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Ex-Girlfriend Belongings

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linkzur

Junior Member
My fiance and I broke up over a year ago. I was living in the US and she was living in Australia. We intended to move in together and as such she sent her belongings in my housing shipment from Australia. After the break-up I put myself into debt sending her things back via mail. I asked a counselor if I was LEGALLY required to front the bill of shipping her stuff back to her. My understanding of the law is: As long as I do not say "you are not allowed to have your stuff back" that is not a cause for legal recourse. She can have her stuff whenever she wants, I just refuse to put up the money to send it to her. Am I in the right or do I actually have to spend the money of returning her things?
 


LdiJ

Senior Member
My fiance and I broke up over a year ago. I was living in the US and she was living in Australia. We intended to move in together and as such she sent her belongings in my housing shipment from Australia. After the break-up I put myself into debt sending her things back via mail. I asked a counselor if I was LEGALLY required to front the bill of shipping her stuff back to her. My understanding of the law is: As long as I do not say "you are not allowed to have your stuff back" that is not a cause for legal recourse. She can have her stuff whenever she wants, I just refuse to put up the money to send it to her. Am I in the right or do I actually have to spend the money of returning her things?
First, you said that you put yourself in debt to send her things back to her, and then you asked if you actually have to spend the money to return them to her. Which is it?

In any case, there really isn't a "law" per se that is going to address this. What you have is a contractual issue. You have to determine whether or not there was any kind of contract between the two of you, even if it was just implied, and then you have to determine who breeched the contract (if anyone). There is of course the moral side of the question as well. What do you think is the right thing to do?
 

linkzur

Junior Member
At first I went out of my way to get her things back (the moral side). Going into debt (really just soaking all my expenditures outside of food and gas) got me thinking if I legally had to front the money. As for as a contract, I said I would do my best to get her her things. I have never said she was not allowed to get them back but did say that I would no longer front the bill of shipping hundreds of pounds of stuff to Australia. As long as I never say she cannot have her things (which would be theft at that point) am I obligated to pay for the return?
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
At first I went out of my way to get her things back (the moral side). Going into debt (really just soaking all my expenditures outside of food and gas) got me thinking if I legally had to front the money. As for as a contract, I said I would do my best to get her her things. I have never said she was not allowed to get them back but did say that I would no longer front the bill of shipping hundreds of pounds of stuff to Australia. As long as I never say she cannot have her things (which would be theft at that point) am I obligated to pay for the return?
Again, refer to my post above. There is not a yes or no answer to your question. "Contract" has much more to it than whether or not you agreed to return her things. It also has to do with the whole moving to the US bit as well.
 

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