The only thing I about evictions in TN is that when someone is evicted all of their belongings are put to the curb.
Did your buddy call the police? That’s what you’re supposed to do when someone takes your property illegally. The situation is going to be difficult to resolve from another state.
Come back three months from now when you are sick of paying your buddys bills and ask us again.
Unless he offered his property as security for the rent, the landlady, in essence, stole his stuff. He should contact the sheriff and report it stolen.
If there is no lease, there is no landlord-tenant relationship. The “tenant” is a guest and can be “evicted” w/o any requirement of due process.
As such, the “landlord” should’ve just moved the “tenants” stuff to the curb and changed the locks. The “tenant” would have no recourse because they’re not actually a tenant.
Since they put the stuff in storage, it is now legally considered theft and the “tenant” has recourse against the “landlord”.
Is the landlady required to go through some formal evictions procedures that she did not follow? Most places require written notice, 60 days or along that line. He/you should check as to what is required for her to evict him, as well.
Lawyers typically charge upwards of $400/hr and you will burn many tens of hours resolving this matter, more if you actually listen to the lawyer. How much more do you want to spend? Generally, walking away from small time disputes is the prudent thing to do.
Good luck in court. IANAL, but if it were me, I would do all I could to help him pay the storage fees, get his stuff out of storage, and back to him. Because once he sues, she'll counter-sue, and the money he spends from then on out will be money he could have spent getting his things back. And the storage place will not keep his stuff forever. It will be auctioned for the storage fees if he waits very long. Time is of the essence here.
But if he decides to sue: First of all, the landlady is going to argue that your buddy abandoned his property (you wrote: when gone a couple of weeks")
She's gonna say, "Judge, he was behind on his rent. He refused to pay rent, he disappeared for weeks, and he abandoned his property. I took care and didn't throw it to the curb. I put it in storage.
"And now, because I did the right thing, he's suing me for his property. Judge, I'm out two month's rent (or whatever), lawyers fees, the money I paid to carefully put his belongings in storage, the money it cost to move it, the money it cost to inform him that it was in storage ( you wrote: found his stuff taken to storage) and the money I paid the movers. Plus the following incidentals___"
And then she is going to say, "Which I why I am counter-suing today". And unlike your buddy, who will have a devil of a time proving what his stuff was worth or even which stuff he had, you can bet that she has her receipts. Rent is a specific amount. Storage, movers, all that - if she paid people to do it, she got a receipt.
Your buddy will then be in the position of explaining to the judge why his stuff was worth thousands, even though he has no receipts (and remember, it isn't worth what he paid or what it would cost to replace - he could, at best, potentially get the value at the time, which is depreciated through ownership and use).
And he'll have to explain to the judge, probably without receipts, why he had such incredibly valuable stuff, but no money to pay the rent and no inclination to sell his solid gold stuff to get the rent.
Someone said that "two wrongs don't make a right", and that is true. But judges especially don't like to award money that seems to be "unjust enrichment" when one party has "dirty hands" (called the "clean hands/dirty hands doctrine"). "Dirty hands" means that the person goes to court asking for relief, but has themselves done something bad with regard to the case.
The judge will listen when she explains the steps she took to take care of the stuff that her deadbeat renter abandoned.
If she is smart enough to have a lawyer sending letters at this point, she is smart enough to counter sue, and she will move to have it heard at the same time if it isn't already scheduled that way. And since she has already proven herself smart enough to put his stuff in storage and have a lawyer send your buddy a letter about it, she'll sue for all it's worth.
So, your buddy cheated her out of rent, and at best would be able to get the provable value of his stuff, minus what he owes her.
Assuming that the judge didn't look at the case for 30 seconds, determine that she met the burden of proving his stuff was abandoned, and throw his case out. Hers would be allowed to continue.
What the judge will not want to hear: That he's a veteran, that he is a former Marine (whatever those are), that he was having a hard time, that he was sick, was robbed, etc. It is really simple: he had a contract with his landlady, and he breached it in at least one way (non-payment). He may have met the definition for abandonment (you'd have to check state law). And she will sue for any damage he did to the property. Either way, he may have a very hard row to hoe proving that he's owed a dime after she counter-sues.
Seriously, good luck.