I am taking my ex-landlord to small claims court. Since I shared a kitchen with him I cannot take him to the residential tenancy branch. I believe in addition to my damage deposit and prorated rent, he owes me additional money. One example was, he told me a previous tenant posed an imminent threat to the safety of the home, and that he needed help paying for a change of locks. I would like this money back now that I'm no longer living there. While I was living in the house, a current tenant in common told us not to allow the previous tenant (who was actually "kicked out" of the house) to reclaim his belongings. This led me to believe these people did not respect the law.
Is there any point in me contacting the past tenant (who allegedly never got all his belongings back) and seeing if he could help with my current claim? If I did try something like this, could it count against me as defamation? I am almost certain the previous person to get "kicked out" was also not evicted with due process. (My tenants in common and the landlord threatened, in writing, to remove my belongings and change the locks. I reported this to the police but they said there's little they could do until they actually did what they threatened to do. I didn't take the chance and moved out.)
When does it help getting more people on "your side" when taking a claim to court?