Is this legal???

mstang67chic

Going Green
I just got a phone call from a repo service in regards to my neighbor. The lady said she's trying to reach K who lives at XXX My street. I asked what it was regarding and was told it was about K's vehicle. They haven't been able to get ahold of her because her phone is disconnected.

*blink*

And you got MY number how?


Oh, I looked K's address up on White pages and got info on the neighbors.



*blinks again*

Really? How creative of you. Don't do it again.


ANd then I hung up. Then I thought about it and called back because she had left her name and number for me to pass along to my neighbor. I got her supervisor and told him that I didn't appreciate the call, it was rude, unprofessional and I don't need to know my neighbor's business.

Idiot: Oh well we didn't tell you anything about her business.

Me: Sir....you told me her name, her address, what vehicle it's about and what your business is. I'm not stupid. Do NOT call me again.




Omg...is this stinky fish even LEGAL??? I can't believe these people! I know it will be embarrassing but I'm telling my neighbor...she needs to know these people are calling the neighborhood.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
I don't think it is legal for them to discuss this with anyone but the neighbors themselves! They might not have specifically said what their intentions are but anyone could piece it together from what they did say!
 
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hearts and roses

Mind Reader
That's not legal. Have your neighbor make a call to the state attorney general's office.

Double Ditto!! Not legal at all and now it's your neighbor's turn to make some phone calls about them. How horrible. Let your neighbor know ASAP. One of my friends received a call like this about a year ago concerning one of her neighbors.
 
K

Kjs

Guest
My boss told me a repo guy came to his house regarding his daughter. She lives in another state, far away. He has his two grandkids. He wants to send them back and just be a granddad, not a parent. Boy 13 and girl 8. He is strict, has them in sports, summer school, involved in school..etc. He sent them back last year and found out the kids were living with no electricity or water. So he had them come back.
He said the repo guy came to his house and to his fathers house. Finally he told them he doesn't know where she is and when they find her let him know because she owes him money. He told them this is between Chrysler and his daugher. Not him, not his father not the neighbors. If they so much as ASK someone he will call the police.
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
I'm not sure if that is legal or not. I think TM has a good suggestion on calling the state attorney generals office.

Whatever it is - it's pretty stupid business on the part of the collection/repo people because NOW the neighbor will KNOW they are looking for it and she can hide it. She could also call them from an out of town number and tell them she no longer lives there.....duh. (We used to do repos, but I never heard of calling anyone's neighbors)
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Not sure if it is legal. I went to our neighbors one day because there was a strange truck there. They had moved out weeks before and were headed to foreclosure (who sells a house worth almost $150K to a couple less than 25 yrs old with 2 kids where she is a stay at home mom and he is a security guard (rent a cop)????)

The guy was really friendly, gave me a card, offered me a reward if I let him know when they were there, said it was about repo ing their cars.

I don't think it is legal, but I am not sure what you can do about it, other than blocking that number and only taking calls from people you know.

It may be that the neighbor doesn't know. We had a call from a friend about 3 yrs ago. They asked if we knew our house was listed as having a sheriff's sale in a month?

We were current on the mortgage. Someone got ahead of themselves and put our loan into foreclosure status. We ended up refinancing to get away from the bank that did this. We might not have been able to stop things if the neighbor hadn't let us know.

It was embarrassing though.

Hugs.
 

Mattsmom277

Active Member
Wow. I have no clue if this is legal.

My cousin had student loan debts unpaid. She had this happen in her apartment building. They called over a DOZEN people in her apartment building. I guess trying to shame her into payments she couldn't make???? It was horrible for you, she was humiliated. I'm glad you told them off!
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Legality on this varies state by state. In some states they can only go after the debtor and/or co-signers.

In other states they can do all the same sorts of stuff private investigators do--it's called "skip-tracing", and is perfectly legal.

When I lived in TN years ago, we had constant problems with skip tracers and repo people trying to find the previous tenants of our place. We checked and it was perfectly legal.

Better yet, the debtor's first and middle initials were the same as mine and they had the same last name.

Some of that garbage wound up on my credit report!


Up here in WI, the previous tenants of my home left a lot of bad debt behind, including stuff from furniture rental places and the like.

All I had to do there was contact the companies involved and tell them that the person in question no longer lived at this address and that I'd be happy to provide proof of that if they desired.

Have had no problems since.
 

flutterby

Fly away!
I don't think it's legal. At least not in my state. They can only call the number(s) they have listed and leave a message that it's "regarding a business matter". If you've gone through a place like, say, a pay advance place and you have to put a couple of contact names down, they can call those contact numbers to try to find you or your contact info (had a...friend, now acquaintance, do that). But, they cannot call just anyone.

I'm creeped out that you can find so much information so easily. They were able to find you - a neighbor? I know it's possible. It just really bothers me how little privacy we have anymore.

I might be tempted to tell them - should they call again - that if they are so good at their job that they can track down a neighbor, a completely unrelated party, then they should have no trouble finding the person they need.
 

flutterby

Fly away!
Another thing to add: Unless they can't find the car, repo places don't generally call ahead. They just come and take it - often in the middle of the night. So, that would send off a lot of warning bells in my head.

Is your neighbor having any issues with anyone? Any reason for him/her to be worried about their safety?
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
yeah. As I understand it, repo places have to get a court order via the loan carrier. Once that happens, they are allowed to not only take the merchandise, but are allowed to enter private property to do so.

They can't kick in your door to get the TV, but they are allowed to go onto the property to pick up a car in the driveway.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Not legal to my knowledge.

And I'd have turned it on him and asked him that if I were HIS neighbor would he like me giving out such information to a "so-called" repo man??? (or anyone else) I mean c'mon, for all you know this guy is a theif posing as a repo dude. I'd call the police myself and see what they say.

Repo guys don't call FYI...........they sneak in during the wee hours of the morning and slink away with the car as quietly as possible.

This doesn't sound legit to me.
 

mstang67chic

Going Green
It occured to me that after I spoke with the supervisor, he had a rebuttal for everything I said EXCEPT for when I questioned the legality of it. Hmmm.

I wrote down a brief overview of both phone calls, the number for the place and the name of the lady who called me as well as the number for the Attorney General and gave it to the neighbor. She was completely shocked that they did this and we both agreed that legal or not, this company has a big hairy pair. Something sounds kind of fishy though because she said they ARE behind but not over the typical 3 months and she's talked to people about making arrangements so they have a number to reach her. I'm assuming she's talked to the bank but still....no one should be doing this quite yet. She got a glint in her eye, thanked me for the info and said she WOULD be handling it. Hee hee hee....I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall when she does.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Yep. Stang. Repo guys never ever call you. By the time the account has reached that point........the last thing they want is for someone to tip off the owner that they're coming to repo their car.

Speaking from experience here.

So between that and the fact what they were doing was illegal........makes you wonder just what these guys are really up to.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't trust any of those folks as far as I could throw them!

My son once (STUPIDLY!) got one of those car title loans on his beloved 1969 Chevelle! This car is his baby that he's had since he was in high school! He loves that car! Then he got a little behind on the payments, but he soon caught them up and was not overdue any more. But it wasn't long before he had some guy tracking him down insisting that he was still behind on the loan payments and saying that he was going to repo the Chevelle! Ha! Not hardly! I've never seen my son quite that mad! Of course, he had the receipts that showed that he had paid, and the car was stored in the garage of a friend where they would never find it anyway, but he actually had to threaten to hurt the guy before he finally gave it up! We figured that the scumbag probably just thought it might be nice to have a '69 Chevelle!
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
Legal or not this is becoming more & more of a practice by repo & other collection agencies. It's ugly out there & these guys get commission; will do what they can - push as far as they can.

It takes a lot to reign them in. I had a call after my next door neighbor/good friend died about 5 years ago. She & her husband fell behind on car payments due to her constant medical expenses.

I had nothing to offer info wise. I asked that I not be contacted again. I called AG's office & reported it.

Ugly, ugly, ugly....ick!
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
No idea if it is legal on the repo end but I have used these white pages on the investigative side. I did investigative work in my old life and did call neighbors looking for information about various individuals. Worked rather well. You would be amazed how many times people would tell me Suzie Q signed this paper and lived next door to her and said this. Come to find out Suzie may have lived there but her phone number wasnt the one on the paper and she sure didnt say what was said. Then I started digging and found other neighbors to call. Naughty naughty.
 
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