My husband has a small trucking business. He received checks from a customer (over $200,000) and when he went to deposit them they came back because the their account was froze. Their bank would not stamp nsf on them because the account was froze so he can not turn them over to the states attorney. The customer resides in a different state which is making this difficult. He has been trying to get the money from them for a month now. He has about another week and will have to close his business if he does not receive the money. Any ideas on what to do with these checks written on an account that has been froze? Thanks for your help

Any idea who or why the account was frozen, was it IRS?

What does the customer say? Sounds like your husband is not the only creditor after him. But there is really little you can do but sue the customer.

Yep but even that will be a problem. Keep in mind he did write you a check which may or may not be good. He did not freeze his own account. However, the frozen account does not relieve his duty to pay you. Like Scott says, sue him.

Thanks for the fast responses. The bank will not say who froze the account. We have just hired an attorney in Texas but this will take quite some time. Our bank wants payment now and if we don't have it we are done. Is there any way to get the account "unfroze" so that the bank can stamp it NSF and the states attorney can take it from there so we don't have to pay $20,000 that we do not have right now to an attorney? Thanks again.

The bank is not going to tell YOU who forze the account. That would be a breach of ethics, violating the account holders privacy. Frankly, its really immaterial to you.

Nor is there anything YOU can do about how the bank is reporting the check. Basically, what you are asking is for the bank to lie and why should they open themselves up for a lawsuit for you? Even if the check was listed as NSF, what do you think that would really do for you? Your bank doesn't really care why you don't have the money. It really is immaterial to them, whether the check bounced because the account was frozen, closed, underfunded or whatever. Either they give you an extension because you are owed the money or they don't.

Lets also look at the State's Atty issue. I think you feel or have been told that if the check was marked NSF, they could pursue a fraud case, but if its frozen, then they can't. That may well be true, but even if they do pursue a fraud case, how does that help you? Its not going to get you your money any faster. Nor is it really a substitute for suing the guy for what you are owed. The States Atty is about prosecuting criminal actions, not about collecting money from deadbeats.

So lets look at what options you really have. You haven't been real clear about why your bank wants payment. Is it because you withdrew the money before the check was returned? Or do you owe them for something else that this money was supposed to be used to pay?

If it's the former then let them sue you for the money, your defense is that you acted in good faith since they made the money available to you. If it's the latter, again you let them sue you and hope the judge is sympathetic that you are a victim here.

Most likely someone they owe a lot of money to froze the account, so I would bet that the account will have 0 dollars in it by the time it gets unfroze and have dozens if not hundreds of bad checks written against it.

Often the checks are written before the people know the account was frozen.

So my best guess is you will be one of hundreds they are going to owe money to. Remember except for the IRS everyone else had to take them to court and get a judgement against them for the money.

So your odds of getting any money from them at all is fairly slim, and getting any money very fast is basically impossible.

You will sue them for the money and will and get a judgement, but since someone else has already attached the bank account there is little left to do.

So I would say you need to find a new client or customer since this one is not going to be paying you anytime soon ( my guess anyway)

Thanks again for the responses. We are going ahead with the lawsuit. The company will be served papers by the end of the week. The reason for wondering if there is a way to put the check through so that it would be stamped NSF is because they are then faciing felonly criminal charges and thus they would make some sort of payment to avoid this. I realize the states attorney is not there to collect our money... only deal with criminal charges. When your business will go under because you can't make your bank payment, I guess you cling on to any hope. Thanks again

Yes, it was obvious that you were looking for leverage there. But it just won't fly.

You still haven't answered what bank payment you are being required to make.

The bank payment that I am referring to is for the opperating loan.

Ok, so you took out a loan in anticipation of receiving this money from the client. Without the money you can't make the payment on the loan. Have you tried renegotiating with the bank? They gain no advantage in forcing you into bankruptcy. If you explain the situation to them, you may find them willing to work with you. You do have proof that your expected income was default on.