Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Texas

Ex-Babysitter owes debt

I had a live-in babysitter a couple of months ago. She left one day without notice and I never heard anything from her. She left all of her possessions in my home and never called or came back to claim them. She also left me with a $150 phone bill that she ran up. I put her things in storage a couple of weeks after she left. Yesterday she called me and demanded her stuff back. Do I have legal right to keep her possessions until she pays me back for the phone bill?(I do have proof that they are her calls) If not what are my legal rights in this matter? She has been gone now approximately 3 months and I never heard from her until yesterday.


Asked on 6/06/04, 4:10 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Peter Bradie Bradie, Bradie & Bradie

Re: Ex-Babysitter owes debt

You don't have a legal right to keep her property. Let her know where it's being held for her safekeeping. Let her pay the rental to get her property back.

Then you can demand that she repay the phone bill, assuming that she clearly understood that when she was living under your roof she had limits placed on the calls she could make.

If that was understood, you could pursue her in Small Claims.

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Answered on 6/06/04, 10:18 pm


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