my belongings had been removed from the property, some things thrown in the trash can outside by the curb and they already went ahead and cleaned the carpets and had the ac pumping on 57 degrees! I called the realty office to find out what happened to my belongings-the guy said the landlord (his boss) had taken my stuff to his storage unit and it would cost me $300 to get my stuff out, and $25 additional each day after. I explained to him that this was very illegal since I had not been legally evicted and he said well the house is supposed to be vacant. I told him that I sent him numerous emails over the weekend explaining that I was supposed to get the remainder of my stuff on Monday and was going to return the key. He just kept stumbling on the phone and al of the sudden I had the owner outside of the gate of the property screaming that if I did not get my ass off of his property, he would physically remove me himself and that I was trespassing!  I had already called the sheriff dept before he got there, they called the civil dept in escambia county and found that he had no right to do what he did-he was VERY angry, especially at the cops.  Do I have a claim against this "landlord" and if so, how much is this going to cost me and is it worth it?  Keep in mind, it took over 3 1/2 hours to get my stuff back and my 3 year old son was in the middle of this whole thing as the situation was unfolding.  Much thanks all!

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