I own a rental property located in York Pennsylvania. Lease is month-to-month lease. The tenant did not pay rent in January or February. We tried calling the tenant several times but could not get her to answer the phone. I gave 24hr and also a 1hr advanced notice (as per our lease) to enter and the furniture and bedding was gone. Only a few trash bags of clothes, two 10yr old 25" TVs and broken 8yr old computer remained in the property. I posted a notice of property abandonment on the door Feb 14 (lease stated that if the tenant was gone for 7 or more days with any rent unpaid the property would be considered abandoned) without a response. Certified mail was returned unclaimed. I posted a 2nd abandonment notice on the door Feb 22 and received no response. The gas company then called and said they were scheduled to terminate the gas service on Mar 2 and asked if the property was winterized.

On March 7, I went to reclaim the abandoned property and found the locks changed. Hearing what sounded like a fountain, I broke a window to enter the property and found it flooded with 18-24" of water and still running. I went outside and pulled the electric meter to cut power, entered the basement to turn off the water and called the utility companies to terminate all services. The house was still vacant and nothing had changed inside since last seen in early February. I immediately called 911 and had the police and fire dept come out to make a report.

Everyone on the street was outside by the time the police arrived. My intent was to simply change the locks, but with the broken window the property was unsecured and the water made it dangerous. I told the police I intended to put the remaining abandoned personal property in storage to deter people from trying to enter and cherry pick through it. As I was putting the bags of clothes, etc in a cargo van and giving the police information, a neighbor handed the police a phone with my tenant screaming that I illegally entered her home and was stealing her stuff. The police told her there was an emergency at the home and that the landlord was placing everything in storage. They said it was a civil issue and they were not getting involved. It was 11pm by the time the police left and 23 degrees outside, so a neighbor and I placed wire mesh over the 1st floor doors and windows to quickly secure the property. It had 2 feet of standing water in the basement, empty, and no utilities.

The next day I sent my wife to the property to inspect and make sure it was still secure. She found the wire mesh torn off the window and front door. She called 911. The police arrived and said the property was empty, but said the tenant had a right to enter until evicted. My wife explained we didn't know who entered the property and needed a police report to document the break-in. I went to the property that night to resecure the wire mesh and add new locks to the doors.

Today I went to inspect the property and found the new locks gone, the doors wide open and the wire mesh torn off the front window and door. The inside was still empty, but somone had moved one of the appliances toward the back door (too heavy to steal) and the copper plumbing was gutted. I called 911 and the same officer that arrived the day before responded. He explained again that the tenant had a right to come and go. He said the tenant coming in, taking off the locks and gutting the copper plumbing is a civil issue no different than punching a hole in the wall. I asked about flooding the property with 10,000 gallons of water (yes that's right) and again said it's a "civil issue" not criminal. He then had the nerve to tell me the wire mesh was illegal, me entering the house was illegal and the tenant could gut plumbing, steal appliances, sell fixtures, leave the house wide open and there was nothing I could do to stop it until she was evicted.

My main concerns are:
1. Entering the property and placing their property in storage. Legal? Illegal? Can I require tenant to pay for storage costs before I sign over the storage space to them?
2. What criteria must be met for a landlord to declare a property "abandoned" by the tenant? Police claim I must file an eviction against every tenant, even good ones, who pack up and leave without giving proper notice or even when their lease ends but didn't put their intent to leave in writing. That's just about everyone.
3. I can't stand guard and protect this property 24/7 and the police don't seem to want to be involved. The property is essencially as "shell" at the moment with no power,water, gas, furniture, food, no locks on doors, nothing. What do I do?

There was an eviction hearing on the 10th. The tenant came saying she paid her rent but didn't have receipts. The judge scolded my wife for placing the items and storage and demanded they be returned. The judge continued the case until next week so the tenant could find receipts (that don't exist)

The local regional Public school system (MA) holds a lottery for full day kindergarten. The lottery was structured with 40 availabls slots. The execution of the lottery consisted of two pools of applicants (boys and girls) with 20 slots allowed to each group. The problem is the pool of girl applicants was greater, meaning each girl had less of a chance of being selected then each boy. Based on the pools, each boy had about 95% change of being selected while each girl had about 75% chance of being selected. At this time the school system has not provided any documentation on how/who sets the lottery selection rules. I interpret the process as discriminatory.  Was the execution of the lottery legal? If the lottery was discriminatory what recourse would I have or suggested next steps

The local regional Public school system (MA) holds a lottery for full day kindergarten. The lottery was structured with 40 availabls slots. The execution of the lottery consisted of two pools of applicants (boys and girls) with 20 slots allowed to each group. The problem is the pool of girl applicants was greater, meaning each girl had less of a chance of being selected then each boy. Based on the pools, each boy had about 95% change of being selected while each girl had about 75% chance of being selected. At this time the school system has not provided any documentation on how/who sets the lottery selection rules. I interpret the process as discriminatory.  Was the execution of the lottery legal? If the lottery was discriminatory what recourse would I have or suggested next steps