Location: Southern California
My husband is 74 years old. He has spent the last 40+ years fabricating ，restoring and building vintage race cars and street rods. This is his passion in life. About 8 years ago, my husband was introduced to a man who wanted a Woodie car built. My husband brought over an enclosed trailer with equipment he has acquired for several decades (including a lathe, english wheel, drill press, his hand tools and various electrical equipment). He faithfully fabricated this vehicle along with repairing and building personal items for this individual. In 2022, my husband was severely injured when a part of his equipment fell and crushed his right hand. As soon as he was physically able to work, he returned. (My husband was a one person “department “. A year later he suffered a stroke, and my hubby tried to return to work, and we were hoping his abilities would return. He tried for several months to do his vocation, but would be exhausted after an hour or two.
I am 63 years old and have been disabled since 2017. We also have sole custody of his 4 year old daughter (her age at the time) around the same time. She is now 12. Hubs had a second stroke 12/24/25. Our sole income is social security. Our snap benefits were discontinued 01/26. We have attempted to retrieve his trailer and equipment for the last 4 months. We have found a buyer for the whole works, which is desperately needed. All our income pays rent, utilities, car insurance and now food.
The individual states he is owed “rent” in the amount of $1700. We advised him twice in the last two months we needed to retrieve his property. We had a check for over $9k in our possession along with several men to accomplish this. He complained he had no prior notice we were coming today. The buyer retrieved his check until he could get the items and they left. Immediately after the man stated we will not be allowed to get our stuff and demanded we leave . We have no funds to retain an attorney . We live in Southern California. What can we do?