I really wish the thread title had been written as:
"You touch-ah our piano again-ah, I cho-pah off-ah your balls-ah!
So, show up nice and quietly for Sunday service. Show up early enough for Sunday school. Restrain yourself from mass mayhem, instead take copious notes. THEN go to small claims court. Why haven’t you reported the stolen items to the police already? And the vandalism?
When you complained to the church about the damage done to your property did you speak to the head preacher/minister/priest? I know you probably just want to blow off some steam but I’m gonna add my two cents worth. I’d ask for a meeting with the big kahuna and diplomatically explain what happened ( “We really appreciate being able to rent the space, your staff is super, the people from the congregation we’ve met have been so friendly, yadda, yadda, yadda - but…”). Tell him it’s non-profit and you have no money to replace what was wrecked. Ask him to please have the Sunday school adults who supervise the children pay for the repairs. Since nothing has been done about your previous complaints, ask him if he’d consider doing a sermon on the ‘Golden Rule’ for next Sunday and making an announcement that Christmas contributions are needed to repair/replace your property. Tell him that your only recourse is to go to the police if the church will not help with the matter. Good-luck!
the pedal bars… they are metal? what type of metal?
If you have one surviving, the other two might could be sand casted in brass to match.
I have no idea what type of pedal bars your piano uses.
Osip
Hon, “preparing an invoice” isn’t going to make it stop. Nothing will make it stop. If you’ve already complained, and you’ve been complaining, and nothing has been done, then that means that you’ve got people at the top who don’t give a shit, and people using your room who don’t give a shit. Either way, an invoice isn’t going to make an impression on people who already don’t give a shit, any more than an announcement in the bulletin pathetically pleading for mercy will.
I’ve been on the other side, with a church facility being used by people who didn’t give a shit, and believe me, tactful hints–and invoices–are totally wasted on these kinds of people. For one thing, you don’t have any way to compel them to pay the invoice. You can present it to them until you’re blue in the face, but dollars’ll getcha donuts that no payment will be forthcoming. You don’t have any leverage. They obviously don’t need your rent or else they’d be more proactive in seeing that you were kept happy.
And, again, based on my personal experience, it’s extremely possible that the church management would rather you weren’t there any more; they may wish they had their room back again for their ownselves, for whatever reason, and are subconsciously choosing this method of hinting broadly to you that you and yer little group of kiddie tapdancers ought to find a new home.
Vote with your feet. Nothing else will work.
Expecting something to be not vandalized in a church is like expecting something posted on the SDMB to remain private.
Go to church a lot in the next weeks with a digi camera and get proof and try to get $$$ from the church / vandal.
Have everyone else working overtime to find a new place.
A tarp with a cable lock around the piano and a large sign might get you past the time it takes to move.
You might type up what has happened and tape it to the tarp covering your piano.
Best idea is to move ASAP as DDG said…
Yeah, we’ve got EVERYONE looking for a new place to rehearse.
Preferably a room we can rent and LOCK behind us when we go…
Urgh.
You can get a locksmith to make a new key. I used to work in a school that was built in 1908 and still had old skeleton key locks on some of the room doors, and we were still able to get copies of those keys made, so you should be able to have it done too.