What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maryland
I hired a private company to perform trash pickup services at my home here in rural Maryland and all it took was a phone call to start service. I'm almost certain that I did not sign a contract with them and I specifically asked beforehand what were the requirements for terminating service, and was told I only had to provide 60 days notice. (At the time I was frustrated that my then current trash company required 90 days notice to terminate their agreement, so I specifically asked this question before signing up with the new company). Since then, they have changed their business name, and had a principal leave their company, and their service has deteriorated to the point that I now wish to cancel the service. I contacted them recently to give them 90 days notice, when they informed me that I had signed an evergreen contract with them, with a 60 day window at the end of the 2 year period, for contract termination.
I asked them to provide me with a physical copy of the contract, but they have not. They instead emailed me a scanned image of the front of the contract. The signature on this document is mine, as is the handwriting for my email address, however the rest of the form is filled out in someone else's handwriting. Either I forgot that I signed the contract originally, (which is possible but unlikely given the circumstances when I originally hired them), or they forged my signature and email address onto the contract from another document. (They did send me a postcard after signup asking for additional account information such as my email address, but it wasn't a contract, and is not the scanned document that they emailed me). As long as I can't examine the original, I can't tell if they've forged the document.
1) Are they obligated to allow me to examine the contract they have at their office in order to verify that I actually signed the document?
2) If what they have isn't an original document with my actual signature on it, as I believe, and instead is simply an easily forgeable document like a scanned or copy of a document, is that a legal agreement?
3) Lastly, if I believe that they have forged my signature, and refuse to pay out the remainder of the contract, what can they do to me without taking me to court?
In other words would they have to validate the document in court before they would be allowed to send it to collections or damage my credit rating, etc.
Thanks
I hired a private company to perform trash pickup services at my home here in rural Maryland and all it took was a phone call to start service. I'm almost certain that I did not sign a contract with them and I specifically asked beforehand what were the requirements for terminating service, and was told I only had to provide 60 days notice. (At the time I was frustrated that my then current trash company required 90 days notice to terminate their agreement, so I specifically asked this question before signing up with the new company). Since then, they have changed their business name, and had a principal leave their company, and their service has deteriorated to the point that I now wish to cancel the service. I contacted them recently to give them 90 days notice, when they informed me that I had signed an evergreen contract with them, with a 60 day window at the end of the 2 year period, for contract termination.
I asked them to provide me with a physical copy of the contract, but they have not. They instead emailed me a scanned image of the front of the contract. The signature on this document is mine, as is the handwriting for my email address, however the rest of the form is filled out in someone else's handwriting. Either I forgot that I signed the contract originally, (which is possible but unlikely given the circumstances when I originally hired them), or they forged my signature and email address onto the contract from another document. (They did send me a postcard after signup asking for additional account information such as my email address, but it wasn't a contract, and is not the scanned document that they emailed me). As long as I can't examine the original, I can't tell if they've forged the document.
1) Are they obligated to allow me to examine the contract they have at their office in order to verify that I actually signed the document?
2) If what they have isn't an original document with my actual signature on it, as I believe, and instead is simply an easily forgeable document like a scanned or copy of a document, is that a legal agreement?
3) Lastly, if I believe that they have forged my signature, and refuse to pay out the remainder of the contract, what can they do to me without taking me to court?
In other words would they have to validate the document in court before they would be allowed to send it to collections or damage my credit rating, etc.
Thanks