State lawmakers agreed Tuesday to crack down on moving companies that refuse to deliver a homeowner’s goods until they get paid.
HB 2145, approved unanimously by the House Commerce Committee, would expand Arizona’s consumer fraud laws to encompass a practice by some firms to retain property to coerce a customer into paying what the moving company says it is owed.
And that, in turn, empowers the attorney general to investigate and “take appropriate action.”
Assistant Attorney General Amanda Rusing said it also gives state and local police a specific statute to cite so they can investigate and ask prosecutors to charge offending companies and their owners with the crime of theft.
Rep. Jeff Weninger, R-Chandler, said he agreed to sponsor the legislation after hearing stories about the activities of “a few bad actors” in the business.
“You contract, you agree upon a price,” he said.
“When you get there, it’s double or triple what the original price, the original estimate was,” Weninger explained.
“And they literally hold your goods hostage until you pay it.”
Rusing said federal law already protects those moving from state to state. So a moving company cannot legally hold on to the household items of someone who is moving into Arizona from California or anywhere else until a bill is paid.
But intrastate moves are governed only by Arizona law or — as is the case today — the lack thereof. Rusing said this legislation would fill that gap.
Not a single moving company testified against the measure. Rusing said that’s not surprising.
“There’s a lot of really wonderful and ethical moving companies out there that are very supportive of this measure,” she said. “It’s impossible for them to compete with moving companies that are luring customers in with these low-ball offers only to turn around and defraud them later on.”
Lawmakers got a first-person account of the problem from Tucsonan Amy Garelick who told them she hired a moving company — she did not name names — to move her family two miles away.
“Two miles away, you don’t think it’s going to be much of anything,” she told lawmakers.
“We contracted out with a company,” Garelick said. Then, after loading some of the goods the firm brought in a second truck, something she said her family never authorized.
“The owner of the company then threatened to hold our goods and told us we now needed to pay for two trucks, the additional truck and the additional movers,” she continued, leaving her standing in front of her new house with four men refusing to even open the doors to the truck.
The result, Garelick said, is that the original contract price of $700 became nearly $2,000.
Aside from the provisions barring movers from holding household goods while demanding payment, HB 2145 spells out that movers must “accurately disclose all fees, charges and rates.” And it mandates that they accurately describe ahead of time what insurance will and will not cover if items are lost or broken.
The measure needs approval of the full House before it goes to the Senate.
