Help I have credit listed that is my grandfather's whom is now deceased. I bought his house after he died and I have some of his accounts on my bureu and cannot seem to get through to anyone that it was him not me. One problem account is Cox Communications they said your name your address must be you? Oh yeah we have the same complete name first middle and last due to my birth on his birthday. HHHHHEEEEELLLLLPPPP!!! No one has any ideas how to rectify because they did not identify via ssn.
What was the date of last activity on the Cox account? How old were you when he died (under 18?), or when the account was closed or went delinquent? What was your address at that time? It would appear that since there would be certified records (death certificate, Assessor and Recorder records of the property transfer, possibly even mortgage payoff, etc.), it would be straightforward to convince a judge of the error. What do you have to force it into court? Is their TL damaging, how much, and can you prove it? Is a CA still trying to collect, has the account been sold, etc? If you are going to the trouble, you want damages hanging over their heads. It makes settling look attractive and obvious.
There might be a problem if the house was transferred to you by inheritance, Cox was a creditor of the estate, and they were not paid by the estate. I don't know what period of time they have to go after the estate, or its heirs, or if they already blew it by not acting while probate was open. These are questions for the probate attorney, and likely depend on your state. Whether it is worth it to them to pursue it to that level is unlikely for the amount of a cable bill. I don't know how much time they would have to raise that claim, if you went after them on the erroneous tradeline issue.
My 19 yr old son is in a similar position. His father's(not deceased) charge offs and unpaid judgments are listed on all of his credit reports. My son would have been 13 years old when these took place, and one of them is for CHILD SUPPORT! NO one would remove anything- same name, must be same guy- that is exactly how they look at it. He is now playing hard ball and has begun suing the OC and CA in every case. Seems like it should be simple, but even after sending proof of age and all kinds of ID, most refuse to budge. Looks like it will be an in court, in person thing.
