I worked for operators of amusement equipment for twenty years.
We had our equipment sold (illegally) by the landlords dozens of times. About half of the time it was sold to the new person in the same space, so we were able to explain the situation and start operating at the same location again. Frequently this required us paying the new person in the space for what he paid the landlord for our equipment!
Lots of times we never got our equipment back.
Dozens of times it was locked up by the landlord, and it took weeks, months, and occasionally more than a year to get into the building to retrieve our equipment.
We didn't have insurance, we just absorbed the cost.
As for making it easier - having written contracts was a big improvement in recovering our equipment. Having written documentation showing the equipment names and item numbers on the same page as the location address helps. (Our collection ticket software did this).
Mostly, each case was different, and sometimes we got burned.
"Become an amusement operator, all you do is collect the money!" - Yeah, right.