When a Mover Holds Your Belongings Hostage

What the mover can demand at delivery

Federal law sets the most a mover can require before handing over your goods:

• Binding estimate: the exact estimate amount.
• Non-binding estimate: 110% of the estimate.
• Plus: services you requested after the bill of lading was signed.
• Plus: charges for impracticable operations, capped at 15% of all other charges due at delivery.
• Partial delivery: only a share proportional to the weight delivered.

Extra services the mover decided were needed after you signed are billed after delivery, not collected at the truck. The bill of lading itself must state the maximum the mover will demand at delivery on a move paid at delivery — check that number before you sign.

Paying the right way

The form of payment is agreed when you get the estimate, written on the bill of lading, and must be honored at delivery unless you agree in writing to change it. A driver who suddenly demands cash when you agreed on a card is breaking that rule.

If the mover accepts cards, it has to schedule delivery for a time when the card can be authorized, unless its trucks can process cards. Card payment counts the same as cash, a certified check, a money order or a cashier's check.

You do have to pay what's legitimately due. Under the federal consumer booklet, if you don't pay the charges due at delivery, the mover may refuse to deliver and put the shipment in storage at your expense until you do.

The penalties

A mover that knowingly and willfully fails to deliver after you've paid what the law requires faces:

• A civil penalty of at least $10,000 per violation, part or all of which can be assigned to you.
• A separate violation for each day the goods are held.
• An order to return your goods.
• Suspension of its federal registration for 12 to 36 months, extending to companies under the same ownership.
• Criminal fines and up to 2 years in prison.

What to do if it happens

• Call the FMCSA immediately at (888) 368-7238 — the federal rules give this number for exactly this situation.
• Offer, in writing, to pay the amount the rules allow (the binding estimate, or 110% of the non-binding estimate, plus legitimate extras). Keep proof you offered.
• Keep the estimate, bill of lading, inventory and every message. Note the truck, the driver's name and the USDOT number on the vehicle.
• File with the FMCSA's National Consumer Complaint Database, and contact your state attorney general and local police if the mover won't say where your goods are.

What happens to the rest of the bill

Paying 110% at the truck doesn't cancel the remainder of a non-binding bill; it moves it to an invoice. Federal rules set the timing: the mover must present that invoice within 15 days of delivery, not counting weekends and federal holidays. You then have a 7-day credit period, which automatically extends to 30 calendar days, with a service charge of 1% of the invoice (minimum $20) for each 30-day extension.

Check the invoice against the weight tickets, which must be attached, and against the tariff rates in your estimate before you pay it.

How to avoid it

Most hostage situations start with an estimate that didn't follow the rules: a phone quote with no survey, a blank or incomplete contract, or a broker's estimate the carrier never adopted. Get a written estimate after a survey, read the "maximum amount at delivery" on the bill of lading, check the USDOT number of the carrier actually doing the move, and never let anyone load your goods before the paperwork is complete.

Common questions