Short answer. No, not unless your agreement allows it. A creditor holding a pledged thing cannot place it with a third person without a stipulation authorising him to do so, and he answers for whatever his own employees or agents do with it while it is in his keeping.

What the law says

The pledgee cannot deposit the thing pledged with a third person, unless there is a stipulation authorizing him to do so. The pledgee is responsible for the acts of his agents or employees with respect to the thing pledged.

Civil Code, Article 2100 — No Sub-Deposit; Liability for Agents. Read the full provision →

You chose this person to hold it

A pledge involves handing your property to a particular creditor, and the law treats that choice as part of the bargain. You judged his premises, his reliability and his stake in keeping the item safe. Passing it to somebody you never assessed changes the arrangement you agreed to, so the Code does not let him do it on his own. The prohibition covers placing the thing with a third person for keeping. It is not limited to a formal transfer either — leaving the item with a relative, a friend's shop, or a storage operator across town is the same thing described differently.

Employees and agents are a different matter

The second sentence answers the obvious practical objection. A pawnshop or a lending company is not one person; it is staff, a vault and a branch network. Work done through the creditor's own employees or agents is still the creditor holding the thing, and the rule does not force him to handle every item personally. What it does is put the consequences where they belong: he is responsible for what those employees and agents do. If a teller mislays the item, a branch manager releases it to the wrong person, or a courier the company engaged loses it in transit, the creditor answers to you. You need not chase the individual at fault.

The stipulation that changes it

All of this yields to an agreement. If the pledge contract authorises the creditor to place the thing with a third person, he may do so, and that clause is often buried in the small print of a pawn ticket or a chattel security document. Read for it before you sign, and if it is there, ask who the third person would be and on what terms. There is a real difference between a clause allowing storage in a named bonded vault and an open-ended permission to move your property anywhere the creditor pleases. Once you have agreed, you cannot object later to the very thing you authorised.

If it has already happened

Put your objection in writing and ask, in the same letter, exactly where the item is and who is holding it. Keep in mind that a creditor's mishandling does not cancel your debt; the two questions are separate, and you will get further by dealing with them separately. If the problem is that he has been using the item rather than merely storing it elsewhere, Art. 2104 gives a specific remedy — the owner may ask that the thing be judicially or extrajudicially deposited, meaning it is placed in neutral custody. And if the item is lost or damaged while improperly out of his hands, he answers for it.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.