Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Colorado

Re: collateral

It really depends upon the wording of your contract, but if the collateral is held by the person who performed the service, he or she may dispose of it to pay the debt as soon as the debt is in default. But be careful: if there is a dispute over the satisfactory performance of the service or its value, or when payment is due, you may find yourself in a bigger hole than just not getting paid.

If the collateral is held by the debtor, you generally have to go through a judicial procedure to acquire the collateral if the debtor will not hand it over. You can't, for example, break into the debtor's garage to retrieve the defaulted collateral.

Good luck.