How do you get your belongings if the landlord has locked you out?

Full question:

If landlord will not allow you to get your belongings, and he precedes to lock you out, what recourse do you have? He has not responded to letters and has not closed the lease.

• Category: Landlord Tenant
• Date: 04/07/2025
• State: Oregon

Answer:

The failure of a tenant to pay the rent reserved by the terms of the lease for the period of 10 days, unless a different period is stipulated in the lease, after it becomes due and payable, operates to terminate the tenancy. No notice to quit or pay the rent is required to render the holding of such tenant thereafter wrongful however, if the landlord, after such default in payment of rent, accepts payment thereof, the lease is reinstated for the full period fixed by its terms, subject to termination by subsequent defaults in payment of rent.

A landlord's lien is a landlord's right to receive the value of the tenant's property to pay for unpaid rents or for damages to the leased premises. However, in Oregon, there is no landlord's lien in residential tenancies. In other words, the landlord cannot hold the tenant's property as security to make the tenant pay a debt owed to the landlord, such as back rent. Under Oregon law, a landlord cannot ever use self-help (or force) to get tenant out of the rental unit. This is true before a tenancy has been terminated, after an eviction procedure has been filed, or even after an eviction action has been won ordering the tenant to leave. The landlord cannot forcibly remove the tenant, change the locks, or turn off the tenant's electrical power or water. Only the sheriff can use force.

If a landlord does use self-help or force to remove a tenant, the law states that the landlord is liable to the tenant for two months rent or twice the tenant's actual damages, whichever is more. Oregon Revised Statute (ORS) 90.375. (An example of actual damages might be the cost of refrigerated food which spoiled after the landlord illegally shut off the electricity.)