This is a bit of a long and complicated story so bear with me. My friend and I recently moved into a two-unit rental. Unfortunately our neighbor's bike got stolen a few days after we moved in.

The bike was worth $1000, and was located in a stairwell adjacent to the garage. The thief somehow got into the garage at around 3am, went into the stairwell (there's no lock on the door leading from the garage to the stairwell), sawed off the lock, and escaped with the bike. Our neighbor heard a commotion but when they got down the bike was gone and the garage door was wide open.

His renter's insurance covered everything except for the $500 deductible. No one is sure how the bike thief got into the garage, but apparently the garage door has a history of popping open randomly which the landlord knew about but didn't fix for over a year.

Now our neighbor wants us to pay half of the deductible ($250). He claims that our moving in was partially responsible for the bike theft, because we had left the garage door open while we were moving stuff in and out. He thinks that the thief may have got into the garage and saw his bike in the stairwell during that time.

After all of this went down we found out that there have actually been a string of garage thefts in the neighborhood recently. Our neighbors never told us this. Note that my roommate also keeps her car in the garage, but luckily it wasn't damaged during the break-in.

Our neighbor has been sending us constant e-mails asking us to pay up. It's been super awkward since we live right next to each other. I've tried asking him to negotiate with our landlord, whose failure to fix the garage door for so long probably had more to do with the theft than us. But our landlord just ignores his requests.

The only person at fault here is the THEIF.

He"thinks" the thief "may have" - give me a break!

Extreme speculation and a terrible neighbor for you.

When you explain to him that you clearly are not responsible for his loss, make sure you do it with a couple witnesses to have your back.

With a guy like that, you may also want to consider putting up a small video camera in the garage to watch over your roommate's car - and anyplace else vandalism may occur. Don't be surprised if he wants to "get you back" (in his twisted mind).

Good luck over the next year.

If you stole the bike - YES

But it sounds like someone else is the thief.

Nacho problem.

My Corvette was stolen. Should my neighbor pay the deductible?

No.

Remember that “No.” is a complete sentence.

You didn’t steal it. You didn’t invite the person in who stole it.

A thief broke in, cut off the lock and stole it.

Strange how they stole the bike but didn't brake into the roommates car that was in there?

For as long as he lived there, everyone in the neighborhood saw him take the bicycle in there. Everyone who ever saw him riding it around could have followed him home and seen where he put it.

There is not a huge chance that a thief who had never seen the bike before happened to see the bike because you had the garage door open.

His bike is not your responsibility unless you run over it with your car or you stole it yourself.

And no, it is not the landlord's responsibility, either. If the garage door is easy to open, it is the responsibility of the tenants to properly fasten it. Garage doors don't fly open all by themselves.

Pretend for a moment that not only did you had the garage door open to move stuff in, but you saw the bike and invited a neighbor inside the stairwell to “hey, look at this really cool bike.” If turns out (still pretending) that the neighbor is not honest and he steals the bike that night. So it was not just that the thief saw the bike fortuitously but because you innocently showed him the bike.

Garages don't just pop open unless someone else nearby has the same code on their garage door opener.

Also, is the emergency release cord still hanging off the mechanism where the garage door connects to the opener? If so, you can jam a coat hanger in the top of the garage door and use it to grab and pull the release cord. Easy point of entry if cord still there.

You used the garage entry correctly and you didn't leave the door open all night. You didn't steal it, and it has not been proven that your activity lead to the theft of the bike. Maybe he needed a better lock, or maybe he should just keep his bike in his apt. That's what I always did. I'd never trust leaving my bike in a public area, even with a lock.

I'd talk with your landlord and let him know the situation. This may prove valuable if the tenant retaliates or starts making fake complaints against you.

...Nacho problem.

My Corvette was stolen. Should my neighbor pay the deductible?...