A manager in an apartment complex I once lived in refused to honor the lease and wanted me to pay for several months rent that I did not owe. Without notifying me, they turned their claim over to a collection agency. The collection agency sent me an itemized bill that stated that I owed one month's rent (minus money taken from my deposit, leaving the collection amount at about $150.00). The apartment complex was in Idaho and the collection agency is in Washington state. I have notorized documents of witnesses to the manager's comments about not honoring the lease. I sent copies of those and a copy of the original signed lease to the collection agency who literally poked fun at them, saying they were "pretty." They basically told me to pay or they would put it on my credit, which they did. I am sending a validation form I copied from this site to the collection agency. What should I do next? This claim is almost 3 years old. What if the collection agency simply sends the same bill they sent me before? I want to correct this and I do not want to pay (I know that is an option suggested often, but I want to know all other options available). Please help! Thanks.
My suggestion: 1. Look up the laws dealing with credit collections in the state where the dispute is taking place (where the apartment complex is). You can tell your collection agency to stop all contact with you. No more calls, no more mail. If there is proper legal language in the notification to them, they should abide. By telling them that will work directly with the creditor (your landlord) they should stop talking to you. 2. Contact the state's consumer affairs department. Usually this is a really good source to find out the laws regarding renters and landlords.
Rule # 1: NEVER GIVE A COLLECTION AGENCY ANYTHING! It is their job under federal law to give YOU the documentation. By providing them the lease, you partially validated the account for them. You should send the affidavits, and everything else to your old states attorney generals office, not the collection agency, the collection agency could care less whether the account is legit, they are the employee of your old landlord. They are paid to collect no matter what the legal status of the account is. By providing anything to them, you are doing their work for them, yes they can get the lease from the landlord, but that is what they are supposed to do. If the account is bogus, and the landlord kept your deposit to pay for the partial months rent, then you go after the landlord, for the deposit, and for the harrassment of the collection agency. Fraud, misrepresenting the legal status of the account, defamation of character, placing false information on your credit report, are just the beginning of the violations that you may have against the CA and the landlord.
Do not do a TOTAL CEASE & DESIST, you only want them to stop calling, let them put all of their threats in writing. Anything that the CA puts into writing can, and will be used against them. If you totally C&D, you will give the CA, and the OC no option but to sue you. You want to be the one who decides when, and if this goes to court. You want to be the plaintiff against the CA, and the landlord for the FDCPA violations, and for keeping your deposit illegally.
Thanks for the info. It looks like I made a mistake in sending them a copy of the lease. Hopefully that will not hurt any. I don't see how it will help their argument any, but I guess it looks like they have done some homework when they actually haven't. I'll look into the things you all have suggested (not C&D though). Thanks!
Your off target. The landlord breached the lease agreement. You have proof in the form of affidavits. More than likely since it was a written agreement, the landlord is still within SOL. If that is the case you should be sueing the landlord for the breach of contract, defamation of your character, plus intentional infliction of emotional distress. Those are some of the things that I can think of off the top of my head. If your successful, the CA will have to go away since the debt no longer exists.
If the CA is working for the apartment complex, their posting to your credit report may be "willfull" posting of inaccurate information, since regardless of whether the CA knows it, the manager, and therefore the apartment owner, knew they were breaching the lease when they forwarded it for collection. In addition, to make a claim against your deposit, some state laws require that the itemized costs or reasons be provided in writing to you within a certain number of days, or the deposit claim is void.
