Received a call in early August 2009 from a DC located in TX demanding an immediate payment on a debt that I don't recognize a valid debt (landlord wanted me to pay for carpet that was stained by his painter 2 months after I vacated the apartment). Within a week I disputed the DC claim via certified mail (have all the proves) and asked to stop calling me. I checked my credit report yesterday and found the collection reported with no mention that this is in dispute. I am just trying to figure out my next step. I can clearly see the following FDCPA voilations in this situation; 1)1692(g); DC failed to provide me 30 day validation notice. I never recieved dunning notice from this DC which by law need to be sent within 5 days of first contact. (My evidence: None) 2)1692g(B) which requires DC to cease collection efforts untill debt is validated. Collector received my dispute letter asking for "provide me with the evidence of me owing and agreeing to this debt". I never received a single letter from DC. Instead of ceasing their collection efforts as per law, they are coninued to reporting this un-validated debt to Credit B's. Latest update on this claim was dated October 2009. (My evidence: My dispute letter with receipt showing that letter was received in DC office in August and my current credit report showing update of collection reported in October 2009) 3)1692e(8) which requires DC to properly communicate that a debt is disputed. DC received my dispute letter but they never communicated any CB that the debt is in dispute. (My evidence: My dispute letter sent in August and my current credit report showing last collection reported in October) Here are my questions: 1) At this point only evidence I have is my dispute letter, vertified mail receipt, DC rep signed return receipt, my current credit report. #2 &3 above can be supported by this evidence but not sure how to document #1 as DC can claim lost mail. Based on your experience, would you consider this sufficient evidence of above voilations? should I try to pile up more evidence? If yes, how to do that? 2) I will dispute DC claim with Credit B's (although I'm sure it will come back verified as Credit B's dont really investigate anything). Is there any way I can make my Credit B dispute more meaningful. Any suggestions/sample letter link?
From what you have said thus far this should not be on your credit report at all. It doesn't make sense, if the landlord said you owed for the carpet his only course of action would have been to take you to court and sue you to get a judgment. He can't just say you owe a debt then hire a CA to collect it. I would first sign up for something like prepaid legal, then I would send them another Val letter demanding they prove it or move it. if they didn't I would take all the info I had that you posted and send it to prepaid legal and have them write a letter to them. It really doesn't matter what the letter says because once a lawyer is involved they will truly assess were they stand with you and more often than not they will remove. trust me it works. Now here is the BIG IF. IFyou you have a judgment against you don't do that, IF he can prove the debt don't do that. IF you haven't explained everything here and the situation is more complicated than what you posted don't do that.
Why can't landlords do that? Specifically, what state or federal law prevents them from doing that? Why do you recommend that? Why send a second one? FDCPA which is the controlling federal law says (indirectly) that sending a second demand for validation won't do any good. I'll bet that would really scare the pants off of them. (LOL) How many times has that worked for you or others that you know? What did it cost you? I tried legal aid a few years ago and although I don't remember what I called them for or how many times, their lawyers never did a thing for me. I'm sure that others have had better results than I but my feeling was that legal aid is a waste of money and time. In all of my lifetime I've only ran into 4 or 5 lawyers that ever did me a lick of good and didn't charge me a small fortune and I've dealt with a great many of them. Three of them were women. Why not? What difference does the fact of having a judgment against you make? Or did you mean don't hire a lawyer if you have a judgment against you? Don't do what? Hire a lawyer or send a letter? Why not? Why not? If the poster took both video and color still photos of the entire dwelling both before move in and after move out and had the landlord sign off on the dwelling as any smart renter would normally do then let them do their best to collect. Neither me nor my Mrs. go anywhere without a full range of photo and audio equipment. Each of us have both digital still cameras and video camcorders as well as digital voice recorders with us at all times. For instance, if we go out to buy a car we take pictures of the cars we are interested in and we video and audio record the entire deal. The last time we bought a car the loan officer went through all the paperwork like greased lightning and explained nothing at all. Just about the only thing he said was "Sign here" about a dozen times. He had no idea that he had two video cameras taping him and two digital voice recorders taping everything that was said. Once the financing was done and the car was officially ours we prepared a court case against the dealership and took it to them and had a nice little conference with the owner of the dealership who was only too happy to fire the dumbo on the spot and give us back our $3,000 down payment. We didn't even have to hire a lawyer or actually file the case. We were involved in a 2 car accident a few years ago. It was about 2 A.M. and there were no witnesses to the accident. The other driver was a young lady who tried to beat a yellow light while making a left turn and hit us. (or we hit her, whichever). We took both still and video pictures of the accident as well as the inside of her vehicle. The windshield on the passenger side of her vehicle had a clear impression of somebody's head in it but she had no passengers that night. The air bags were lying in the back seat of her car. The cop determined that we were at fault and much to our chagrin, we found out later that our insurance had lapsed that very day. Her insurance company totaled her car which was worth about $3600 and tried to make us pay the price. We refused and they sent it to a collection agency. We told the collection agency the story and sent them some copies of the condition of the lady's car and told the CA that if they bothered us any more we would seek criminal charges against the lady for insurance fraud and file federal complaints against the CA as well. We never heard another peep out of them. I'm sure many of my readers will think that having such equipment with us at all times would be a lot of junk to carry around but the digital cameras are very small, the camcorders are the size of a thumb drive and look about like them too. They do 2 hours of full color and sound on a single battery charge and have a clip that allows them to be carried in a shirt pocket. They are far smaller than a ball point pen. The digital voice recorders are very small too and easy to operate. The total cost of all of it comes to about $300. So why do without them when the benefits are so great? Maybe you can't carry a camera to work with you at all times but you can at least have them in your glove box. I've even video and audio taped in court where that isn't allowed. Stand right up in front of the judge and nobody ever suspects that you are taping or recording. The cameras will go right through a courthouse metal detector and never set them off and the attendants never tumble to what they really are. Moving into or out of a dwelling without full taping so you have proof of any damage or lack of it and you are simply begging for trouble later on.
Why can't landlords do that? Specifically, what state or federal law prevents them from doing that? 1. It is no different than me going to hire someone to say you owe me money and place the info on your credit report. It is not a statement of fact (as the CRA's like to toss around when they refuse to take something off your report) until a court says it is because there are no possible (written) documents to support your case to a CRA unlike the (possible) documents a CC company or debt buyer might have ( such as billing statements and/or signed contract) . They (OC and CA) could send documents to the CRA if requested (if they have them) what will the landlord send except a statement? and unless proven that statement can be consider slander since it is being made a part of a record that others can see (much like printing something in a newspaper that you have not verified and can back up) . And I would probably pursue it in that way after speaking to an attorney and getting my ducks in a row. Quote: I would first sign up for something like prepaid legal, Why do you recommend that? 2. The reason I like prepaid legal is it is a cheap way to push back with some muscle. I have used it several times when dealing with CAâ??s such as Asset Acceptance, RJM, etc. They figure as long as you donâ??t have legal representation that you are not serious and they can just do what they will. One of the above mentioned kept putting me off ( as I expected) even though I sent several letters I sent the info to my PPL attorney he wrote 2 letters (they knew they screwed up) and all of a sudden they play nice and delete real quick...lol Quote: then I would send them another Val letter demanding they prove it or move it. Why send a second one? FDCPA which is the controlling federal law says (indirectly) that sending a second demand for validation won't do any good. 3. Except to show that you repeated attempted to work with them if you have to go to court. I have done this as well and when we got to court the judge looked at the lawyer (as he was trying to over talk me) and said â??looks to me that Ms. Y ( I was doing this for my ex fiance) tried repeated to work with you, and made repeated request for information; Did you bring what she requested with you? (lawyer answered No) Judge dismissed a $6,000 lawsuit. Quote: that if they didn't I would take all the info I had that you posted and send it to prepaid legal and have them write a letter to them. I'll bet that would really scare the pants off of them. (LOL) 4. Actually it does, at least the CAâ??s Iâ??ve dealt with. I send the info to PPL so they can look it over and know everything that has been said and done. It makes their job easier when they write the letters because they know the history. Quote: It really doesn't matter what the letter says because once a lawyer is involved they will truly assess were they stand with you and more often than not they will remove. trust me it works. How many times has that worked for you or others that you know? What did it cost you? I tried legal aid a few years ago and although I don't remember what I called them for or how many times, their lawyers never did a thing for me. I'm sure that others have had better results than I but my feeling was that legal aid is a waste of money and time. In all of my lifetime I've only ran into 4 or 5 lawyers that ever did me a lick of good and didn't charge me a small fortune and I've dealt with a great many of them. Three of them were women. 5. Several times actually, I figured from the get, if I can make it a no brainier for them (the lawyer) I would be able to get more out of them and it worked. One thing I always felt was that people like it when you do their job for them. I didnâ??t mind because it was my mess anyway and I expected to do the work to get out of it. I sent in all the papers (letters) etc to PPl, they looked it over and wrote a good letter to the CAâ??s saying basically â??from this point on you can deal with us, we are now representing him (me) in this matter" They knew to say that because that is what I told them would happen if they insisted on not doing what I asked. It presented a united front and all the letters they sent to me came back to bite them in the butt Quote: Now here is the BIG IF. IF you you have a judgment against you don't do that, Why not? What difference does the fact of having a judgment against you make? Or did you mean don't hire a lawyer if you have a judgment against you? 6. I meant if they already have a judgment donâ??t go the route I just described. In that case they would probably want to try to get the order vacated if possible. In that situation I would still talk to a lawyer and explain everything and give them what I had. To get advice on how to proceed. Must of the lawyers I have every dealt with where at the very least nice, and like I said they like it when you do their job for them. I don't mind as long as I get the desired end result and am able to use their status as a lawyer to put a little fear in the offending reporter of information Quote: IF he can prove the debt don't do that. Don't do what? Hire a lawyer or send a letter? Why not? 7. If you know he can prove it I would go a different route, such as pay for delete. I wouldn't poke the bear with a stick, he could get nasty and refuse to take it off and go get a judgment which the poster would be forced to pay anyway. Depending on the state garnishing your wages is real easy. Quote: IF you haven't explained everything here and the situation is more complicated than what you posted don't do that. Why not? If the poster took both video and color still photos of the entire dwelling both before move in and after move out and had the landlord sign off on the dwelling as any smart renter would normally do then let them do their best to collect. Neither me nor my Mrs. go anywhere without a full range of photo and audio equipment. Each of us have both digital still cameras and video camcorders as well as digital voice recorders with us at all times. For instance, if we go out to buy a car we take pictures of the cars we are interested in and we video and audio record the entire deal. The last time we bought a car the loan officer went through all the paperwork like greased lightning and explained nothing at all. Just about the only thing he said was "Sign here" about a dozen times. He had no idea that he had two video cameras taping him and two digital voice recorders taping everything that was said. Once the financing was done and the car was officially ours we prepared a court case against the dealership and took it to them and had a nice little conference with the owner of the dealership who was only too happy to fire the dumbo on the spot and give us back our $3,000 down payment. We didn't even have to hire a lawyer or actually file the case..................................... 8. I agree, I just found a pen recorder that Iâ??m going to buy. I canâ??t wait to get it. ..lol I I also did that when I rented, When I moved in I did it and when I moved out to pics of everything . The poster didnâ??t mention that he did so I concluded that he didnâ??t ( to be on the safe side) . I wanted to address the worst case scenario. That is why I told him if he didnâ??t post everything that is going on donâ??t do what I said because I am giving my advice on what he posted only and not what he may have forgotten to mention. I have had a lot of great people teach me credit repair and one of the first things I learned when someone asks me what they should do is â??It Dependsâ?. It depends because I need to know everything before a course of action can be taken. If the poster would like to share more info that would help all of us here give some better advice that would be great. Which is really all I want to do, help point them in the right direction.
Extension of answer #5 in my reply to Cap; O' I forgot to mention, I don't use legal aid, a lot of times they are over whelmed or may not care all that much (not all of them, but many) I use PPl because you have a contract with their service and if they don't preform you have legal options. It only costed me like $34.95 a month and it was worth it bc it would have cost more to go to a law firm. I use to have them now I have the legal program thru my job (it is cheaper) Usually when someone comes to me for help I have them sign up. No I don't sell it or use people I know that sell it. I tell them if they know someone get it from them or go to their website.
You say the CA is in TX. Are you? If so, the Texas Finance Code is very explicit about them validating a debt within 30 days. If they didn't and are reporting you have violations against them that would lead to damages if pursued (TX also allows for trebling of damages). They must also be bonded and notifying the insurance company that issued the bond that the CA is in violation of TX law really has teeth. Do some searches online on using the Texas Finance Code. But of course, this applies only if you are in TX.
You certainly have given a great set of responses to my questions. Thanks. I think you would find it impossible to bring a slander charge against either a debt collector, a landlord or an attorney. You would not have grounds for a slander case just for starters. Slander is harmful statement in a transitory form, especially speech. That means that while there is a remote possibility that a libel case might hold, a slander case would not. Libel on the other hand is harmful statements in a fixed medium, especially writing but also a picture, sign, or electronic broadcast. In either case, the wrongful action would have to take place in a public gathering or a public medium such as print or radio or TV. So it should be obvious that none of that will or has happened. If you do speak to an attorney about that I'm sure s/he will agree with me. As far as the statements of a landlord are concerned they stand up in court every time and even if the landlord has no written record of your payments to them which they usually do. Their word is usually accepted as gospel truth no matter how false they may be. And you cannot keep a landlord from getting his property no matter what you do. A landlord can kick you out for any reason or for no reason at all. It is their property and they can do whatever they want with their property. Even if they want you out so they can remodel that is good enough. Quite so. But I happen to be dealing with Asset Acceptance myself at the moment. They first called me on Nov. 6th and wanted to know if I wanted to pay their alleged debt Of course I didn't. I demanded an initial contact letter and they promised me on on that and several subsequent phone calls. Last time they called they told me they sent one out on the 19th of Nov. Still hasn't gotten here yet. They had 5 days from the 6th of Nov. to get me one or be in violation of FDCPA. Since I stated that I disputed the debt and demanded validation each and every one of their phone calls are an additional violation. I'll just play them along like a fiddle and when they turn it over to another collection agency or a lawyer I will immediately file a federal case against them for all their violations and then start in on the next dummy be it a lawyer or another debt collector. I have recordings of all their phone calls and a written record as well. I will take them to federal court and whip them like a puppy dog and I won't need any lawyers to do it for me.
