Help!! need to remove paid charge-o

Hi I am a newbie and I need some help please. i didn't get a loan approved because this shows up as a delinquent account. four years ago I paid my rent late by 7 days, two days after the 5 day grace period. On the sixth day I was served some kind of suit to appear in court unless the amount was paid off within the next two days which I did. Otherwise I have never paid any bills late and my credit history is perfect. Now I see that the company that owned the apartment shows up in my credit report as Paid Charge Off and open account with current showing up for the whole history from 9/98-5/00 even though my lease was only from 5-98-5-99. There was no month where the chargeoff was shown. Can a landlord really put something like this on my account even though it was only a couple days late? And why do they have an open count still? Please help me