Debtor’s Hell
Jul 30th, 2006 at 8:55 am by Susie
The Boston Globe’s doing an excellent series on the obstacles faced by today’s tapped-out consumers:
Outside, a tow truck blocked her driveway and her 1996 Chevy Blazer. A man and a woman with a court order told the single mother they had come to take her car for nonpayment of an old credit card debt. With interest and legal fees, the bill totaled more than $2,000, and it came from a company called Commonwealth Receivables. They gave her a choice: Pay the money now, in cash, or hand over the keys.
Dimanche had never heard of Commonwealth and believed the debt had been paid by a social services agency. ”I just said, ‘You guys must be insane,’.” she recalled.
She had reason to be stunned: The debt was at least five years old. And she’d never gotten notice of the lawsuit against her: When Commonwealth, a local debt collector, went after Dimanche, the address it supplied the court was one where she hadn’t lived for more than a decade.
But Dimanche didn’t have the paperwork to prove the debt had been paid off, and she didn’t have $2,000.
”What could I do?” she said. ”I gave them the key.”
You know, where I live, if somebody shows up and demands money or they take away my personal property, I call the freakin’ cops.
It’s rediculous that people Dimanche can’t call upon the most straightforward legal protection against being shaken down like that.
She should get a lawyer now and look for a class action suit.
As an attorney- that is f–ked up. They reposessed her car? On an unrelated debt???
welcome to Bushworld. Thank the assholes who pushed through the new laws for banks, etc …it’s corporation domination.
Sioban, often the people knocking at the door is a cop, or part of law enforcement. These debt collection companies contract deputy sheriffs, constables, and tow lot operators to do a lot of their work for them. The Spotlight series has the second installment today, talking about how small claims court enables this crap, and tomorrow’s installment will focus on the roles of law-enforcement in this.