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Cinder Hella · Mar 21, 2007, 09:32 PM

The title pretty much sums up my question but ill elaborate...

A court found me and my brother guilty of owing back rent. Long story short we had a verbal agreement with the plaintiffs nephew to pay X amount of money a month in rent and we always paid. In essence we we're subleasing. The nephew however spent the money on drugs and didn't pay his uncle. The uncle of course believes his nephew over me and my brother, sues us, has a lawyer, we can't afford one, is friends with the judge to boot, and even though we never signed a lease with the plaintiff or the nephew railroads us and finds us liable for $2000 in back rent. Of course we can't afford this,.
Now recently my brothers bank account was seized, luckily he never used it and there was only $15 in it. I'm afraid my bank account is next so I withdrew all my money and I'm wondering if a company like ING or Paypal can also be seized? I don't know what ING qualifies as exactly but I know Paypal isn't actually a financial institution. Also now that I think about how about a credit card, can the limit on them be seized to pay a debt?

CaptainForest · Mar 21, 2007, 11:25 PM

No, the limit on your credit card can't be seized.

You stick that money into a bank account (even ING Direct), they CAN come after you.

THEY won in court. YOU and your BROTHER owe this money.

If you feel this judgment is unfair, then you can appeal the court's decision. But until you do, you LEGALLY owe them this money.

Cinder Hella · Mar 22, 2007, 08:53 AM

How about paypal? You don't give a SS# for a paypal account,. how could they know you had it?

ScottGem · Mar 22, 2007, 09:00 AM

Yes your paypal account can be seized if they find out about it. Its still a cash asset. But it would be more difficult to find out about it.

I'm just wondering how you paid the money to the nephew. If you paid in cash and did not get receipts then, frankly, you deserve what happened. If you paid by check or money order, you should have them as proof of your rent payments. And even a friendly judge should acknolweged that proof.

You can try appealing the judgement. If the judge was friends of the landlord then he should have recused himself form hearing the case.

Cinder Hella · Mar 22, 2007, 12:08 PM

I just called paypal and they said it couldn't be

ScottGem · Mar 22, 2007, 12:42 PM

I'd like to see under what laws they claim you can't.

CaptainForest · Mar 22, 2007, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by Cinder Hella

I just called paypal and they said it couldn't be

Yes, and we all know that PayPal would never lie to a customer.

Cinder Hella · Mar 22, 2007, 01:06 PM

I'm sure they would it really forced but I'm just relaying what they told me,. bottom line is with no SS# how are they going to know me from anyone else with the same name. If you can show me one case of a creditor even trying to go after a paypal account id be impressed.

ScottGem · Mar 22, 2007, 01:18 PM

Let me point out that with no SSN you can't get interest on the money. As soon as you apply for interest they HAVE to ask you for an SSN.

Fr_Chuck · Mar 22, 2007, 01:23 PM

If they found the pay pal account, of course they can attach it, and pay pal has to obey a court order.

But the fact is that they can't really trace the money very well.