Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in North Carolina

Me and my husband bought a building a couple of years ago and we're making payments. We moved in August and the new house had one already so our old neighbor said he would pay to move to his house and take over payments. Since then we nolonger talk to the neighbor because he will not answer our calls or the company's to make a payment. The company called me last week and said he has only make one payment since August and they wanted to know if we wanted to have it picked up or what. She said we only owed like $1000 and it was crazy to not finish the payments. I agreed to take over the payments and make the payment to make it current and the fee to have it moved. It will be moved next week. They will do it like a repo and just hook to it and drive off. My question is what ever is in the building do I have the right to clean out and throw away or sell what I can to get the money we just had to pay back?


Asked on 1/10/16, 3:42 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

This is confusing here. Where is the building located? Is it on the neighbor's property or yours? The neighbor just cannot take over payments. That was a poor way to handle this transaction. As between you and the finance company or company that sold it, if your name is on the contract then you are liable to pay for it regardless.

Do you have any kind of bill of sale or documentation with the neighbor? If not, then you do not have any kind of agreement. While you can have verbal agreements, they really need to be in writing for anything to obligate the neighbor to pay substantial sums of money.

According to your post, the neighbor only made one payment. Obviously he does not want the building anymore. I would send him back the money and, if the building is on your property, and advise him in writing that the agreement is terminated. Advise him that if he had anything in the building, you are going to hold his stuff for 30 days and advise as to how he can retrieve it. Send the letter to his home by UPS/FED Ex and get signature confirmation so you can prove that he got it. Go into the building and clean it out. If anything belongs tro him, I would inventory it and photograph each item. I would hold it for the 30 days after his receipt of the letter. If you do not hear from him, then I would sell, donate to charity or otherwise dispose of it, assuming the stuff in there was under $500.

If the building is not on your property but on his, then you have a problem. You cannot just trespass on his land. In such case, you would need to take the building back but you would need to contact him to arrange to come onto his property for that purpose. Of course, if you wanted to let it get repo'd you could then tell the lender where it was at. However, the repo would be on your credit, not his.

Letting the building get repo'd is not smart. Why don't you pay the thing off and put it up for sale on Craig's List or eBay or some sight like this and sell it for whatever you can get for it? At least you will get some money back that way.

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Answered on 1/10/16, 9:18 pm


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