Hi everybody. It's been a very successful 6 months repairing my credit (thanks to the info on this board, of course) and I haven't been on in a while. However I've just received a disturbing letter from my utility company on an old account, and was wondering if anybody out there had similar experiences and advice on how to deal with them. Here's the deal: In 1998 I had a billing dispute with the local utility over a $1500 water bill resulting from a broken toilet in the office building that I was renting at the time. I was renting the top floor of the building, and it turned out that the leak was on the ground floor in a part of the office that I did not have access to. After numerous correspondence with both the building owner and the utility company I moved out of the building, closed my account and wrote the utility company and the landlord a letter that I would not pay the part of the bill that resulted from the leak in an area that I was not renting. Years pass and there was no correspondence from either the landlord or the utility co. UNTIL NOW... This month I got a letter from the utility company saying that they had been reviewing closed accounts and were transferring the outstanding balance of $2100 (the original plus penalties and interest) to my RESIDENTIAL account. Ironically I was about to close the residential account because I'm getting ready to move out of state in a couple of weeks. I've been trying like mad to find the original correspondence with the Utility and the Landlord, but haven't located it yet. But I do remember that the landlord's position was that they weren't liable for the bill. I was doing so good with my credit and now this! Does anybody have suggestions? Should I send them a letter asking them to validate the original debt, or do I need to get a lawyer? Thanks in advance for sharing your advice... db
