I need some advice desperately. I hope you guys can help. I moved from my last apt in March 2003. When I wrote them notifying them that I was terminatingmy month-to-month lease, I also asked to be present during the final inspection. I never heard from them and in mid-March (after I moved), I sent them another letter (certified) asking about the inspection date. To date, I've never heard from them directly. A few weeks ago, I received a collection notice stating that I owed my past landlord over 2000.00. I sent the CA a validation letter and some guy called me basically saying that the letter was "junk" but he would fill it out and send it back. I received from them (through regular mail), a copy of my lease, with a breakdown of the alleged charges. Because it wasn't sent certified, I'm treating it as "not received". Fast forward to today. They've reported the collection on my EQ report. Is it a violation for them to report a tradeline that I'm disputing? They haven't reported it as "Customer disputes". What do I do from here? The 30 days for them to respond to my original validation request isn't over until 6/7. Any and all advice GREATLY welcomed. Thanks in advance.
THey don't have to prove you received anything. See the last 5 or 6 posts from Butch's "What is Validation" thread. Several court cases that say the consumer claiming they never received anything is meaningless.
Check your state's landlord/tenant laws. I know in TX the landlord has 30 days to give you an accounting, or he is SOL, and must return your deposit. There is also something about treble damages.
In Florida, the landlord has 15 days from the date you move out to notify you that you owe them money (e.g. back rent) or if they are not going to return your entire security deposit.
Yes, it is a very BIG violation for them (the collection agency NOT the original creditor) to report a tradeline on your credit report IF they received your dispute letter before they started reporting. According to the "CASS" FTC opinion letter, a collection agency may NOT report any disputed account to a CRA until validation is provided but only if they received your letter BEFORE they placed the tradeline. Now, if they placed the tradeline BEFORE your dispute letter, they must mark their tradeline as disputed. The FTC nor the FDCPA is very clear on how long they have to do so but you may be able to find some previous case law which states how long they have. You may be able to fight for 5 days to mark it as being in dispute but I believe 30 days is more than sufficient time. So, if they did not mark it as being in dispute 30 days after receiving your letter, then you would have a violation there. So it really depends on whether they received your letter before or after it was placed on your credit report. What you must do now is IMMEDIATELY dispute the entry through EQ as debt paid in full. They now are now required, according to the FCRA, to COMPLETELY investigate the $2000 debt by comparing the debt to original account records as stated by Performance Capital Management, Inc., U.S. v. (Central District of California, Southern Division), File No. 982 3542. If they verify their listing within the 30 day period, they must then have original account records to support the listing. You then should sit quite for about 30 days (but IMMEDIATELY dispute again through Experian) to see if they provide you with those account records. If they don't, you got them on 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(b). Obviously, they did not verify the original account records because, if they did, they would have sent them to you in response to your 5/7 validation request. You now have them on that. Furthermore, if, after verifying their listing, they do not update it to reflect you disputed it with them, you have them on that. If they attempt to list the account on any other credit report, you have them on that since they may not do so until validation is provided. If they attempt to sue you without providing validation, you have them on that as they may not sue you until validation is provided (Spears v. Brennan). As soon as they verify, dispute the account again through Experian to see if they verify again without providing validation. You now have them on two accounts of failing to verify the account with original account records. You should then contact the original creditor, using certified mail, and, just for confirmation, ask them when the collection agency contacted them for original documents supporting the debt. If they say HUH?, then you have proof that they never even attempted to verify their listing with original account records but still verified their listing. If the original creditor says they never contacted me, you arise at the same outcome. If the original creditor says, we sent them proof of this debt on 9/1/03 (after they already verified the listing twice), you arise at the same outcome. This step is really optional but obviously, if the OC states the CA never contacted them with any such request, it makes your suit that much stronger. But, even wtihout it, you know they don't have any original account records but they never provided them to you in response to your validation request. If the OC refuses to respond, sue the CA and then subpoena the original creditor to appear at the trial. If they admit they were contacted by the CA but never responded, you still prove that the CA verified their listing without checking with the original account records. I am sure you get the point. Good luck!
1*Is it a violation for them to report a tradeline that I'm disputing? They haven't reported it as "Customer disputes". 2*What do I do from here? The 30 days for them to respond to my original validation request isn't over until 6/7. 3*THey don't have to prove you received anything. lbowman 1&2 keepmine 3 ============================ 1* This is one violation. Reporting it after receiving your V.L. is another. 2*On 6/12 send the estoppel. 3*No matter he already has them on at least 2 violations. THE END ** *** ** LB 59 """""""""```~~~```'"""""""""
Hi jlynn. Thanks for responding, I'm in MD and this is what I've been trying to find out for my state. I believe they have 30-45 days to return the security deposit, but I never had to pay one prior to moving in. Do they still have the same amount of time to notify me of any damages? And aren't they LEGALLY bound to notify me of the move-out inspection date if I request it?
Re: Re: Help!! Is CA in violation??? SUNHAWK, Thanks for such an informative reply! To answer your question, I disputed this account BEFORE they reported the tradeline to EQ, so I'm assuming this is a big violation. If so, that's great leverage for me. Also, before reading the replies today, I disputed with EQ using the "Not my account" reason. Does this mess things up? Would the "Paid in Full" explanation be the one I need or would any reason suffice? Thanks again.
Thanks for the reply. I was thinking that the esoppel would be my next step, but wasn't sure. I also wanted to make sure that they had actually violated the FDCPA. Thanks for the clarification.
Re: Re: Re: Help!! Is CA in violation??? Possibly...read http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47517 and you will know what I am talking about
