pay judgement? Sample letter?

Discussion in 'Credit Talk' started by phxbbw6ft1, Nov 2, 2001.

  1. phxbbw6ft1

    phxbbw6ft1 Well-Known Member

    I have a old judgement on my credit report. ( My first apt, I didn't go to court so he won) It's about $600. If I decide to pay my old landlord the judgement, how do I go about doing it? Does anyone have a sample letter saying something about if I pay he'll remove it? Did he put it on my credit report or did the courts? Thanks

    p.s. I never had a lease with this man, the only reason he knew my name if from my rent checks. I took the apt over after my mom left. I was their two years. When I was going to leave I wrote a 30 day notice and he ASSUMED I wasn't paying my last months rent because up to that point I was late with it. When I go the notice on my door for court, i freaked and I didn't go, then I thought to myself ( f-him and didn't pay the last months rent. But all that did was screw me....Landlords suck :p
     
  2. bbauer

    bbauer Banned

    I'd like to suggest that before you pay it you go to the office of the Clerk of the County Clerk and get them to look up the judgment and then get copies of the judgment. Won't cost much. Maybe $5 or so. Then go to a copy shop and make copies of what you got. That may cost another $1 or two. Then send me the copies you made and let me take a look at them. I may be able to see something in the court records that you could use as grounds to get the judgment overturned.

    Usually that's pretty easy, but judgments issued as a result of landlord problems are much less likely to contain errors. That's because landlords don't often use attorneys to file their actions. They do it themselves, especially if they just have a house or an apartment or two. It's easier for them because the courts usually have special forms just for landlords and since tenants don't usually show, it's pretty muchly just a cut and dried rubber stamp process. If attorneys got involved then it might have been screwed up as is so often the case.

    Although landlords are not subject to FDCPA or FCRA or any of the laws that we are used to dealing with, they can still be commanded to prove their claims. Just like any other court proceedings, they can be forced to produce their records and prove that you didn't pay your rent if you want to do that. The older the judgment is, the less likely it is that a small landlord would have kept the records for so long so you might have a chance. If it's a landlord that has a large number of apartments or houses then you can bet they have the records for many years back, maybe "forever".

    If it's an oldster you might luck out and find out he died, is in a nursing home or hospital. That would make it a bit difficult for him to answer the summons to the court and impede his ability to fight your motion to vacate the judgment. You might win that way. If he is alive, still kicking, mean spirited and ready to fight, you are dead meat.

    Judgments by landlords are one of the least likely to contain errors, so you can roll your dice if you want. to. I'll look over your judgment for free and tell you if I think you might have a chance and the papers you need to file are on my website free for the taking and I don't charge anything for my time. I do it for free. That's because I'm not an attorney so I can't give legal advice and I can't charge for anything I do in the way of looking over the papers and checking them over for possible errors. On the other hand, it only takes a few seconds to look over a case and know exactly what's there and if it's proper or not if you have as much experience at it as I do.

    Just let me know if you would like to take a shot at it and we will go from there
     
  3. phxbbw6ft1

    phxbbw6ft1 Well-Known Member

    You have sent me a couple of replies that were great! This one is to, and you seem so nice! My only problem here is, I don't wanna go to court, i'm afraid. ( I tried to fight a traffic ticket once, wow what a mess) I do know the landlord is alive and well, damnit! LOL :)
    Is there another way to get this off my credit report? Besides fighting it? Or anything in which I don't have to go to court? Thanks so much for your help!
    Melissa
     
  4. QUEEN_BEE

    QUEEN_BEE Well-Known Member

    Overturning rental judgment

    Hi Bauer,

    I have a rental judgment also that I am trying to get vacated. I am going to the courthouse to get records also. Can you give me some examples of some things that could be wrong in a judgment that is strong enough to get it overturned?

    Love
     
  5. bbauer

    bbauer Banned

    Your problem back then was that you were trying to fight the best thief in the world on his home turf, the government. (LOL) That's worse than trying to mudwrestle pigs. It can be done, but you gotta be smarter than the pig and faster too. BTW, I'm quite sure that you have heard the term PIG used in a derogatory manner before, but do you really know where the term came from? It came from the PIGs themselves as a joke. PIG. People In Goverment. When it backfired on them, they were not too happy about it and they squealed a lot. Still do. (LOL)

    [/quote] I do know the landlord is alive and well, damnit! LOL :)[/quote] Things are tough all over aren't they?

    Yes, make an arrangement with the landlord in writing not to answer any questions from anyone whatsoever communicating with him by any means whatsoever about this matter. You soften him up first by telling him that you don't want to have to go to court and file a case on him for the errors he made in filing his judgment so you would like to offer an amicable settlement, to wit: He agrees that in accepting payment in lieu of your seeking legal remedy for his errors he agrees not to communicate with any other person in any manner whatsoever about this judgment or it's underlying problems. You slip it to him nice and easy like. It should seem like a simple request to him and he most likely won't stop to think that agreement would include credit bureau inquiries, so in order to get his money immediately and without a fight he signs the contract. You make him write the contract and present it to you by mail for your acceptance.

    Never write the contract for another person or company. That's because if it ever goes to court, the person who wrote the contract is the person who has to accept the responsibilities for it's contents and their after effects upon the parties involved. You tell him what you demand be in the contract and all he has to do is write up a simple little note saying what he agrees to do in return for immediate payment in full and have it notarized and mail it to you and you will pay him in full using a U.S. Postal Money Order upon your acceptance of his offered contract. Tell him that he don't have to go get no lawyer or use no fancy language since this is just a simple little agreement between two people. He will probably never even stop to think about it. But if you mention anything about credit bureaus or stuff like that, you will instantly raise his hackles and he won't do it. Slip it in on him nice and easy like. Send him your money order by US Mail Certified Return Receipt Requested and then call him up and tell him you sent him his money as agreed by certified mail. That way he knows it's coming and he won't refuse to sign for the certified. You have double proof he was paid and accepted the money and you don't have to trace down the money order to see if he ever cashed it or not.

    Next step is to immediately dispute it with the credit bureaus claiming it contains erroneous information which must be corrected or removed. If they verify it, demand they tell you who verified it and how they did it. If they refuse or fail to do so in a timely manner you can sue them and if they actually come out and say the landlord verified it, it's off to court you go and sue the landlord for violation of his contractual agreement and you got the credit bureau report and statement proving that he violated the contract. If he claims he didn't violate the contract then he has to summons the credit bureau into court and make them testify in his behalf. If they do that, you got them where the hair grows short and the sun don't even shine.

    No matter what happens you win.


    Don't be afraid of going to court if you have all your ducks in a row.
     
  6. bbauer

    bbauer Banned

    Re: Overturning rental judgment

    No, I don't want to do that. I've already done that in other posts here and it's only going to cost you a couple of bucks to make copies of your copies and send them to me so I can do the job right and give you my best answer and you won't even owe me the time of day.

    But I warn you in advance that rental judgments are not likely to contain errors. If they do, it won't be for the common errors that you find in normal debt related judgments because it's so easy for landlords to go get an eviction and judgment that it's pretty well cut and dried unless the tenant can prove the landlord is wrong in his allegations. It's seldom worth the fight. You can almost always find ways to fight the eviction and if he bad mouths you in some public forum because you failed to pay on time or for whatever reason, you can go get him big time.

    I had one lady come crying to me not long ago because she was going to get evicted for not paying her rent. And in the process of hoping I could do the impossible, she mentioned how mad she was about it all because she and the landlord went to the same church and both were faithful church goers and he went babbling about it to all the parishners that would listen.

    WHOOPS!!!!
     

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