I recieved a collection letter from the Law Office of Lawerence Heckers NJ, for a charged off account. The last activity on the account was 7-2000, I live in TX and the SOL is 4 years. This account is not even on my most recent credit report. I am not sure how I should respond, they say I have 30 days to dispute or validate. Should I hire an attorney to work with this? Or just send the standard Ceise & Desist letter or dispute the dept as past SOL. Or not respond. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance
Respond and tell them to C&D contact because the alleged debt is past SOL. Send it CMRRR and keep the green card with copy of all letters.
Since it may still be within the 7 year period for reporting, you might still want to dispute and request validation within the 30 days of their first notice, which requires them to stop collection activity until they provide it. You still want sufficient information to determine whether this is actually your account, what amount is actually due, and when the last payment was made, since without disputing, they will probably provide nothing, and may have added fees or re-aged in their reporting. Do you have records showing that the last payment was made more than 4 years ago?
