I realize that to garnish a bank account, there must be a judgment agains a debtor, but if a creditor has a bank account number and has not obtained a judgment yet, can they physically take money from your account? I understand they dont have the right but is it possible for them to actually take money form the account? ANd in case that happens, what recourse do I have? Can I sue?
Taking something that they do not have the right to take is called"larceny". Whether it is Grand Larceny or not depends on the amount taken. They would be guilty of a crime and would be arrested if they did this. (As long as you did not give them "permission" to take money from your account by "check by phone" or some other way)
Yes, they could take the money if they have the routing and account number, like they do for online payments. If you think someone may do this, contact your bank and ask them how to stop it. Usually there is a form that asks them not to honor withdrawals from a certain user. Proving that it is actually larceny is probably harder than you think. You may have given them permission at some previous time. They'll claim it's a mistake, and you probably wouldn't get anyone to prosecute it.
No, they used to be my landlord/manager. I have paid my rent by checks, and they might have copies of my checks. But I have not given them any permission to draw any payments out of it
You might ask this question on bankersonline, as the security of a banking system which increasingly uses paperless processing presents an interesting issue, with repercussions for consumers needing to prove payments on old accounts. see http://www.bankersonline.com/ Legitimate paperless check clearing is becoming increasingly common. According to inserts in some of my bills, the payment processor is required to keep copies of all checks, and then shred the original. A copy can be requested if needed. There have been some cases of bill payment processors making debits without authorization and not for the reasons specified in their certifications, i.e. to collect debts for creditors when the consumer had made no authorization. I believe they got slapped hard for using the ACH system in a fraudulent manner.
OK, here's the skinny on your questions: If you owe money to a bank where you have an account, tehy can go into teh account whenever they want. It's called Bankers Right of Offset. If you give them the ABA number and account number of your account, expect them to assume that is blanket authoriozation to go in and take money out. If they have a Judgement and they can find your bank account, they can take it all. Those are the only ways to take a bank account. Anything else is a crime.
THe only thing they MIGHT have are copies of the rental checks I gave them, for the payment of monthly rent. Obviously checks have routing and checking acct number... Not sure what ABA means? They do not have any judgment yet.
