A man says his property was tossed into the garbage by the property management company at his apartment in Dallas, Texas, and that the company said he should never have been allowed to live in the unit.
Johnny Abney told KDFW-TV that he and his 9-year-old daughter were shocked to find that all their possessions had been thrown out from the unit they rented at The Hamilton, a high-end midrise apartment building.
“Clothing items. All of my groceries. They cleared out my refrigerator full of groceries,” he said. “Right down to the shower curtain.”
Abney said he filed a police report in July over the incident.
“They came to my door and cleaned everything out, from my clothes to my daughter’s clothes, toothbrush, bathing items, pretty much left me with nothing,” he added.
He says that property management were initially very apologetic about the incident after learning that they had cleared out the wrong unit.
However, they then discovered that he had been subletting the unit from his ex-girlfriend, who had since moved away. Their tone changed, and they told him that he shouldn’t have been in the apartment and that they wouldn’t reimburse him for his losses.
Abney said other tenants had picked through his possessions and that someone had urinated on his mattress after the company left everything in a garbage area.
“Not only did they put my stuff out, they watched people take my property all day,” he said.
According to a lawsuit filed by Abney against the company, management told him he needed to fill out an application to rent the unit or face eviction himself.
He provided evidence to KDFW that he had been paying his rent of $2,500 but that the company wouldn’t even talk to him because his name wasn’t on the lease for the apartment.
“We are binded like by law. We cannot discuss anything with you or anybody who is not her lease,” said an apartment manager in a recording taken by Abney.
Abney’s attorney, Jason Freidman, told KDFW-TV that the issue of subletting the apartment was irrelevant to what the company did to his client.
“The rent was paid in full. There was no reason to go into his apartment. There was no reason to throw anything away,” Friedman explained. “The apartment building didn’t know when they threw all of that stuff away whose stuff it was, whether it was the person on the lease or his.”
Abney has since moved out of the unit, and he and his daughter are living temporarily with family.
Here’s the KDFW-TV report about the incident:
Dallas apartment evicts tenant, throws belongings in dumpster. But it was the wrong unit.www.youtube.com
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