Here's a little background: Me and my brother were on an apartment lease 3 years ago before I bought a house. After moving, the apartment people said we owed them about $100 for some cleaning up stuff. We disputed this, and refused to pay it. They decided to add a collection item to my brother's report, even though the lease was in both our names. I advised my brother to wait for me to draft him a letter to send to them to negotiate a pay for removal, but he insisted that he call them to negotiate it over the phone (it's a little urgent). I said, in that case, he make sure he doesn't pay until he gets a letter from them saying they will remove it. Now here's the problem. I should mention that my brother is young, and said something INCREDIBLY STUPID! As he was talking to them, instead of saying "remove", he said, "remove and never late" (he doesn't know much about this credit stuff, so I'll excuse that blunder), but of course, I bet all they were hearing is "never late", so they refused, saying, "..but you didn't pay!" Now here comes the INCREDIBLY STUPID part. When he saw that he was being refused, he then mentioned that, "but why is this only on my report when i wasn't the only one on the lease?", they go, "no, it's on your brother's report too", then he goes, "no, i can assure you, it's not on his report, just on mine" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!! Anyway, now I'm wondering, is there ANY way that they might add this collection to my report out of spite? Is there anything I can do to ensure this doesnt go on my report? Please, it's somewhat urgent. Thanks!
First, if you are planning on paying this, then I would recommend paying it right away. Who knows if they are going to add it to your report, but if they do it will look a little fishy if the date they added it is after the date you paid it. It would probably be easier to remove from your report that way should they add it. As far as your brother's report goes, it seems pretty clear that they don't want to delete it, and he may have managed to ruffle enough feathers over there that a goodwill won't work. You could always try to pay it, then dispute it and see if it goes away... or try the nutcase after it's paid. The way I see it now, though, is that it's not currently on your report and the sooner you pay it the less likely they'll add it. After you pay it, then you can deal with getting it off your brother's report. HTH, Brett
I have never heard of an apartment lease/rent being in 2 names. There can only be 1 name on a lease even if there is a roommate. The person whose name is on the lease is responsible for the rent every month. If the renter(s) skip out on the rent then that person's name goes to the credit bureau, not the roommate. That is clearly written into apartment leases so they don't have to chase 2 people down to get the rent & so one person can't pay their half of the rent & expect the leasing office to get the other half from the roommate.
Re: Re: Urgent help needed, please! I think they refused to remove it partly due to the way he approached them. I should have insisted he not say a word to them as I wasn't aware that he'd say such stupid things. I know that if we pay it right away now, it'd be hard for them to now add the collection to my report. However, it'd also be harder then to send a settlement letter. The loan he needs is urgent, and need to fix his report asap (hopefully within 30-60 days). It's either we fix his report, or I'd have to co-sign for him. If I do that, then there goes my debt ratio... as he needs to borrow $20,000 for law school. The only baddies he has on his report would be this collections, and 2 30-day late payments (and we can send goodwill letters for those).
