Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Michigan
I recently had a roofing company give me a quote for a new roof. I canceled within 3 business days. 2 days later the salesman came to my house and told me "we can get you financed but, there is one on your sisters report that is all that is blocking you form this new roof. I explained we had canceled. 2 weeks to the day this company withdrew over 500.00 from my checking account. They were garnishing my sister's paycheck but, that was slow. The only way they could have obtained our "personal banking information" was from this company. They stood to gain a profit (and sales commission) if we got approval. This judgment dates back at least 6 years. Also, we were not provided with a copy of our approval to obtain financing document with our SS numbers and DL numbers and signatures. It's one thing to run a credit report but, for this company to disclose personal banking information (account number) I believe is a type of fraud. This just strikes me as wrong as they only did this to remove a negative so they could proceed with financing for their own profit. Do I have a recourse against this company?
1 Answer from Attorneys
A couple of questions. You say this company was garnishing your sister, but do you mean they were deducting monies out of a checking account? I ask because a garnishment can only come from a lawsuit and a judgment and perhaps these were scheduled payments to be made. The company that took $500.00 is probably the finance company that financed the deal. It sounds like to me that you might have signed a retail sale installment contract which is a long yellow document with lots of numbers on it. In that document or perhaps another document you might have revealed the bank account information to make automatic deductions. How you canceled is important. You must have mailed in the document to cancel. You should have gotten a copy of the retail sale installment contract. When you say "this judgment dates back at least 6 years" are you talking about a judgment on your sisters credit report or are you saying you were sued by this finance company for the roof? I am a bit confused and would need more information. You might have some claims but more facts are needed. If by judgment you mean a lawsuit related to the roof then you might not have any claims.