Equipment Repossesion

So I’m hoping maybe someone has been down this road before and has some knowledge about the legal problems with these scenarios.

1. Customer does not pay there bill. After a certain time you disconnect their service. More time goes by - lets say 60 days. It’s time to reclaim your radio to install at another customer’s house. Customer in questio never paid for Internet or the equipment. You go to the house and the customer states you are not going to touch anything on their house. What do you do?

2. You find a development you need to install a repeater in. You find a customer who wants free Internet in exchange for housing the repeater. After installing this repeater you find there are interference issues that can not be overcome. You offer the customer service for a whopping $30 per month if they want to keep it. Homeowner says they don’t want the service since it isn’t free anymore. You go to reclaim your equipment and the customer says you can’t take anything off their house. They also say they’ve filed a complain with the FTC for “Illegal Trade” and the BBB.

How do you get your equipment back legally?

CONTRACT!!!

I agree, at the bottom of every contract the customer permisson to enter property and remove our equipment.

We also do not wait 60 days to get it. Our customers also pay up front for the install.

45days no/pay… sm goes away and we use it somewhere else. The equipment remains our property.

If you go past this or install with no money you are asking for trouble…

If they don’t have the money to connect… how are they going to pay the monthly fee?

well for our system we have a billing server which is responsible for bills and prior to that before any installation you will have to pay our installation fee, one month service fee and for damage of equipment. so the issue about recovery, it is well written in our contract form about it and the document is signed by the barrister of our company so that we have all the legal right to inspect and remove equipment from a non- interested customer.
also this customer will be in the urge to recover his money, since he might have not damage our equipment.

so this has made our life easier in that area

We call the police. Of course that we have contracts that says that equipment is in our property.

In every instance we install equipment not owned by our company there is a “right of way” clause.

Basically like all utility companies it simply says we own and maintain the equipment and have unlimited 24/7 access to it, unless other arrangements are made in writing.

Although we have only had to do it a couple of times, we call the Sheriff’s department and ask them to meet us at the property when there is a touchy potential for a dispute.

What it sounds like in your situation is maybe too much verbal agreements in place and not enough written.

–SDH

Written is always best. Unless, that client is a goon or gangster. hehe.

Every county/state will be different, but the Sheriff’s department that I’m employed by won’t assist with out a Writ of Assist signed by a judge. Here, the contract will definately help to get the Writ, but we would consider it civil issue that needs addressed by a judge before we could forceably enter a property to take property. Liability is a pain when your trying to do the right thing.

With the right paperwork we’re always happy to go anywhere to assist. Especially the guys bringing my high speed wireless to me. :smiley:

Tweber,

What would happen if we were to pull down the radio without the homeowner’s consent?

btw, in this case I shut off the radio remotely and the client came around literally within minutes. They were just freeloaders and thought I had to physically remove the radio before they would be without Internet.

we require payments to be auto-bank-drafted here. Works like a charm. We have only had one “potential” customer turn down our service b/c he had no bank account. Probably not the customer we wanted in the first place…

jwcn wrote:
Tweber,

What would happen if we were to pull down the radio without the homeowner's consent?

btw, in this case I shut off the radio remotely and the client came around literally within minutes. They were just freeloaders and thought I had to physically remove the radio before they would be without Internet.


Every thing I say is based on the County that I serve. That said....

Typically a Sheriff's Department stays out of a Civil issue as much as possible. When a judge signs the paperwork the liability is on him. Here, any business transaction is considered civil.

If you just go in and take the equipment with no altercation from the home owner he is going to have to sue you to get anything done. It'll be hard to sue somebody for taking back their property that wasn't paid for. He can try pushing for Tresspassing but that won't fly here. We won't fault you for retrieving your property. If the home owner comes out yelling and wanting to fight your better off leaving and getting the courts assistance, than getting battered or shot over any equipment. Should he call the Sheriff's department on you, and you do have proof that the equipment is yours you may get the assistance since the Deputy's are already there.

Every situation would be different from my perspective as a Deputy, but basically if you expect problems, have any paperwork with you that will back you. I couldn't imagine anything legal coming back on a WISP provider for retrieving their property. Repo men are taking back vehicle's all the time.