Letter I sent to "Shock & Awe"

I posted awhile back about my credit reports being pulled twice without pp in mid and late 2002 by a property management firm we applied with in 2001 and chose not to rent with.
The employees of the company admit the inquiries are a mistake but flat out refuse to call Equifax to remove them or confirm their error when they are contacted by Equifax. They told me the two extra inquiries can't hurt me at all in my credit score. Excuse me? Thats MY decision not yours. I am so fed up with them that I mailed this letter CRRR today. So here is the letter. A bit long. I started with Christines initial letter in the Wells Fargo PP and added much more information and power into mine. Basically I hope they start realizing the severity of their actions. It is long but I got some good feedback from it in my office comrades.

XXX Property Management
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Stockton, CA 95207

March 29, 2003

Dear Mr. XXXXXXXXXX,

As per my Equifax credit report, XXX obtained my credit file on 10/25/01, 7/18/02 and 12/18/02.

I applied for a rental property on 10/25/01. On that date and only in a reasonable period pertaining to that application, did your company and employees have permissable purpose to obtain my credit report. At that time in 2001, we decided not to rent the property because even with a co-signer, your employee requested we place a larger security deposit based on the contents of our Equifax report. There ended your permissable purpose to review our credit history. We rented with another company willing to enter into a three-year lease with us based on the fact that we have a stellar rental history.

On 7/18/02 based on your employees not knowing how to use the system, my credit report was pulled. I contacted your office shortly after and was told it was an accident and would not happen again. I requested that the â??inquiryâ? be removed. Your company could do this with a phone call to Equifax. This was not done and my request for removal was not acted upon. I can not dispute this with Equifax. Those acting on your companiesâ?? behalf must do inquiry removals.

On 12/18/02 once again your employee accessed my credit report. Again, this was admitted to be an error when I contacted your office shortly after I was notified of the inquiry. Your employee told me that a few inquiries would not matter, when I asked them to contact Equifax to have those removed.

I was assured that the information in the computer was changed to not allow any more inquiries to be run. It is incomprehensible how your employees can willfully continue to use the Equifax system when they admitted they donâ??t know what they are doing. Obviously when you contracted to utilize the system, you were provided and signed copies of the legalities of credit reports. This is Equifax policy to require this.

Based on your employeesâ?? mistakes on two occassions, I must assume that this is a common practice and willful disregard for the nature of the info contained in a consumerâ??s private file regardless of what you do with the info. At the same time, the derogatory nature of unwarranted inquiries can continue to cause me the ability to not improve my credit standing. My reaction was to only ask that your employees would contact Equifax and have the mis-pulled inquiries erased. I was denied that request by your employee.

The following is an exerpt from the Fair Credit Reporting Act in relation to pulling the reports. There is a civil liability for willfil non-compliance.

From the FCRA § 616. Civil liability for willful noncompliance [15 U.S.C. § 1681n]

"(b) Civil liability for knowing noncompliance. Any person who obtains a consumer report from a consumer reporting agency under false pretenses or knowingly without a permissible purpose shall be liable to the consumer reporting agency for actual damages sustained by the consumer reporting agency or $1,000, whichever is greater."

If your employees had contacted Equifax in a timely manner to remove these two latter inquiries then the above would certainly not apply. Twice I have attempted to dispute these inquiries with Equifax but they are unable to determine that they can remove them without your confirmation to them, which you failed to provide them. Yet is has been 8 months since the first inquiry and 3 months since the second. Of course if you do contact Equifax and/or it is removed by them based on their contact with you in response to this letter, then that will certainly confirm your understanding of the legal negligence of your employees and your company in relation my claim. I have regular copies of credit reports, which will confirm this.

In addition to the civil liabilty with myself, I am aware of the fact that you pulled my husband, father in law and mother in lawâ??s reports on those later dates as well. If you are willing to settle this matter in discussion, I see no reason to pursue further legal action potentially with an attorney for the civil matters with your company. At the potential of $1,000 per each occurance, for each of us this could be easier for us to settle without attorney and court fees. I am sure you will agree based on the facts presented here.

From the 1998 FTC opinion letter Greenblatt:

"Any person who procures a consumer report under false pretenses, or knowingly without a permissible purpose, is liable for $1000 or actual damages (whichever is greater) to both the consumer and to the consumer reporting agency from which the report is procured."


As I stated before, the matter would have been dropped, if your employee had contacted Equifax in a timely manner to have these inquiries removed. There was no permissable purpose. By avoiding the action necessary to remove the inquiry your company has confirmed that you felt you had permissable purpose to leave the incorrect inquiries on our report. Please explain your permissible purpose for your obtaining my credit file. Should you not have a permissible purpose, I am willing to accept a reasonable settlement offer in exchange for a release of further liability. I will leave that decision to you as to how best to correct this. I will place a deadline of close of business on 04/07/03 for you to resolve this matter. We will have an appointment with an attorney on 04/09/03 to discuss this matter in further detail if this is not resolved.


Sincerely,


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

IrishEyes,

My DH and I while having a 100% perfect rental payment history have a terrible credit history. Even with medical problems and personal financial problems, we would always pay rent first even before anything else. Out of pride we never asked my in-laws for financial assistance.
When we went to rent, every company we applied with used your credit report first, even with our previous landlord never being contacted or our ability to provide rent receipts.
So we broke down and asked my in-laws to co-sign because their credit is perfect. Yet surprisingly, even if they held the leases and we were on it, most companies took adverse action and wanted a double security deposit. That's their loss because we treat homes better than our own, and with our current rental we loved it so much, we encouraged the landlord to enter into a 3 year lease with us which is beneficial for him as well.
This is the reason all 4 of our credit reports are being pulled. We are all in their computer and apparently when one of the real estate agents at this company rather than the office manager tries to pull a report, they don't know what they are doing and pull the report of EVERYONE in their system. Then they aren't willing to react to fix the problem. I want to get them reported to Equifax's Business Services Division but have yet to find the right persons door to knock on.

Thanks for the feedback!