Long story short, I have been renting a commercial/industrial garage space since november of last year. when i moved in, the shop was supposed to be ready to work out of, it took a month and a half to get electricity. about 3 months to get heat, and about 6 months for him to hook up water for me. (and the only reason he even did that was because i told him he wasnt getting rent money until it was done) Now because of that, i had lost business, Work that i had to turn away because i dindt have running water or heat in the place. this made it very difficult for me to pay the rent and keep up with other bills. well now that i have everything, things started to catch up to me, and this past month was just horrific for me, financially. Didnt have his rent money. my phone got shut off, because i couldnt pay that, so he couldnt get ahold of me. He called my partner, saying that he was evicting us, and would be locking us out. I hadn't had time to go there that week, i just started a new job to help catch up with the bills, and i stopped in for a minute to discuss some things with a customer, And he sure enough had changed the locks, with all of my tools, machinery, and customer vehicles inside the place. Now he also left the door unlocked. So my key no longer works on the lock, but the door was unlocked, so i could actually get in the place..

Now i understand he wants his money, and i have full intention of paying him, just this month has been very tough on me. I tried explaining that to him, and he accused me of just trying to take advantage of him.

What are my rights in this situation? can he legally just change the locks without serving me an eviction notice? I have not gotten any eviction notice or any paperwork, he just made a very rude phone call to my partner and said that i was avoiding him, and he was going to change the locks and evict us. Can he just leave the garage open like that? and if the place gets looted, and my stuff gets stolen, Is he liable for it? I am fully willing to get out of the place. He has been a nightmare to deal with, it takes months to get any little problem with the place fixed, And alot of times i have to end up paying someone to do it, or do it myself.. I just want to know What i am working with on a time frame here, can he legally just lock the doors like that, no eviction notice, with all my property inside?