ESTOPPEL Sample Letter... An oldie, but a goodie.... many people have been searching for.......... lizardking | 1262 posts since Feb 2001 146.235.4.8 | 04.03.2001 @ 20:36 Here is a sample letter that I used after 60 days. Creditor address city st zip Re: Acct # 0000 0000 0000 0000 To Whom It May Concern: As I have not heard back from you in over 60 days, regarding my demand for proof, since my notice of dispute dated December 5, 2000 and you have not supplied the demanded proof of the alleged debt, under the doctrine of estoppel by silence, Engelhardt v Gravens (Mo) 281 SW 715, 719, I may presume that no proof of the alleged debt, nor therefore any such debt, in fact exists. In a good faith effort to resolve this matter amicably, I restate my demand for proof of the debt, specifically the alleged contract or other instrument bearing my signature, as well as proof of your authority in this matter. Absent such proof, you must terminate this collection action and correct any erroneous reports of this debt as mine. For the record, I state again that as I have no account with you, nor am I your customer, nor have I entered into a contract with you, I must ask for the following information: 1) Please evidence your authorization under 15 USC 1692 (e) and 15 USC 1692 (f) in this alleged matter. 2) What is your authorization of law for your collection of information? 3) What is your authorization of law for your collection of this alleged debt? 4) Please evidence your authorization to do business or operate in the state of Florida. 5) Please evidence proof of the alleged debt, including specifically the alleged contract or other instrument bearing my signature. You have 15 days from receipt of this notice to respond. Your failure to respond, on point, in writing, hand signed, and in a timely manner, will work as a waiver to any and all of your claims in this matter, and will entitle me to presume that you sent your letter(s) in error, and that this matter is permanently closed. Your continued silence is unacceptable. Either provide the proof or correct the record to remove the invalid debt from my credit files with the three primary credit-reporting agencies. You are currently in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collection Act. Failure to respond within 15 days of receipt of this registered letter (with return receipt) will begin my small claims action against your company. I will be seeking $5,000 in damages for the following: 1) Defamation 2) Negligent Enablement of Identity Fraud 3) Violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act After obtaining the judgment against your company, I will obtain a Writ of Execution from the Sheriffâ??s office in your county and I will begin the process of attaching property or funds to satisfy the judgment. For the purposes of 15 USC 1692 et seq., this Notice has the same effect as a dispute to the validity of the alleged debt and a dispute to the validity of your claims. This Notice is an attempt to correct your records, and any information received from you will be collected as evidence should any further action be necessary. This is a request for information only, and is not a statement, election, or waiver of status. Witness My Hand and Seal this 13th day of February 2001.
Re: ESTOPPEL Sample Letter... That is great. Outstanding as a matter of fact. I notice that you use the plural form so I must ask if Equifax was also collecting on multiple debts or were they just in their usual role of reporters? Your estoppel clearly addresses collection efforts only, yet what you say in your post seems to indicate that you sent it to Equifax in it's capacity of credit reporting bureau. If Equifax were acting in both their roles then the results you state would have come about in the natural course of events and not all that surprising. So I would appreciate your clearing the air in the issue of whether or not Equifax was doing the collecting in that case. I really like the letter and use it incessantly, but I have yet to see any visible results of it's use. That should not be taken as a disparagement of your letter by anyone. The homework has been done and the premise upon which the letter is based is well founded and well documented and therefore reasonably well set in legal stone. It's wording is excellent and it does not appear to be loaded with fluff. It's length is quite appropriate and it's professional appearance and wording should be more than enough to arouse any collector from his usual mental state and cause him to come to the realization that he had royally scr&wed the pooch. I am truly amazed that it does not cause them so much consternation that they must head home to change their shorts posthaste upon having read it. So the only conclusion I can draw is that it flies so high over their heads they never awaken to it's passage. If it's impact is not felt until they get to court where their intended victim has a well prepared paper trail and shows up armed to the teeth and the collector ends up walking out of court mumbling to himself while smoking his pipe loaded with high grade estoppel, so much the better. The fact that I have used it innumerable times exactly as you prepared it and never had even one collector mention seems to address their general level of knowledge about what they are doing, not the value of the letter you have prepared and so generously provided the readers of this board. I have nothing but the highest praise for your accumen and prowess. And while you may not be a professional worker in the credit arena, your professionalism speaks volumes about you as a person and your estoppel letter is a perfect example of your outstanding contributions.
Re: ESTOPPEL Sample Letter... I think the best thing about the Estoppel letter is that it will immediately strike the recipient as "uh-oh, something different here that requires a serious look" -- irrespective of its consequence. I like bbauer's use of the "wake them up" analogy. Collectors sometimes ignore run-of-the-mill correspondence, but this particular letter is a sleep-terminator. Doc
Re: ESTOPPEL Sample Letter... Doc: It sure ought to be, but the fact that it hasn't been effective in terminating their sleep so far is a fair indication that they must be in about the same shape as Rip Van Winkle.
Re: ESTOPPEL Sample Letter... Just like the rest of your original estoppel, the way you got results is quite unique. Or at least it seems like it to me. It's also an excellent illustration that no one has a monopoly on original thought. Our leaders thought we were almost impregnable and could not be attacked by some small hooligan country for our military might, our massive defense capabilities would be so fearful that no one would dare to attack us. Hate him as we might for his atrocities against us, he did wake us up to the sad fact that multi-billion bombers and the ability to unleash nuclear havoc if need be is not enough to prevent a terrible attack against even a small enemy if he has the intelligence and the determination to do it to us. And you too have proven time and time again that the bigger they are the harder they fall. Your idea and way of seeing things forced a giant corporation to see things your way. I really like your idea as you can tell, but I do see one short coming which I address and that is that (in the limited sense) it fails to address the problem of the underlying debt itself. As I pointed out in so many of my messages, in most instances you can be 100% effective at getting the derogatories off your credit reports, but until you have addressed the underlying problem of the debt itself the job is only half done if that. The wolf is still quite capable of sitting outside your door (so to speak) and howling all day long, ringing the daylights out of your telephone, filling your mailbox with all his crap, and hauling you off to court, garnishing your wages, maybe snatching up your property. Your problems have not been resolved, you have only peeled off one layer of wolfcrap which can easily put back on you in the future and quite often is. While your method may well accomplish their immediate goals quite brilliantly, the burning bush question is what have you done to actually solve your problems? And that is why you got results out of estoppel and I haven't had any yet. You shot a million dollar missile (estoppel letter) at a $10 tent(your credit reports) and hit a camel (errrrrr... credit bureau ) in the butt. In contrast to that, I go to the creditor or the collector with a little old popgun, point it right dead between his eyeballs and order him to drop his drawers and if he don't, I pull the trigger. Now then, I'm not quite that mean because I open up a back door first through which he can easily escape if he chooses to do so. So far, I have been successful enough at letting him escape out the back door that I have never actually had to pull the trigger yet. No matter how brilliant the estoppel is nor how successfully you have applied it, it is not even close to a popgun unless maybe it would be in a court of law where it's proper application would be. How successful have you been with it in an actual courtroom before a judge who had to rule on it's validity and applicability and it's forcefulness? I wish I really knew the answer to that so I wouldn't mistakenly believe that I had a magic bullet for my popgun and then go into court and shoot myself in the foot.
