Here's a tough one. I have a state tax lien, which EQ and TU are reporting as filed in 12/95 and released in 3/96. I disputed as not mine, both came back verified. I am currently disputing the dates recorded as incorrect, writing "I had no lien filed in 12/95" "I had no lien filed in 3/96". In going through old files, I just found the original notification of the tax lien filing, which is dated 10/31/95. So far, I can't find the release or cancelled check. But, clearly they are reporting it inaccurately -- I think the difference is the delay between filing, and recording by the county, who confirmed to me via telephone the dates that the CRAs are showing. The question is what to do? Anything? I am guessing that the RAs will come back saying they have verified the dates. Since I have the documentation, I will have caught them in a lie, which implies I could sue, I suppose. But htat won't get the lein off my reports. I am assuming that I shouldn't send a copy f the notification as proof, as they will only enter the other date, and leave the release as is. Any advice? How do I get the lien removed before March? I am trying to do a refi now, so waiting 8 months for it to come off automatically won't work.
A tax lien is a matter of public record. In order to put a public record on your report they must match a certain number of items. i.e. address, ss#, name, etc You might get it to fall off by disputing the address that you lived at when the lien was placed in public record. Some people have had luck doing this with BK's too. This only works if you have moved since. The first thing I would do, it re-dipsute with CRA. Just do this one derog and list it as "aged", date of lien reported is incorrect. Ask them to delete. Just another iteration of what you already have done, I am sure. Sometimes is comes back deleted if you are persistant. If you want to pursuit it legally, you might get something similar to a vacated judgement. In this case, since it is paid, you could bring up the matter in a brief stating that some piece of information was in error and ask that the lien be reversed. Since it is paid, they might not respond. However, you are making a wager on this, and it is the state. For some reason, they always claim to be overworked and short handed, but always show up to try and nail the "working guy." Probably need a lawyer to help on this one. Otherwise, is it paid? I assume so. I also assume you are refinancing to get a lower rate. I don't think this will preclude you from refinancing as long as it is paid, but it might not get you the best rate. 8 months is really nothing in the finance world or when fighting the CRA's.
You haven't even gotten the disputes back and you are planning to sue...I think you need to slow down a bit. I understand what you are saying, that you believe they will verify with the wrong dates, and you will have proof of a violation. But WHO do you sue. The CRA will claim they received that information during the verification. So you will have to send procedural requests to pin down who the CRA contacted, when, how, and what info was provided. My tax lien from that era was deleted because they never verified....it may happen, wait until you get the results back. Never provide additional info that would potentially hurt you or provides no real proof of your claim. I believe unpaid tax liens can be reported forever...but paid tax liens can only be reported for 7 years...if it was '95 it would fall off this year. So you need to find your release date by finding the cancelled check. -Peace, Dave
Thanks -- what do you mean by disputing the address? No address appears with respect to the lien on my report. I have moved since then, so this is interesting.
This is all heresay, I don't know first hand. You might do a search here for "bk" and "dispute address" to find others talking about this method. They match public records with your credit record by matching certain info such as name, address, and ss. The state does not report this directly to them, the CRA finds it out by getting a generic report of liens (public record available to anyone) and then they put it in their systems and see who they can cross reference. So, they are matching some of your personal info in your credit report, with the info that they have from their generic report of liens and viola, they see the two are the same and report it on your credit report. If you dispute your old address, which is pretty easy to do, you might see the lien fall off because a certain amount of their criteria to "match" the 2 records no longer exists. I don't know what their criteria to find a valid match is, but I have seen people get rid of BK's the same way. I once was told they need to match 3 items to have enough info to call it a match. name, address, and ss. Since it would be very time consuming to do this by hand, they probably do this all by computer. If they are looking for 123ABC and the record says 123 abcd, then the computer doesn't match it. it's worth a try. You might also attack this if the name on the lien was a variation of your full name or didn't include your middle name, or it was a maiden name, etc and your credit report is under a similar but somehow different name.
