Property theft

[dirtyharriet]

My partner and his band were using local rehearsal rooms and were on friendly terms with the guys that ran it, and were allowed to leave leave their PA system at the rehearsal rooms where they were told their gear would be perfectly secure. My partner turned up today to rehearse to find out that the man who owned the building (not the people who run it) had demolished the rooms and removed the band's equipment. We have tried to contact the owner who at first said the eqipment was still there, although it isn't. He has been over the place with a fine tooth comb, even looking under the rubble.He will now not answer his phone.

Can anyone tell me where my partner stands legally?
And should he be contacting the Police?

[Hgrove]

I am certainly not an expert but I would have thought you would need to report it as stolen.  That said, the police may or may not choose to act.  I would imagine that if you try to claim on the insurance, they will want to see that you have reported the theft.  I think, and stress I may be wrong, the guy who runs the place must be an employee or agent of the owner of the premises and if you were leaving the equipment on the premises with the agent's or employee's permission, the agent's permission implies the principal's permission.  Hence my feeling is, unlike In A Pickle, that your remedy should be against the owner of the premises. You said he is not answering the telephone, my suggestion would be that you write to him by special delivery saying that you left the equiment on the premises with the manager's permission and now it's not there anymore and he should refund you. Best of luck.

[dirtyharriet]

Thank you so much both of you for taking the time to reply.

After ringing constantly all day without getting through, we eventually left a message stating that we would be bringing in The Police and he rang 5 minutes later. He has now admitted that he has our property and we can have it back,but we have to drive about 450 miles to retrieve it this weekend.

All's well that ends well.

[Hgrove]

I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

[Hgrove]

P.S. it might do no harm to let him know that if by any chance you drive 450 miles and then the property is not returned to you, you will claim the cost of petrol as well as the price of the property.

[Hgrove]

If he can say 'but I meant to return them' then it would not be theft; however it then begs the question: if he meant to return them, what was he thinking taking them 450 miles away?  Hence the police might not believe he meant to return them and consider it theft! 

[dirtyharriet]

The guy who took our PA system lives 450 miles away so unfortunately if we want them back we have to go there. He said that he took them because he thought they belonged to the man who ran the rehearsal rooms, who incidentally never gave him any rent money. He was going to sell them.It does seem odd though that when I spoke to him first he said "are you the band who keeps their equipment there?" followed by "it's still there"

After we mentioned involving The Police he admitted he had our stuff. So it's all very confusing.

The problem is my partner's band has an important gig on April 24th and really needed to rehearse with the new drummer. We have managed to find a few possible spaces to rehearse, but can't do it without our gear.

I don't think the venue will believe us if we say, we have to cancel because our rehearsal rooms have been completely flattened and some man has run away with our PA. You couldn't make it up could you? LOL

Thanks everyone for your time and interest in our mad world.

[Hgrove]

Dirtyharriet, having read your latest, you need to try and get it back asap.  This man could say that he believed the system belonged to the man who ran the premises, who owed him money, hence he innocently sold it to get his money back.  If this comes to pass, I don't know the law of trusts well enough to tell you whether any money from a possible sale would belong to you or him; but even if it belongs to you, you'd have an impossible job trying to get it back.  Your best bet is to try and get the actual item back before he does anything with it.  He does not sound to me like he can be trusted. Hope you don't mind if I keep banging on about this.

[dirtyharriet]

Everything has been sorted. The man phoned us and agreed to meet my partner halfway. The gear is all back safely.

Thank you all so much for your concern and advice.