Legal question: My car was stolen! Is my landlord liable???

@jjn1983 (1353)
United States
September 26, 2012 1:03pm CST
my car was stolen from in front of my trailor last week. I called the office for my trailor park and was told break-ins have been happening for over a week and at least one other car was stolen the previous week. The trailor park is suppose to have 24 hour security in our park and the office lady said she has to find out "what happened to security", as if they weren't doing there job. The trailor park, knowing about the thefts and break ins did not inform any tenants as to the problem warning us to watch out. Are they in any way liable for my car theft since their security wasn't fullfilling their job and they were aware of this issue for over a week?
3 people like this
5 responses
27 Sep 12
I don't believe they're liable for the theft but you may be able to claim something for the negligence that could have happened which had it been as normal they may have caught anyone before they had the chance to make any theft.
@jjn1983 (1353)
• United States
27 Sep 12
Good point about the negligence, thank you. It's like security isn't even here anymore, these thefts have been happening for about 2 weeks now, as far as I know...possibly longer.
27 Sep 12
I hope you can have things sorted as soon as possible.
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
27 Sep 12
i am not fully aware of your contract with your trailer landlord, but i would assume that they have a clause in your signed lease of contract about liabilities and all, that negligence on your part to "care" for your belongings will not hold them liable. But that is what is common here in our side of the globe. You may have to refer to an attorney that would be able to find loopholes in your contract and find you a good case against them if that is the intention and make them liable and be responsible for their own negligence in not properly cascading rightful information about what has transpired in the past few days this causing you and others to not be more cautious than before.
@ravisivan (14079)
• India
27 Sep 12
Normally in such cases unless we can prove that the park in charge has done duty negligently -- that he has not kept security guards -- this can be verified from the attendance he may or may not be maintaining-- whether he was locking as per practice etc. again each case will depend on the circumstances of it.
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
26 Sep 12
I am not quite sure but I would think so. You may be able to file a civil suit and win, there is no telling. I'd call the police and ask them directly if there is anything that can be done. I'd think that since they did not warn you to watch out and they knew about it, and the lack of security, they should be responsible as they had notice to beef up security or figure out why security wasn't doing their job.
@jjn1983 (1353)
• United States
26 Sep 12
That's exactly what I thought too. Normally I wouldn't think this way, it would be my problem, but since they knew this was going on, their security wasn't doing their job, and they didn't warn the residents I feel it is there fault. If they would have let us know about the car break-ins and thefts, then we could have been more cautious and protected our stuff better. The lady at our office said she believes the thief is someone who recently got evicted from the trailor park. I believe it is someone the lived here, or visited frequently because on our street, my car, and my neighbors were the only 2 with expensive systems/speakers. They cut the cloth top off his car, stole his system, put it in my car and drove away. I only had plpd insurance(it was an older car, and I never dreamed I would be a victim of car theft) so there's no chance of getting help from them. I don't even work right now in order to save money for a new car, so I have to walk my children to the bus stop while carrying my 25 lb 10 month old son (a lot of my baby stuff was in my car too, including my stroller & car seats). The police that took the report (took him 5 hours to even show up at our place) said that 95 out of 100 times the car ends up in Detroit torn apart or set on fire. The first car that was stolen before mine was found later and had been torched. The neighbors across the street seen what was going on but didn't have the brains to call the cops or even yell out the door "What's going on". I would think the officer would have questioned the 'witness', but he didn't. Just a messed up situation I guess. I feel violated, and unsafe that this happened right in front of my house. I have to sit home at night at times because my bf works, and now I'm scared to even look out the window. The car had more than just a material meaning to me, so I think it's going to take a long time for me to get over this. Thanks for your quick response!
@celticeagle (157593)
• Boise, Idaho
26 Sep 12
I would push for a check of the security during the time of the vehicle being stolen. And I would think about the suing the security company for negligence. Either or both would liable as far as I can see. Security companies are not very good and seem lazy to me. All they do is parade around an area with a car that has the name on it as if that is going to deter a theif. Or they walk around in a given area. If they have a schedule all a theif has to do is see when they usual walk/drive around the given area and then steal when they aren't going to be in the area. I would check into the security company.
@ravisivan (14079)
• India
27 Sep 12
I found you are from Michigan state. this link may be of help to you: http://michigan.gov/sos/0,1607,7-127-48268---F,00.html Normally such parking agents exhibit a board -- "we are not responsible for thefts/..." Under these circumstances whether he can be held liable --again an attorney only can confirm, However you can claim from insurance company as per rules.