personal property

[ph34r3d]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA

Just to give a little background... My girlfriend and I were previously living with my parents, rent free, and we moved out recently. I have attempted to retrieve all my belongings and my father will not allow me to get my belongings because "I owe him money". I will agree that I owe him a certain amount of money for my cell phone, however he says that I owe him money for a payment he made for my camaro (which I never asked him to do) and so $4k that he gave my ex wife and myself to help us get our house out of forclosure. There is no signed agreements stating that myself or ex-wife would pay him back for the $4k he gave us, we assumed it was a gift because we were hard off financially. However, now that I have turned my brother in for possessing child pornography, I somehow all of a sudden "owe" him so much money that he was never worried about before... (apparently looking at child pornography is OK in my families eyes). He also has stuff in his garage that I sold to a friend of mine and was storing it there for my friend until he was able to pick it up, however my father will not give my friend his stuff, which I wrote receipts for to my friend. My father will also not allow my gf to get her bike which is in the garage because my gf "screwed my family over". Is this legal? Any hep or advice would be greatly appreciated.

-Lynn

 

[dolebot]

I had to stop reading, the Peyton Place-esqueness of it was too much.

In any case, if someone has property that belongs to you - they cannot keep it because you owe them money for something else.

It's called stealing and if it happened to me, I would contact the police and ask for assistance. They'll likely go over to the house with you while you retrieve your own property. You'll probably have to identify the property and maybe sign an affidavit that you own it, or otherwise prove that it is yours.

The person who is keeping the property has recourse through the court system - he should sue you if he feels that you owe him money.

 

[ph34r3d]

I called the police and they told me it was a civil matter and there was nothing they could do about it. So I called the local magistrate and they told me that I have to call the county court house , so I called them and heard nothing.. I didn't think it was legal for him to keep anything of mine, however I just wanted to get another opinion.