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The biggest downside of renting is …

… landlords. In this case, a negligent property manager:

“A Kansas City, Kansas mother came home this weekend to find her apartment empty.

“She said apartment managers at Gateway Plaza Townhomes first told her to call police thinking there must have been a burglary … she spent several hours trying to convince [them] there was no way it was the work of a burglar with no forced entry. So she says they eventually checked their records. ‘That’s when they told me, ‘we’re so sorry we cleaned out the wrong unit,” she said.

“She estimates $32,000 worth of her belongings were trashed …. But she’s more disappointed to have lost items that were priceless to her family. … Unfortunately, Guthrie doesn’t have renter’s insurance. She … also lost important paperwork like Social Security cards and birth certificates.”

(Read story here.)

She doesn’t need renter’s insurance, she needs a lawyer. Their liability is clear: They had no right to take her property; under most landlord-tenant laws, they didn’t even have a right to enter the unit without her permission. So if she takes them to court, the only issue is damages.

This case is worth a lot more than the $32,000 of destroyed possessions (furniture, clothing, TVs and iPads, toys, groceries she had just purchased, etc.). There’s irreplaceable family memorabilia. There’s the cost of temporary housing. The time and effort spent replacing everything. And, of course, trauma — not only to her, but the kids.

About two-thirds of Americans own their homes; the other third are renters. The latter tend to be young or low-income. Most start out in life renting, then buy a home after settling into a career and becoming married with kids.

Practically all of us have been renters at one time, and probably very few of us liked our landlords.

Landlord-tenant disputes are among the commonest legal disputes.

Landlords also may be the best marketing tool that real estate agents ever had.

Photo: Imagine coming home to this: No furniture, no lights or running water.

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