If a moving company damages property during a move, and agrees to replace damaged items, does the moving company have the right to demand posession of the items they damaged?
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If a moving company damages property during a move, and agrees to replace damaged items, does the moving company have the right to demand posession of the items they damaged?
Several thousands of dollars of property were damaged in a move. The moving company has agreed to replace damaged items with new, but is now rumored to be generating a letter that will need to be signed relinquishing all damaged property to the moving company before they will hand over the new replacement.
Asked on December 26, 2017 under Business Law, Michigan
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
If they pay for the items, they get the items: you do not get to be "enriched" by getting both the value of the items and keeping the items themselves. The law does not let you get more than the value of the items, so if you get their monetary value from the mover, that's all they are entitled to. It's the same way that if your car is totalled in an accident and you get its fair market or blue book value, the insurer then gets title to the car and can do what it likes with it.
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