We filed in Oct. 2005. In November 2005 one of the accounts we filed against sold the acct to a CA who didn't contact us until after it was discharged at the end of January. When my hubby spoke to her on the phone (yes, I know) she said that because they weren't listed on the bk, they had every intention of collecting the debt. I need to know my next step. I think I can reopen the bk, include them and be done with it. But aren't their laws against selling/assigning a debt that is included in a bk?
If it were that easy for a creditor to avoid having a debt discharged, they would all just sell them on finding out you were in bankruptcy. The bankruptcy laws would be without legal effect, and the intended result of bankruptcy, to fairly pay off current creditors from the available assets, and allow future creditors to fairly determine their risk going forward by discharging the old liabilities, would be impossible to achieve. The problem for them is, regardless of what they say, if it was discharged, they will run afoul of both bankruptcy, FDCPA, and FCRA laws, as well as probably your state's consumer protection laws, if they continue to collect on a debt discharged in bankruptcy. Was the original account included in your filing? Was the original creditor notified of your bankruptcy? Have you contacted your bankruptcy attorney? Many of them also handle consumer debt collection and FDCPA violation cases, where they can get their attorney's fees from the violating debt collector. Since declaring bankruptcy, has this CA contacted you in any way other than by phone? Have they sent you the letter required by FDCPA with 5 days of contacting you? Have you disputed this with them, in writing sent Certified, as included in bankruptcy? Are they showing on your credit reports, and if so does their TL show "included in bankruptcy"?
When I pulled my post discharge credit reports they were on there. I disputed them through the CRA as not mine (hey a girl can dream). They verified the debt. At that point they sent a letter. It's dated March 27th. We didn't receive it until late-April. Regardless, it got lost under a pile of things to file and we found it yesterday. They have not called. DH called them yesterday to find out when they aqcuired the account and let him know that this account was included in bk. November 2005 was her answer. This account on appears on our credit report as being assigned on 11/03. But I am thinking that that is when the original account was opened. I can say for certain that it wasn't on our reports that were pulled right before we filed (and I can't find them... I am wondering if my bk attorney never gave them back? I'll have to ask). Anyway, when we filed we filed against another CA (different name, number and address) who had been assigned the account. More than one CA can't be collecting on the same debt can they? My bk attorney offered to reopen the case and add the creditor... but we'd need to retain her again AND pay $100 to add the creditor. If it comes down to that, I think we will do it ourselves. Now, after looking at my notes here's the big problem with this. This OC was not notified until January 2006. The notice came back to our attorney as undeliverable in November and she did not send us notice until the end of December, the same time the court did, of course offering to change it for a fee. We did the change ourselves for free and the OC was notified by Jan. Confused? Me too. It's a big mess. Honestly, I think that there are law issues here. But I think we may have screwed up just enough to make everything a non-issue anymore. Is it easier for me just to pay to reopen and add them?
Wow. Yes, I'm confused. But, I still think that if the account itself for the same dollar amount was included in your BK papers through the creditor that held the account at the time of the Bk filing , the company you are referring to now still has to go by the bk papers and include it in BK. Anyone else have thoughts on this????
Yeah, we filed BK against the OC and the CA that was showing as having the debt at the time. So I just wanted to post what has happened with this. This current CA has marked their file on our CR as the debt being included in BK.
