Location: Southern California
I (28M) rent a room. I share a house with 3 other people, of which I am the youngest person. We sublet. I own various brass instruments, most of which I keep in my room. Except for my tuba, which is too large to fit through my door. I keep the tuba in the garage. The garage is a common area and is frequently used. The roommate in question also keeps his bicycle in the garage. Let’s call him B.
Well recently, this B’s bicycle got a flat. Which I noticed, but didn’t think too much of it. Two days later, I come home from work to find that B had taken the kitchen trash- which contained rotten food and other nasty things- and dumped it onto my tuba. This is especially bad because it is a biohazard. A tuba is something I put my mouth on to play. Also it is potentially corrosive to the instrument. Immediately I got the attention of the subletter and we both confronted B. B admitted to doing this as retaliation because he believed I somehow caused his bicycle to be flat (there are no puncture marks to the tire or the inner tube). This is completely ridiculous, as I’ve hardly even said much to him the time he’s been living here. This was completely out of left field.
The confrontation ended with the sublettor taking my side and giving B alittle over a month to move out. I’ve had to take my tuba into the repair shop to get it professionally cleaned, which cost me $180.
I’m worried about B having another dumb paranoid reaction to whatever random inconvenience unrelated to me causing him to damage my tuba again, my bicycle that I also keep in the garage, or even breaking into my room and damaging my other instruments. Legally, what can I do here?
Comments
You can report him to the police for vandalism. Realistically they won’t do anything about it.
You can ask him to pay you back, and take him to small claims court if he doesn’t. It’s up to youto decide if the hassle is worth $180.
Is your tuba insured? If it is, call your insurance, you might have a chance if vandalism is covered.
About your roommate moving out: if he doesn’t want to leave by himself, he has to be legally evicted, and the landlord needs to be the one evicting him. Have you discussed that with your landlord?
As for preventing him from vandalizing other things of yours, there’s no clear legal way to do it.
You can take the roommate to small claims for the cost of the tuba cleaning. You can also file a police report for vandalism if you would like. If you can lock your room and keep as much stuff out of the common areas as possible that would be your best option going forward because it’s extremely unlikely the police will act on him dumping garbage.
Police