I'm not sure how to tackle this

So, ~4 years ago, my fiance and I rented an apartment from "Company X". About 3 or 4 months into the 6 month lease, I lost my job, and we ended up having to move out of town for a new job.

We didn't give them the 20 days notice that Washington State law requires. In fact, I was 19 then and didn't even know that it was necessary, although ignorance is certainly no excuse. As per our lease, we agreed to continue paying the rent there until it was either re-rented or the lease was up. In hindsight, I should have just gotten a new place and continued paying on that, but I didn't know then.

Anyway, we made payment arrangements, and we paid the entire amount due. We were late on our payments 3 times, I believe, because we were trying to recover financially, and they finally served us with a notice to go to small claims court, but thankfully the we had a windfall just in time to pay the entire debt off with no problem. At the time, I was unaware that it was on my credit, or that it would even go there as long as I didn't let it become a judgement.

Sadly, it did. They charged it off.

Here's the timeline according to the ledger file I have from this company:

~11-2000 - We move, make payment arrangements
Payments are made up until after 4-23-01, with one late period in there, but certainly nothing seriously late - just late according to what I promised. As in like a week or two late. They are definitely getting their money, however.
4-2001 - "Date of last activity" on EQ credit report. Mind you, we're paid up to this point.
5-2001 - more financial problems cause us to have to skip a payment. We don't communicate to them as we should have, and they file in small claims in 6-2001.
7-3-01 - complete payment is sent.

The account is shown as a charge-off on the EQ credit report. I guess I'm confused as to how they could charge it off when they are getting paid, and their ledger shows it.

Regardless of how they can do that, I want to figure out how to get rid of it. It's really frustrating that I pay my debts, *always*, and I have stuff like this holding me back.

I already tried contesting it as "not mine" to EQ. It came back verified. As I was in the process of moving at that point, I didn't do much more, especially since I'm kind of confused as to why it would be there in the first place. The whole "charge-off" concept seems to evade my grasp; from what I understood, that's when they write it off as a loss on their taxes, yet they were still collecting.

Any ideas?

Here's the info direct from the EQ website:

Account Owner: Individual
Type of Account : Open
Date Opened: 04/2000
Date Reported: 08/2003
Date of Last Activity: 04/2001
Comments: Unknown Narrative Code
Rate or Status: CHARGE-OFF
High Credit: $749
Terms or Monthly Payment: $0
Balance: $0
Past Due: $0
Months Reviewed: N/A

24-Month Payment History
No 24-Month Payment Data available for display.
Seven-Year Payment History
30 Days Past Due: 0 times
60 Days Past Due: 0 times
90 Days Past Due: 0 times


Thanks for any help, folks. This one is frustrating me. The other issues I've had have been well answered by searching the site

 

also, my apologies for the double post, it errored out the first time :\

 

Another thing I just noticed, although I'm not sure that it matters, is that the account owner is listed as individual, but this is also on my fiance's credit.

I'm really confused as to what I need to do for this one :\

 

Re: Re: I'm not sure how to tackle this

I guess this is a pretty complicated one? :\

 

Re: Re: I'm not sure how to tackle this

Well, here's what I'm gonna do. It's the best I can figure out from my limited experience; please speak up if I'm obviously shooting myself in the foot. I'll hold off before sending these letters till thursday morning just in case

Step 1: I disputed it as not mine. It came back verified. I expected this, as they have a signed lease, since obviously I did rent the apartment.

Step 2: I tried a goodwill letter on them. No response. No change. The account is still there.

Step 3: (This is now) Go nutcase.

I borrowed the nutcase letter, and I'll send it CRRR on thursday morning. The only thing that worries me is that they won't cave right away, since they are a property management company and probably in court a lot. But that said, I can follow up with the other nutcase letters anyway.

If anyone sees anything obviously wrong with this, speak up - it seems like it's all I can do. I tried being nice, but they continue to report a charge-off when I was still paying them at the time.