Here's the background: Condo neighbor believes I am liable for water damage to his bathroom. I disagree. He filed insurance claim for $10k, who payed out and in turn sent me a demand letter. I forwarded their letter to my liability insurance and the two companies are still in subrogation. While still in subrogation I got a collection letter from Javitch, Block and Rathbone LLP out of Cleveland, OH (I am in NJ). I answered the collection letter with a debt validation letter from this website, and we had no further communication for 2 months. Today I received a validation reply which is just a copy of the claim estimate from the neighbor's insurance company to the neighbor. There is nothing on here showing my liability for this debt. The letter states, "Pusuant to your request enclosed please find the documents pertaining to the above referenced account. Please see attached. Please contact my office to resolve this matter." What is my next step at this point? Clearly what they sent me is not a validation of my debt to the insurance company. There is neither an agreement nor a judgement to assign liability. Thanks for your advice in advance.
To the extent the FDCPA applies, I think what you describe would meet the requirements of validation pursuant to the FDCPA. Does that mean it's valid and that you owe? That's a different question (one to which I can't answer). Have you called your insurance company? If your insurance company is handling the claim, it seems like they would also handle this sort of thing as well.
I think I'd call my insurance company, as ccbob suggested. If they're still in subrogation and the other company is trying to collect from you, that may be a leverage your insurance company can use in settlement talks.
I'm surprised that you say this validation is sufficient. It establishes a debt but doesnt show that its mine. Wouldn't this be akin to a CA showing a receipt for a credit card purchase that doesn't belong to me? I'll reach out to my ins co today.
The point to take away from this is that FDCPA-level validation is NOT intended to prove to anyone that you owe a particular debt. It is intended to help the [alleged] debtor know that the CA is trying to collect from the right person. The obligation (debt) is assumed to be valid. If you are the person named as the debtor but dispute the validity of the underlying debt, that's between you and whoever owns the debt (e.g. the OC, or JDB who bought the debt from the OC) to sort out (often in court).
Thank you for the explanation. I didn't realize that in this case the original creditor's opinion of liability without anay written documentation of liability is sufficient proof for FDCPA. I contacted my insurance company, and apparently neighbor's insurance has not responded to any of their subrogation correspondence. The insurance agent was not sure how I should proceed in my interactions with the CA at this point. All he offered was to send the subrogation docs one more time to neighbor's insurance.
This is a negligence, FDCPA does not apply. If he submitted a claim to his insurer AND dunning you, can you spell insurance fraud.
It sometimes seems useful to look again at CHAUDHRY: Part of the problem is that this is starting to get into areas where a lawyer might be the best professional to help you. Perhaps the insurance company has someone available to help.
It seems confusing, but surely it's not the neighbor who hired the CA. But why would the insurance company do that given that the OP has responded by involving his insurance company? How strange. There has got to be some miscommunication somewhere.
The CA's letter indicates that their client is the other insurance company, not the neighbor himself. I ended up sending a letter to the CA to address all future correspondence to my insurance adjuster with appropriate claim number.
