OC telling family it is a felony ???

[mindgame]

OK . I had an account with Colortime. They are like Rent a center. I stopped paying on the furniture. When the morg co took everything out of the house and threw it away without my knoledge or notice.

I know this is not the rental co problem and will pay them after I win my lawsuit agains realator and morg co.

But in the meantime they are calling my son and my niece telling them I have commited a felony and am going to jail for grand theft of furniture. I guess I still owed about 900 on it.

Even thought they are oc, isn't it illegal to threaten a felony charge? Can I sue them? They left it on voice mail and said it to two people .

[bigjohnstud4200]

not returning or paying for rental property can be a crime of "conversion", not sure if it's a felony or not, as i am not an attorney, but I would send them a cease and desist letter.

conversion

n. a civil wrong (tort) in which one converts another's property to his/her own use, which is a fancy way of saying "steals." Conversion includes treating another's goods as one's own, holding onto such property which accidentally comes into the convertor's (taker's) hands, or purposely giving the impression the assets belong to him/her. This gives the true owner the right to sue for his/her own property or the value and loss of use of it, as well as going to law enforcement authorities since conversion usually includes the crime of theft.

[samuelson2005]

'But in the meantime they are calling my son and my niece telling them I have commited a felony and am going to jail for grand theft of furniture.'

What about them calling her son and niece? Doesn't she have a case against them for doing this?

[bigjohnstud4200]

It doesn't sound legal, but I'm not positive on that. Anyone else?

[Guest tigger7588]

I definatly know from my days as a collector discussing the debt with anyone but the debitor or someone(spouse) who acknoleged/reponsible for the debt was a HUGE no-no. we could only say that we were calling from/on behalf of said company and leave a name and # saying anything to anyone else (stating that you were calling about a debt or that it was a collector) was against FDCPA and I am sure still against the FDCPA however since that was about 15 years ago I can't cite you the # in the law that states that but I'm sure one of the GURU's here can. Save those recordings and if they are stupid enough to discuss it with someone else let alone minors, make sure you have all that sh** on tape. Good Luck !!

[jasen]

Since they're the OC, they're not bound by the FDCPA.

[bigjohnstud4200]

Since they're the OC, they're not bound by the FDCPA.

that's exactly why I didn't comment any more.

[Guest tigger7588]

apologies all around - I still think recording the convo's would be helpful in a dispute/settlement tell them of your ITS with the tapes as backup for harrasment.

[bigjohnstud4200]

apologies all around - I still think recording the convo's would be helpful in a dispute/settlement tell them of your ITS with the tapes as backup for harrasment.

It does sound like harassments, just not sure if there is any law about telling people you owe money if they are the OC.

[mindgame]

So because they are the original creditor, they can tell anyone anything they want about the debt? And they can say I am going to jail with no recourse?

Is there somewhere I can look up the fed law or state law on this . I am in PA

[Guest tigger7588]

There used to be a feature when I lived in NY *57 use it after a harrasing call and it will be sent to the phone company logs, after there are three or more calls from that # it will be turned over to the police for investigation. You can call your own phone co see if they have somthing similar- definatly record. I would not only consider it harrassment, but also defemation of character. JMO Good Luck !

[bigjohnstud4200]

So because they are the original creditor, they can tell anyone anything they want about the debt? And they can say I am going to jail with no recourse?

Is there somewhere I can look up the fed law or state law on this . I am in PA

Not necessarily, we're just saying the FDCPA doesn't cover this. There may be other laws, like harassment, etc. that can cover that.

[rella5]

Have you spoken with Colortime at all and explained the situation with the mtg co and realtor? Perhaps they would suspend or reduce your pmnts until the lawsuit is resolved.

[waterlover112]

I had this same type of thing happen when I defaulted on payments to Rent a Center a long time ago. I live in the state of Colorado first of all. I was out of the country when all this was going on and basically they did the same type of thing. They started talking to my references that I had listed on the rental agreement. They told them that they were going to pursue felony charges against me and blah blah blah. They said that if you look at the fine pront on the original rental contract that it states that it is a felony. I looked at the paperwork and sure enough it was a felony. (at least in Colorado) There is a special law associated with this.. .I don't know it off the top of my head, but it wasn't the typical theft or anything like that.

The best advice would be to contact the rental company and discuss the issue with them. Tell them what happened and that you are pursueing legal action to remedy the issue. I would take any type of legal documentation that supports that you are taking legal action. You have to remember that companies like this deal with deadbeats all the time that make up excuses. They have probably heard it all. So make sure that they have written proof that you are not trying to screw them. Also if that doesn't satisfy them, I would offer to continue making payments on the furniture and add those payments to the amount that you are suring the companies for.

[elyse449]

I had this same type of thing happen when I defaulted on payments to Rent a Center a long time ago. I live in the state of Colorado first of all. I was out of the country when all this was going on and basically they did the same type of thing. They started talking to my references that I had listed on the rental agreement. They told them that they were going to pursue felony charges against me and blah blah blah. They said that if you look at the fine pront on the original rental contract that it states that it is a felony. I looked at the paperwork and sure enough it was a felony. (at least in Colorado) There is a special law associated with this.. .I don't know it off the top of my head, but it wasn't the typical theft or anything like that.

The best advice would be to contact the rental company and discuss the issue with them. Tell them what happened and that you are pursueing legal action to remedy the issue. I would take any type of legal documentation that supports that you are taking legal action. You have to remember that companies like this deal with deadbeats all the time that make up excuses. They have probably heard it all. So make sure that they have written proof that you are not trying to screw them. Also if that doesn't satisfy them, I would offer to continue making payments on the furniture and add those payments to the amount that you are suring the companies for.

Couldn't the OP file a police theft report w/ the local authorities? I would do whatever I had to in order to cover my butt.

Elyse

[bigjohnstud4200]

There is a special law associated with this.. .I don't know it off the top of my head, but it wasn't the typical theft or anything like that.

I'm still sticking to conversion.

[SecretAgentWoman]

You rented the property, not bought it on loan. They aren't an "OC" in that sense.

If you borrowed money to pay for a car, and it was stolen, you would still have to pay for it. You know that.

If you were renting a car, and you didn't return it, it's stealing. Hello.

You have to call these people and make arrangements to pay, I don't think they are just blowing smoke.

[CleverCynic]

I used to rent out computers on a rent-to-own basis. I was SOL if they stopped paying and wouldn't surrender the equipment. There were only civil avenues. They can sue you of course but I really don't think there are any criminal avenues they can take unless you wrote a bad check. If I remember correctly, there was an avenue criminally I could take if they NEVER made a single payment, but showing intent to pay and stopping pretty much cut off any recourse.

[shinyrims]

jail i don't think so, i think the amount needs to be over $1,000.00 for it to be a felony. i would look into that first. no, you dont go to jail unless you you go to court first.

[maddison66]

OK . I had an account with Colortime. They are like Rent a center. I stopped paying on the furniture. When the morg co took everything out of the house and threw it away without my knoledge or notice.

I know this is not the rental co problem and will pay them after I win my lawsuit agains realator and morg co.

But in the meantime they are calling my son and my niece telling them I have commited a felony and am going to jail for grand theft of furniture. I guess I still owed about 900 on it.

Even thought they are oc, isn't it illegal to threaten a felony charge? Can I sue them? They left it on voice mail and said it to two people .

mindgame, you didn't way whether or not you notified Colortyme about the situation with the furniture and your current suit against the mortgage company.

As far as I'm aware they shouldn't be able to tell anyone about the debt. My sister was in situation with Rent A Center and she used me as a reference. They basically said they have been trying to get in touch with her and asked me to have her call if I am in touch with her.

Like waterlover112 said, if you have proof then you need to provide that information to Colortyme and perhaps Colortyme can either join your suit (don't know if that's possible) or will make arrangements for payment with you once the suit has been resolved. In the meantime, advise Colortyme that they are not to speak of your debt with anyone except you.

I would go to the "Resources" link on this site under Announcements and see if you can find links there pertaining to PA law.

[brokemommy]

OK . I had an account with Colortime. They are like Rent a center. I stopped paying on the furniture. When the morg co took everything out of the house and threw it away without my knoledge or notice.

I know this is not the rental co problem and will pay them after I win my lawsuit agains realator and morg co.

But in the meantime they are calling my son and my niece telling them I have commited a felony and am going to jail for grand theft of furniture. I guess I still owed about 900 on it.

Even thought they are oc, isn't it illegal to threaten a felony charge? Can I sue them? They left it on voice mail and said it to two people .

I worked for a local furniture company here in NC about 12 years ago. When a person defaulted, we would contact all their references IF we could not

1ST reach them by phone, mail or a visit to their residence. (Yes we would send collectors to the residence to collect payments if we had to.)

Their application that they signed gave us permission to contact any references that they listed. We would leave messages with their references stating they needed to contact us ASAP or we would seek any/all legal remedies available. We were not governed by the FDCPA because we were the original creditors -we owned all of our accounts (in store credit). If the collector went to their house to repo the furniture and the person did not have it, or had sold it to someone else, we would take them to small claims court and sue them for "disposal of mortgaged property".

I don't know if your situation would fall under that catagory, but if they sue you -they will win, because of your contract. I would suggest making some type of payment arrangements with them and recouping your money from the other people that actually threw out the furniture. Just my opinion.