Prepaid services (state of PA)

[pixelrogue1]

What is the name of your state? PA

I purchased a book of carwashes (no expiration btw for those who might ask.)

Car wash gets sold to another company, and that new company will not honor the prepaid car washes.

If someone buys an investment property, that new owner is obligated to adhere to the existing leases - they can't say the leads are void because there is a new owner. Would the same not apply here?

Wouldn't the prepaid car washes be a debt incurred by the new company? Hate to use the word debt, so lets say obligation or responsibility?

 

[adjusterjack]

If someone buys an investment property, that new owner is obligated to adhere to the existing leases - they can't say the leads are void because there is a new owner. Would the same not apply here?

Not necessarily. There are a completely different set of laws applying to landlord-tenant relationships.

Wouldn't the prepaid car washes be a debt incurred by the new company? Hate to use the word debt, so lets say obligation or responsibility?

There is more than one way to buy a business. You can buy it with or without the liabilities. The consumer would have no way of knowing.

You have the option of suing both the former and current owners (somebody owes you the money) and let the judge sort it out. I don't know how much your pre-paid deal cost you so you'll have to decide whether it's worth it to you.

 

[xylene]

1. Contact like a local TV station that does a consumer interest report "5 on your side" or "4 for you" - you know what I'm talking about and ask to speak to that desk or journalist about your issue.

2. You say no expiration date... We aren't tlaking about something very old? Because if these are like more than a year old, you are gonna be SOL.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? PA

I purchased a book of carwashes (no expiration btw for those who might ask.)

Car wash gets sold to another company, and that new company will not honor the prepaid car washes.

If someone buys an investment property, that new owner is obligated to adhere to the existing leases - they can't say the leads are void because there is a new owner. Would the same not apply here?

Wouldn't the prepaid car washes be a debt incurred by the new company? Hate to use the word debt, so lets say obligation or responsibility?

What is the timeline here? However, your leasing analogy does not fit. In a leasing situations the new owner is receiving the monthly rent from the tenants.

In the case of prepaid car wash tickets, unless the old owner kept track of the number of tickets sold, vs already redeemed, and reimbursed the new owner for the face value of those tickets as part of the sale, the new owner would be just giving away free car washes that they cannot afford.

Since the new owner does not want to honor the repaid tickets, I suspect that the new owner was NOT compensated for that.

 

[pixelrogue1]

Yes, my thoughts are the same in terms of speculating around the new owner's perspective.

From a legal perspective, does "want" matter?I would expect that a contract was made with the purchase of the prepaid car washes (contract between the buyer and the business entity (not old owner). The coupons would be a liability assumed by the new buyer (buying a house with outstanding taxes or a lean on the property)

 

[justalayman]

Yes, my thoughts are the same in terms of speculating around the new owner's perspective.

From a legal perspective, does "want" matter?I would expect that a contract was made with the purchase of the prepaid car washes (contract between the buyer and the business entity (not old owner). The coupons would be a liability assumed by the new buyer (buying a house with outstanding taxes or a lean on the property)

you ignored when another poster told you businessses can be sold without assuming the liabilities. Just because the bought the business doesn’t mean they bought the outstanding debts and credits.

How did you find out the car wash had been sold?

 

[LdiJ]

Yes, my thoughts are the same in terms of speculating around the new owner's perspective.

From a legal perspective, does "want" matter?I would expect that a contract was made with the purchase of the prepaid car washes (contract between the buyer and the business entity (not old owner). The coupons would be a liability assumed by the new buyer (buying a house with outstanding taxes or a lean on the property)

Actually no. It depends on how the business was sold. It is not uncommon for someone to buy only the assets of a business rather than its liabilities. In that instance, they have no obligation to honor the previous owner's debts.

Some 20 plus years ago I bought the assets of a restaurant. Since I wished to keep the same cliental, even though I marginally changed the name of the restaurant part of our agreement was that I would continue to accept gift certificates issues by the former company. Their books showed a specific amount of gift certificates issues.

However, unfortunately, the employees of the company issues massive numbers of gift certificates, for no payment at all and/or lifting the payment during the week before I took over.