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Need temporary support until settled. The property manager had no legal right to withhold & dispose of our $75,000* worth of inventory (see pics), plus personal items that were in a warehouse of a friend who got locked out/evicted.
- Texas Property Code Sec. 54.021. LIEN. A person who leases or rents all or part of a building for nonresidential use has a preference lien on the property of the tenant or subtenant in the building for rent. (We were neither).
- Texas law is 100% on our side, it is only a matter of time and we need help financially to bridge us until then.
Despite telling us that they would let us get our things even if he got locked out. When I would inquire about when can we get our inventory I would be told they will let me know when a good time is but the PM would never get back to me. They held it for months, knowing we needed it & watched as we fell farther behind. Eventually claiming they were "disposing" it all without notice, nearly destroying our small business.
- I welcome business tips or connections to rebuild!
- Contact me off-platform for ideas.
- Current goal is,
- $3,000 Place to Live.
- $1,000 to get storage units and move out the inventory we have left in our office-warehouse.
- The Above 2 Can Be Combined.
We could live in the office warehouse space temporarily.
- $1,500 Legal assistance.
- This situation is fixable.
- If you can not donate, please share with Houston news sites like KPRC, Houston Chronicle, or Texas Tribune, and groups like Texas Tenants Union or Texas Small Business Association to expose this injustice. Your support fights property manager abuses in Texas!
"You shouldn't have stored it in another space where the tenant defaulted because we own the items now" Property Manager.
- Texas law clearly states that landlords only have the right to tenant's property. Texas Property Code §54.021 creates a statutory landlord's lien on a tenant's personal property in a nonresidential building to secure payment of rent. Our property is consider third party personal property aka non-tenant property. The only exceptions are abandonment or if the third party signs over the property. We did neither.
- By withholding such a large percentage of our inventory serious damage was done to the business. It is only a matter of time before we're right back on track. We just need some temporary help.
- The 2 pics with trailers full of boxes is the inventory they "disposed" of at waste management according to the workers. There was also a dump trailer that was filled with what most would think of as traditional garbage. Plus some personal items, unopened mail, business records, etc. were taken during clean out. Our cost was approximately $20,000 - $75,000 plus retail. A significant amount was collectible. (Are you wondering why the product wasn't auctioned off? So are we).
- We need to raise funding to bridge us until we can recover damages for lost inventory & interfering with our business. It will be used to hire an attorney, get storage/U-Haul/help to get the rest of our inventory out of the unit we rent before that is also lost & to prevent eviction from home. We fear more will be lost if we don't remove it quickly. We can still save our business.
- Since my girlfriend had a stroke 9 years ago, this business has been how I paid all the bills. It was my full time job, my career, my retirement. It’s been my only source of income all these years. With sales of over 2.5 million dollars. Everything with this business is fixable. It isn't failing because of mismanagement, the economy or trends. We still have a significant amount of inventory if we can save it.
- We had inventory in our friend's office warehouse space across from our own office warehouse space. He was struggling to pay his rent. When I spoke with the property manager, we discussed the possibility of him being locked out of his space. I mentioned that I knew he was hoping to find a way to catch up. We both hoped he would. The property manager was aware I had inventory in the space & we sold it online. My friend was a semi-retired mechanic, our items were clearly distinct. I asked the property manager if I needed to remove my inventory before a potential lockout or if I could retrieve it afterward, as we needed it for sales. Adding we needed access to it we couldn't afford on wait 30 or 60 days. The PM assured me that if he gets locked out, we could make arrangements for me to retrieve it. My concern was NEVER about permanently losing the inventory. However, I was worried about having to wait an extended period of time to eventually access inventory. -
- She knew the inventory was ours.
- That we needed to sell.
- Wanted it.
- She also knew we were prepared to remove it ASAP beforehand if needed.
- A few weeks later he was locked out, I asked the property manager to set up a time, as we needed our inventory, and the property manager would say, "I will let you know." (In Texas, a commercial landlord has no legal right to permanently keep or seize property belonging to a third party, non tenant property.) The property manager did say that someone had to be present the entire time to ensure we didn't take anything that didn't belong to us. We discussed how long it would take me, and it would likely be a Saturday. I even suggested that I could set all our inventory right in front of the building and move it from there, instead of loading it up, taking it somewhere, and coming back for more. That way, whoever was supervising wouldn't be "stuck" there longer. The property manager never got back to us.
- The property manager watched as we fell behind on our rent. The PM then used it as an excuse to continue to withhold our inventory. After another request to retrieve our inventory the PM would allow us to retrieve our inventory if we caught up on rent.
- The PM also went on to say they could change the locks on the door anytime because we were behind. (Lockout)
- As you can see this new condition & the threat of all our inventory being withheld put us in a tough & stressful position. I never agreed to the condition of paying back rent to get inventory but at that point feared argument could lead to immediate lockout.
- We came close a couple of times on catching up on the rent but never recovered.
- The "NEW" condition of catch up on the rent to get our inventory isn't even legal since they shouldn't be withholding our property.
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- However, without providing any notice, they disposed of over $75,000 worth of our inventory, (this is a conservative estimate of the value) the withholding of the inventory & now this has caused our small business to collapse. I had been pursuing investors & the huge inventory we had was one of the biggest assets to attract them. We only knew that they were taking away our inventory because several neighbors let us know.
- Most of the property was business related. Some of the property was personal, including collectibles. It also included over 200 pieces of unopened mail -packages (USPS, Amazon & UPS) as well as old business records and bank statements we had stored.
- When I contacted the property manager as they were removing my things, I was told, We had a deal, catch up on the rent and you could have your things & you shouldn’t have left your stuff in a unit where the tenant defaulted. It’s our property now. We never made a deal. See above.
- We never would have gotten so far behind if PM didn't withhold our inventory. Both of the reasons she gave for withholding our property are not legal by Texas law. Plus she said before the lockout she would let us retrieve our things if it did happen.
- I called the police but they said it was a civil matter. I tried to explained why it was not a civil matter anymore. I explained that I did not have a tenant/landlord relationship with the unit that defaulted. The landlord never had any right to keep non-tenant property, etc. Concluding they (the contractor & worker) are claiming they are taking it to the dump. Something isn't right here. They should at least be trying to sell it to recover back rent? The officer tried to explain to me again that this was a civil case. I told the police officer these people are taking my property and I don't even know who they are. He never even attempted to ask the contractors any questions or request to speak to the property manager.
- A significant amount of the property was collectibles, so the total value will be higher than $75,000. Most of the boxes you see on the trailers cost $70 to $250 per box just to give you an idea of how much we paid, how big the loss is. The retail value/lost is considerably more.
- The attorney I’ve spoken with is confident we will be compensated — but that will likely take a few months. We urgently need help to bridge the business, etc, until I can get back on track.
- We have video of everything provided by neighbors, we have witnesses to our things being stored in there, we have video of the company employees saying it was all going to trash. Even though they were clearly separating it.
UPDATE: Back Story - PARVO Pups.
It was brought to my attention that I should include a little more of the backstory. Prior to our inventory being withheld...
Summer (2024), a stray dog came by our place, bery beautiful. She ended up getting fat and having gorgeous puppies. Some pups got parvo. When I took the sick ones to the vet I had to make a decision how much to spend. I had cash flow money.
When I thought about our business plan. I figured it would not be a big deal to just to do whatever I had to do because I've been working almost full time the last couple years. I just said to Liza that it's time for me to go back full time 6-7 days a week 60+ hours a week to the end of the year. I told her why I thought it was ok to go ahead and get the dogs treatment. That we had bought so much inventory for future plans that there's no doubt we can recover quickly.
Over the previous few years I purchased inventory with almost all the extra money that was be made. I had slowed down for personal reasons and now was ready to go full blast again. We had inventory that hadn't even been listed yet.
The reason we had so much stuff in our friends place was because there is so much inventory stacked high on shelves that I didn't even know what was all there. Plus along the floors were loaded too. I even had some stuff at home and in a storage unit. We pulled it all down and set it outside, brought the stuff from the house & the storage unit. My friend asked what we were doing and we told him. He was looking to find someone to move in with him & until then I could use some space. I explained to him it was only temporarily, by the time Christmas is over it will be gone. It was a huge help being able to see it and easily access it. It was perfect timing.
The vet bills ended up being $10K+ across Houston clinics, draining my cash. We had More Inventory than ever before. I was certain that spending the money on the puppies wouldn't be a problem because of our huge inventory. (Note we don't need money to pay for the vets bills, it is just part of how we got to where we are. ).
Then as you have read the property manager's actions turned our world upside down. (someone once said that it was stupid to spend all that money on those puppies, don't you wish you hadn't?) No I don't. I wish that the property manager was honest & had given us our inventory . We worked for it, it was ours, they had no right to screw with our lives. I have been a wreck for a year now. Not sleeping right, no parties, no events, no tv, nothing but try to correct this mess. I am tired.
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- Legal Info -- I have found many people mix-up laws regarding "storage units" with other rental property laws. There is a section of law dedicated to storage units in Texas. Even then the landlord doesn't have the right to keep third party property.
- I’ll post more details soon, please share. Today I need to meet with people about selling my washer/dryer and dining room set. God Bless All of Those who read this far.
Organizer
