Repossessing a car or mobile home is one thing, but a furnace?

One heating and cooling contractor did exactly that after a customer didn’t fully pay for the furnace he installed. So they went into her basement and ripped out the furnace and dragged it out and drove off with it.

The customer said that the installation wasn’t up to code and was withholding payment until that was fixed. The company owner says that was just a ruse to dodge payment and that the installation did meet all the proper requirements.

Be that as it may, you can’t just bust into someone’s cellar and take stuff out of it, says the Omaha City Prosecutor. “Once you annexed something like a furnace to a house it becomes part of the house and you can’t go back in, tear it out and call it personal property and repossess it,” he told WOWT.

The woman got a new heating system installed but has filed a criminal complaint against the contractor, who has now filed a lien against her house. Now it’s up to the lawyers to duke it out.

Repossessed Furnace Steams Landlord [WOWT] (Thanks to Matt!)

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