What Recourse do You Have if a Repo Man Comes to the Wrong House
My question involves criminal law for the state of: Michigan
Recently my wife was at home alone while I was at work on the night shift. At 10:15 at night, a truck slowly drove down our driveway, we live out in the country down a long drive, you don't get to our house by accident. It turned around and drove down another lane on our property, then turned into our driveway again. He then got out and began beating on our door. My wife called 911, and the police got there about 10 minutes later. Meanwhile the guy kept beating on the door constantly, never identifying himself or even taking a break. My daughter was awoke by this and was terrified. When the officer arrived, he quit beating on the door, and they spoke outside for a bit, then the officer came into our house and immediately began questioning my wife about what we have that could be repossessed. We are up to date on all our bills, never even sent a late payment as they are all done by electronic bill pay. He asked about my truck, and it was the same style/year. I was on the phone at the time with my wife, and he began questioning me about my payment history and if I could prove that my payments are up to date, never even asking my name through all this. Ultimately he wanted my VIN, and I was able to provide this since I had my insurance card in my pocket at the time. Ultimately it was found that they were there for the people who lived there before us who moved out 16 MONTHS before, and it was a coincidence that we have the same style/year of vehicle. Never once did we get an apology from anyone about this. My wife went to Huntington Bank who was the loan grantor the next day and was told that it is a common thing to send repo people to ALL the recent addresses for someone who is having something repossessed. Since this, my daughter is constantly afraid that a "bad guy" is going to come to our house again, my wife can't sleep at night from the stress of this and worrying that something else will happen. Is there any recourse that is open against either the repo guy for harassment, or even the bank for sending someone to our house knowing that they moved out 16 months prior to this?
Re: Repo Man's/Bank's Mistake, Wrong House
Nope. He did what he should have.
Re: Repo Man's/Bank's Mistake, Wrong House
The laws protect the deadbeat, not the innocent bystander. Welcome to the scum sucking world of debt collection.
Re: Repo Man's/Bank's Mistake, Wrong House
If you told him to leave and he did not then its trespassing. After that point, what he did may be actionable.
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/trespass
Re: Repo Man's/Bank's Mistake, Wrong House
The only chance you would be able to claim harm is if this happens over and over again. Since the police came out it is unlikly this will happen again. I would of thought the police would of been more helpful but since the repo order had the same address the police assumed everything else was correct before they even thought to see who the repo agents were looking for.