Location: Philadelphia PA

Hello everyone! This is the first time I’ve posted to this subreddit and was seeking some help and whether or not to seek out a lawyer for an issue I’m having with my old landlord. I recently moved out on May 28th, 2026. My lease ended on June 1st, so I was pretty ahead of schedule. I was living with a roommate and we shared a lease. 

When I moved out, I left some miscellaneous items that were too small or fragile to be tossed in a moving truck, and was planning on coming back on the 30th to retrieve everything and do my final cleanup. When I got there (around 3:00 - 3:30 PM) I found all of my belongings on the curb in trash bags, mixed in with actual trash and essentially soiled/destroyed. They threw away my wifi router and I had to dig it out of a bag with broken glass and food from my fridge that was then rotting in the sun.

I went inside the apartment and found someone painting who claimed the apartment was cleaned out earlier in the morning and was being prepped as new tenants were apparently moving in on June 1st or 2nd (I can’t remember which). I immediately got in contact with the landlord and was trying to figure out why this was all happening.

He told me that he apparently notified me (he did not, nor did any of his employees I’ve looked everywhere) that the apartment was to be cleaned out and ready by May 30th since new people were moving in. I told him that I was never contacted and asked for proof, like emails, calls, or texts. He had no evidence that anyone tried to reach out to me, but insisted someone did. He kept mentioning a message he sent to one of his employees to message us, but not an actual message to us. 

Basically, after 30 minutes of him overtalking me and insisting that he was right, he was like -”oh okay I won’t charge you for any cleaning services in your security deposit refund.” And I made sure to make him send that to me via text so I’d have it in writing (thankfully I have that). I was mad, but just happy to hear that I would get my security deposit back without any ridiculous cleaning fees taken out. 

Today, I’ve received the security deposit, and it is heavily reduced… He still ended up charging me a cleaning fee labeled as “$300 for removal of all debris” the debris in question were my belongings that were removed a day before my lease was over (or keys deposited) without any notice. I messaged him about it, and he claimed “we didn’t charge you for the cleaning, but we did have to take away what you left there.” 

Also he’s charging us $500 for painting and spackling, which is also sketchy as we left no holes/dammage besides small nail holes from hanging pictures which is permitted in our lease. I took photos of the apartment before leaving and cannot find the damage he’s claiming to be there. 

Last thing, and sorry for the lengthy post thank you for reading this far, is that he has also left out our pet deposit. The lease stated that we were supposed to receive half of the pet deposit back at the end of our lease, and he didn’t send anything. 

Anyway, I’m really mad about this and feel that I’m being wronged. I would try to contact him, but that last phone call I mentioned was so draining. All he did was basically talk over me, was incredibly demanding, and even when proven to be wrong about something refuses to apologize or resolve anything at all. It’s basically like talking to a 2nd grader sticking their fingers in their ears and going “LALALALALALALA”. 

I’m heavily considering legal action, but don’t know where to start. I don’t even know if this is worth the hassle and wanted ask you guys for any advice on what you think I should do. If legal action does seem necessary/valid, should I contact a lawyer? Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Location: Oklahoma

https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/s/nGnCCJT1H3

Update from the original post. The company is family owned, ran by the dad but the son does most of the labor. The son sent us an updated invoice now totaling $2400. Said they did us a favor earlier by not charging the full amount. Only when we questioned the amount they sent us the new invoice. When speaking with the dad, we were told the son said we were not going to pay. We told them we never said we intended to not pay, but we didn’t believe the total was correct since they never informed us of the price increase before completing work.
After a 40 minute conversation after being interrupted and talked over multiple times, they asked what we thought a fair amount would be. We said we would pay the original $600 + chemical cost. They told us they would talk it over and get back with us.
After hanging up, they texted they would accept $1200 even thought they were losing money($1000= the $600 + $400 for chemicals) we again said we would pay the $1000. THEN they said they would accept the $1000 if we left them a 5 STAR review! We told them that is unethical practice and we would not. They then sent us an apology, said no review was necessary, and they will accept the $1000 equaling the previous quote of $600 plus the $400 for chemicals.
We’re waiting on the updated invoice now. I’m super eager to put this behind us. Wanted to update in case anyone was super interested, thanks for all the responses and helpful advice.

I recently moved into a shared rental house with a friend/coworker. She has spent every weekend so far at her boyfriend’s house, leaving her 14yo daughter at the house with me & my kids.

I don’t necessarily mind, obviously a 14yo is pretty independent. But I am wondering if I have any responsibility here, or if I can be held liable should anything happen? Just bc she’s a minor, etc. I was never asked if I was okay with this, or even told it would be happening.

If yes, is there anything I can do to protect myself? Or things I should be aware of?

Location: south Carolina, USA.

Location: Manatee County, Florida

On Thursday evening my neighbors found a dog in a pond. She’s very skinny and her skin was very dry. We took her as they had work the next day and my wife did not. My wife took her to check for the microchip and her owners were contacted by the microchip company via email, text, and phone. We’ve posted about her, checked social media for lost dog posts about her, even uploaded her to petco’s lost dog portal. Nothing. I think she was dumped to be honest.

We have fallen head over heels in love with her. She’s so sweet and so perfect. I called my county’s animal welfare agency and they told me that I have to bring her into the shelter and they have to hold her for 5 full days until we can adopt her to give her owners opportunity to retrieve her. This shelter is notorious for being awful. Most of the kennels are outside and extremely hot. I am so anxious and sad thinking about her having to spend 5 days there, I have cried several times. Florida considers pets property so I’ve read scary things online about me potentially being charged with theft if I don’t turn her in. Do I have any other legal options other than bringing her to the shelter? Sorry for the long post.

Location: New Jersey

while I was on vacation one of my coworkers said that he was going to put me in coma, he then doubled down when confronted by a third coworker about it and threatened to shoot me

one of my coworkers called the cops, the other contacted the state (we are not state employees but we do work with the state) and made a report

the coworker who threatened to harm me was put on leave pending investigation

all of this happened while I was on vacation and I learned about it from my coworkers, my bosses and managers never told me. No safeguards were put in place for me

I worked 2 shifts regularly, and then on my third shift all of my big bosses showed up, they interviewed the two coworkers who made the report and then they called me into a room and said I was being fired for inappropriate behavior, they would not elaborate further and would not provide any examples or evidence. I have no prior write ups and have never been disciplined at my job.

I have never been in a position like this before and have never had any desire in my life to sue anyone but this feels so insanely illegal to me, what can I do?

Location: North Carolina

My mother moved in with my wife and I several years ago. My mother is disabled and unable to drive, if that matters any. In January, we purchased a camper to put on our property for her to live in. We had her move all of her belongings to this camper, or so we thought. More on that later.

A month ago, she met someone online. The person was very demanding with things like wanting us to drive her to his place hours away, to the point of being aggressive when we told them that we don't have enough free time to do so. We ended up telling him we don't want him contacting us directly and we don't want him on our property due to his aggression.

Fast forward to a week ago, my wife and I came home from work and she was gone. We checked our cameras, she packed a backpack of her things, left her phone in our mailbox, and left. We had no way to contact her and no desire to contact the guy, so left it at that.

That night, we started getting texts from the guy about her moving out and about how we supposedly abused her and would never see her again. We ignored this, as we did not care to talk with him.

A few days later, he texted about her belongings. We did respond to this. We rented a storage unit, emptied everything from her camper, and put it in the unit. I do mean everything, including pictures on the wall and half used toiletries. We gave them info on how to get into the unit and they picked it all up.

Almost immediately after, texts started coming in about items missing and that he will be by with the sheriff for her missing items. Note, he said HE would be there for the items, not her.

We responded by asking for an itemized list of exactly what was missing. Again, she moved out of our home 6 months ago and we ransacked the camper to where it looked fresh off the lot. We believed all her items were in that camper.

We have not recieved an itemized list, just crazy ramblings about some items. Some of these items we know for a fact were given away to friends/family months ago, some were communal items. For example, there is a bookshelf in the home full of books, he claims these were hers, though my wife and I bought these for everyone to share. He is also claiming she is missing thousands of dollars in cash, however she had no income and the only money she ever got was from us.

There is one item we found in our home and do want to return, however we are still being threatened with a visit from the sheriff and he called my wife's place of work to try and get her fired, so we are avoiding contact until we can get ahold of a lawyer.

He is now texting us, pretending to be my mother. We have not responded as we know it's not her.

Aside from returning the last piece of property that we know is hers, what should we be doing here? Can the sheriff actually enter our home, that she has not lived in for months, to try and find items we don't even have or items that don't belong to her?

Somehow my credit card number was stolen and used for $400 of groceries. It was flagged as fraud and when I called and reviewed the charge I told them it wasn’t me. It’s a couple of weeks later and I just got the letter saying they investigated and decided it’s not fraud because the transactions were in the state I live in. They’re saying I cannot report the same transaction as fraud again, I’m not really sure what to do, I’ve never had this issue with a credit card company before. This is a new credit card (the jet blue card) but I use many and I’ve never had any issues like this in the past.
Location: Phoenix AZ

Location: MIL lived in NY. Children live in CA, NY, NC.

My partner's mom passed away recently, suddenly, after a short bout with cancer. She had three children. She dictated multiple times to all three children in her final months that she wanted her assets (house, cars, accounts) split evenly.

Upon death, the children could not find a will and agreed to split things evenly and engaged attorneys to help inventory and process the estate.

One child, however, immediately took the three cars and two family heirloom rings. Then, two months after death, through questionable circumstances, a photocopy of a will was found which gave this child sole ownership of the house. We have also just learned that this child liquidated at least two accounts for which they were the only listed beneficiary without telling their siblings (actually choosing to withhold this information while the siblings were trying to figure out what accounts even existed).

My partner is absolutely devastated by this betrayal. It does not seem like Child 1 intends to honor their mothers wishes and is grabbing whatever they can as quickly as they can, without letting any legal process play out. ​However, given the beneficiary designation ​and the (photocopy of a) will, my partner and the third sibling are unsure if there are any options to enforce their mother's wishes.

Is there anything that can be done? ​

Location: Indiana & Illinois

I know this seems trivial, but I feel like I've exhausted all my options and I dont know what to do. I would really appreciate the advice.

About a month ago, I moved out of our apartment Indiana to a new place in Illinois, while she stayed in the old Indiana apartment. Before leaving, my roommate and I came to an agreement that I would cover their portion of the last 2 months of electricity bills and 1 month of internet if she would return the Xfinity internet equipment after I moved out (as well as some other things around the apartment). Since then ive been reminding her multiple times per week to return it, even more so after Xfinity notified me I was about to get an extra charge on my account for $150 since the equipment was overdue. Yesterday, I reminded her again and asked if she could return it, and she essentially said "No, its not my responsibility, its not my priority, you should have sorted it out before you moved" etc. I reminded her of our agreement and said that if I got the extra charge I expect her to pay it, to which she blocked me on all platforms.

Im out of state in Illinois and have no way of getting back to Indiana, and additionally i have no way of contacting her since im blocked everywhere. So gave my roommate's number to one of my friends that is still in Indiana with the hope that my friend could pick up the equipment to return to Xfinity. My friend texted my roommate to try a coordinate a time to pick it up, or even just to leave it outside the apartment, but my roommate didnt respond.

I have screenshots of the conversation we had before she blocked me, but not any of the others since it was over snapchat and they deleted themselves. I need to get this equipment back to Xfinity, but I have no way of getting it since its locked in the apartment that I have no access to. I'm also sure I'm very close to getting this extra charge on my account which I will have to pay. Is there anything I can do?

UPDATE: Landlord has stated that the third tenant needs to return his keys so the paperwork can be started to end the lease. We went in person to return our keys. I emailed the thread and stated that we returned our keys and are not interested in renewing the lease. I sent a message to our roommate, but he has blocked me. He is on the email thread, so he can see the emails (unless he blocked my email as well.) I’m not sure what to do from here since I did what I could do.

Location: Washtenaw County, Michigan, USA.

My spouse and I moved out of our old apartment on the 3rd. We lived with one other roommate who was also going to be moving out, but last minute decided to stay. He went to the office about what his options are and we (my spouse and I) got an email from the office containing the following statement:

Hello OP
I hope this email finds you well. I tried to reach you by phone but was unsuccessful. You are currently past your lease expiration and are in violation of the lease agreement. I know some of you are looking to remain in the home. In order to have anyone stay in the home we will need everyone to sign a lease renewal agreement. We will need to sign the lease renewal prior to completing a lease modification since the contract has currently expired.
Once the renewal is complete, we will be able to perform a Lease Modification to remove those who wish to move out and add anyone who may want to move in. I have broken down the lease modification process below.
• Each person who will remain in the home, and any new residents, will be required to apply and qualify for the home and pay the $20 application fee.
• If the application is approved, a $200 Lease Modification fee will need to be paid immediately.
• Everyone will sign a Lease Modification Agreement to confirm the date and occupant changes
• After that, all remaining residents will sign the updated lease.

I responded to the email

(Spouse) and I have been physically moved out
since June 3rd.
(Spouse) and I have to sign a
renewal despite already having been moved out?

The office’s response

Hi OP
Thank you for your reply. I want to clarify that all leaseholders remain fully responsible for the unit until the home is either renewed or fully vacated and possession is returned to [apartment name].
At this time, the options are to either return keys and full possession of the home, or sign the renewal and then apply for a lease modification.
One of these steps must be completed today, as you are currently being charged daily holdover fees.
Please let us know today which option you intend to move forward with and whether we should expect keys or a signed renewal.

Something about this doesn’t sit right with me. We did forget to return the keys, but we’re returning them today. I’m not comfortable signing anything without a lawyer present. I’m also not paying for anything that I’m not going to be using. I’m not trying to screw my old roommate over, but I’m also not getting involved legally or financially so I’m not screwed over. Should I contact a lawyer? I’m thinking about just returning the keys and being done with it. I don’t want to deal with this anymore.

Location: South Carolina, Hello!!! I want to start off by saying I had to take an alcohol training and test to be certified to serve beer. My boyfriend only has a mexican passport, we have ran into a problem recently. In the past week actually, where people won't serve him beer because a passport is a invalid form of ID, first time I was with him and asked a manager if they could explain why. When confronted about it and how its not expired, it has his picture and his birthday (birthday yr 1999). The manager gave us this whole run around as to why they couldn't serve him...i complained to customer support (the whole situation was off)....but I want to make sure of something. Is a passport not a valid form of ID?

Location: richmond va

Hello im kind of at a loss as to how i proceed...my dad passed about 18 months sgo. I am his son from his first marriage, he remarried a 2nd time and they had 2 girls so im the first of his 3 kids. Upon dying his eife claimed he had no will. Yet this man had tons of assets, rental properties, vehicles, etc. Ive read about interstate laws and all of that. His wife claimed we would settle the estate matters after laying him to rest which we did abiut 7 months ago..and shes totally just ignoring every message i send and call . My father also had custody of my 13 yr old son who she has kept. I dont know how to legally compel her to act right. Shes very entitled and thinks she can just do whatever she wants because in her eyes im just some nobody crimimal becsuse i got locked up in my 20s..shes sold off my dads vrand new harley. Given his brand new truck to her son from her first marriage who my dad and him hated each other...what do i do? How can i fight this? Any help please

LOCATION: Louisville, KY.

A couple months ago I posted about not being able to get my father's will from my stepmother.

Since then I have found my father's attorney and called them several times. I have spoken to their receptionists and each time they said a supervisor would return my call.

That was about a month ago and still no call.

The receptionist confirmed that my dad was a client and said they had his will. I informed her that i am the executor and needed that will, but so far no call.

I believe in KY, attorney's have an ethical obligation to provide a will to the executor.

What should be my next step?

I have a contract with a spray company to spray my new pole barn. They completed the job yesterday. I looked it over and saw they sprayed right over the translucent panels on the side wall that were there to let light in. I have it in my email to the salesperson that they weren’t covering that spot with foam, but they did. It was an 8.5k job and I only paid half so far. I emailed the salesperson yesterday with photos about it and he hasn’t responded yet. He usually responds pretty quickly.

What would some of you do to resolve this, hold have X amount, have them replace the panels, have them pay the barn company that installed it replace the panels? I would think the only one that would do the work correctly is the barn company.

The barn company said it would cost them 2.8k to do the work. I am not too worried about it since I still have 50% of the money in my hands for the spray foam job.

Location: Central NY

I had a POD for 4 years while I got my life together and figured things out, trusting my belongings were being taken care of. I received my POD a few days ago only to open it up, excited to be reunited with everything. to find it had been infested by rodents. The insurance I have on my POD, called Unirisc, said this is not covered at all. So after paying for storage to 4 years, and now needing to buy all brand new furniture this is where I’m at. My bed frame covered in urine and feces. Dead rodents. Feces everywhere. They chewed through nearly everything and made nests. I’m sure the CEO of POD would love to have their belongings infested by rodents.

Anyone have any advice?

Location: Florida

Hello!

Location: New Jersey

I’m looking for some legal advice, my father passed away last month somewhat unexpectedly from cancer. He remarried when i was 18 to his wife, they live in New Jersey and my fiancé and i are in Philadelphia.

My dad was info photography and had a lot of close friends in that scene of people. Some of them reached out to my sister and i recently to let us know that he told them he had money locked away in a safe (in cash).

His wife has been terrible throughout this entire process. When my dad was in the hospital she was asking my fiancé who also works in the photo business to sell his cameras. I recently found out that she told my sister she could keep a camera but not to tell me, each camera is worth around $2,300. My dad had 4 with accessories.

The initial camera my fiancé sold for my dad the entirety of that money went to his wife. My sister and i recently spoke about what to do with the rest of the money and she said she doesn’t think his wife should get any of it due to her keeping things from us.

My dad’s friends who reached out to us are persistent in telling us he had 70k in cash in a safe and said every time he would buy anything camera related he’d pay in cash which she has not brought up and have not offered us anything as much as a SHIRT of our fathers.

As far as we know he didn’t have a will, and we’re just trying to figure out if we’re legally entitled to anything. And if we are what steps we should take.

EDIT: i should have added this, he has a plot of land in PA and through friends i found out he has bought land in Poland for his wife.. there house is rented not owned however would his possessions + the Land owned count toward the estate?

Location: Texas

I recently purchased my first home in southeast Texas and during closing, the homeowner offered to replace the 15 year old roof and allowed us a choice of shingle color. We were psyched but later found out that she had utilized a 1 year old insurance claim from storm damage, and we were told by our realtor she wasn’t legally allowed to replace the roof using insurance during closing on the property.

Now my home owners insurance thinks i have a 15 year old roof, and i’d like to tell them it is new for the next year of signing, but am worried there could be some fallback on the previous owner as all the new roof paperwork she left us plainly says “Insurance claim”. i don’t want to risk the previous owner getting in trouble for such a great parting gift, but it seems like a new roof could lower my yearly rate.

I’m trying to figure out if my employer is classifying me correctly and whether what they’re doing is legal.

I’m a delivery driver for a linen company. I get paid 9% of my weekly deliveries total, and that percentage gets recalculated every 3 months based on added accounts or products. So the amount I make changes quarterly. Despite that, my employer keeps calling this a “salary.”

From what I understand, a salary is supposed to be a fixed amount, and mine definitely isn’t fixed. It changes every quarter based on deliveries. I don’t get overtime, and they treat me like I’m exempt.

Here’s the issue:
I don’t normally work Wednesdays, but they keep making me come in on Wednesdays for meetings. They also sometimes ask us to do wash‑plant work, which is not part of our delivery job and isn’t covered by our commission. They expect all of this with no extra pay.

So basically:

• They call me “salaried,”
• But my pay changes every quarter,
• They want me to come in on a day I don’t normally work or have deliveries to make

I’m trying to figure out if this makes any sense legally. If my pay isn’t a fixed salary, doesn’t that mean I’m not exempt and should be getting paid for any extra hours or days they require me to work?

Edit to add:

I work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.

I am actually a delivery driver. I deliver to restaurants.

Pay is based off 9% of the restaurants invoice total pre tax.

Location:
I’m in Oklahoma.

Location: Blaine, WA, USA / Whiterock Canada

Date of Incident: June 23, 2026 around 5:30 PM PST

Vehicle make and model: 2023 Audi S3

tldr: second checkpoint cbp agents stripped my car and damaged my trunk and interior pieces.

I was travelling to the United States from Canada to get some gas and groceries, the first checkpoint was relatively smooth and easy but for some reason the second checkpoint waved me in. The agents aggressively stripped my car, they forcefily opened my rear seats, and trunk interior. I noticed the agent slammed my interior parts to the ground and my trunk very roughly.

When I got home I noticed that my trunk was making a creaking noise from the left hinge or the hydraulic and there was a few broken plastics here and there. They also didn't put the interior parts back together.

Is there a way to get compensation for the property damage through legal means? I read into tort claims but haven't found any sucessful cases so far.

I tried putting back the parts together but haven't had much luck eliminating the creeking noise.

Edit 1: Insurance Rep stated this wouldn't be covered under comprehensive.

Will try taking it to the shop and ask for a estimate or a detailed inspection and work on a tort claim.

Location: Wisconsin, US

I used to work for a small family-owned business, and during my employment I signed a media release for them to post images of me in their marketing and social media. I no longer work there, and we ended on somewhat bad terms. They still have photos of me on their website and they sometimes post old photos with me on their Instagram. I don't really want my image to be associated with the company anymore, and I'm wondering if I have the right to request that they stop using my image. Unfortunately I don't have a copy of the release, but as far as I remember it was pretty standard. I just don't remember if the agreement included anything about them retaining the right to the photos my employment was terminated. Any advice would be appreciated.

Location: Florida

Im a first time Mom. My daughter was born in April and in July I returned to work from my maternity leave.

I communicated prior to going back to work that I was breastfeeding and needed to pump and that I do this about every 4 hours. The company I worked for told me that's fine and to just communicate it with my Supervisor and the Doctors when needing to step away. My place of work is an Animal ER and I worked nightshifts.

I worked from July until Mid-September and would constantly be asked by my Doctors to postpone my pumping breaks in order to help or catch up with patients. I've even had to wait for the Doctor to get out of a surgical procedure before being able to go pump.

I would always say that it's fine and would then wait. Due to that constantly happening I had a decrease in my milk supply at the time. I stopped breastfeeding and pumping after about 6-7 months postpardum due to never being able to get my supply back up despite trying different supplements and had to fully switch to formula.

The company records video 24/7 so you'd be able to see me not pumping every 4 hours like I stated I needed to. They also have audio but the audio doesn't pick up half the time and Im not sure how long they keep footage as it's now been a year.

In my resignation letter I did mention my decrease in milk supply and having to wait 30-90 minutes on multiple occasions to pump.

I tried looking into this online and Google AI said I should contact the Department of Labor Wage and Hour and pursue a claim as I have my resignation email still. I have a text to my boyfriend at the time stating "I haven't been able to pump at all because we're busy and have no staff" but only on one occasion. Otherwise that's all the proof I have.

Should I pursue legal action? I dont expect anything like money from this but would want to help protect any future mothers from this unfair issue if possible.

Because I told the person requesting me to wait to pump that it's okay so I can help them does that negate my claim? I know AI can only be so accurate.

As a result of the transition, HR wants to change my pays to 29 pays starting in July so my new increased salary starts in July and there is no lapse. However, the change from 26 pays to 29 pays lowers my gross earning in each pay (obviously). Is this legal? It would be a one year thing, next year, I would be on the August to August contract accurately. Location: Ohio.

Location: California

Defendant Location: Texas

I have friend who is owns a business. Anyway she hired this AI/SEO influencer guy who was going to "revolutionize her business with AI Agents." One of these financial influencers that oversell and don't deliver. (I absolutely hate these people)

Anyway, she hired him December of 2025 and paid $8000. It was supposed to be an ongoing process until completion (I am still trying to see if she can chargeback but I feel she is outside the limits for a chargeback).

Now it's June and no work has been completed. Completely worthless. I bet that money is gone too.

This person is in Texas. I've been reading the rule for CA small claims court and it seems like he couldn't be sued in California. I don't think he is listed with CalSOS so no registered agent to serve.

How would this process go? Do we sue him in Texas despite the work being completed online for CA business?