I have a negative account on my CRA's for a lease on an apartment where I lived 3 1/2 years ago. I did not receive the initial notice of collection or assignment of debt back then. I was in the processs of moving to a different state. The notice was probably lost in mail. I recently requested validation of this account from the CA. The CA has not responded with any information in 7 weeks. The history: After signing two six month leases with the apartment complex, there was no written contract involved. I was paying the lease on a month by month basis and defaulted the last month. The statute of limitations on an oral contract in the state of California is 2 years. How do I go about having this tradeline removed from my account. The CA has not provided ANY written validation. The amount of the debt reported is rediculous!
So, if the lease reverted to month to month, would there be one month, or two months, rent due? Did you give 30 days notice, if required? Did you have a deposit? Were any amounts required for cleaning or repairs? Have you disputed the CR reporting thru the CRA? Did the CA verify? Note that California requires that notice of any claims against your deposit be provided you, in writing, within 21 days, or they are waived. If they sent it such notice, even if it got lost in the mail, they should be able to produce a copy and provide it in response to validation. A lease reverting to month to month might still be considered written contract.
ontrack Divorce....left without looking back. Had $350 deposit that the apartment complex kept - possibly applied to owed rent. Cleaning, how many months rent charged, application of deposit ? ....I guess I thought I would get that information broken down in the validation I requested.
You would expect it. If they have received your validation request, but haven't sent validation, your next step is to dispute the reported debt thru the CRAs. If, having not sent validation, the CA "verifies", and fails to remove, FDCPA violation for continued collection. If they fail to mark the entry as "disputed", another FDCPA violation. What was your monthly rent, and how much are they attempting to collect? Did your wife continue to live in the rental? Are they trying to collect from you for a period after you had left, due to your wife still living there?
Under tenant law, if you do not give a notice of vacancy, the landlord can go after lost revenues until the apartment is rented. They may be trying to add rent for the months the apt went unrented. Unfortunately, since you do not have a copy of Notice of Vacancy delivered to them, they can claim that it took them "many months" to realize you were no longer living there. Also, a "month to month" status (after lease expiration) is usually considered to based upon the "written contract", and is usually treated as a written contract status, hence written contract SOL apply. But I doubt that they would "verify" any dispute from the CRAs. If they do, then they must verify to you what comprises the amount owed. So, dispute and go from there.
info... No one living in apt after I left. Rent $900/month. Collection $2522. CRA verified amount. Do the CRA's verify with the CA's or the OC? Transunion verified with note "New information below." Note below: "any corrections to your identification requested by you have been made, and are included in the following credit report." Difference in tradeline is new verification date and increase in debt owed by $13 - probably interest.
Well, amount owed sounds like 3 months rent, less your deposit of $350, plus fees for cleaning, lock change, etc. Sounds like they know their "collections", 3 months "lost" rent is usually the max "reasonable" amount. They are probably claiming they didn't know you were gone. CRAs verify with the furnisher of the data, if it was a CA that posted the TL, then that is who the CRA verifies with. Legally, the CA is obligated to verify the account information. If it is the apt. management that reported the tradeline, then they would be the ones verifying the information. But, if you are being charged interest it sounds like a Collection Agency. This sounds like a tough one for removal. If your goal is removal, then your best option is requesting a "Pay For Deletion", pay the full amount owed in exchange for deletion of the tradeline. You may have a chance of negotiation on the amount, but you do not have a strong foundation without some communication to the landlord. Courts are often favorable on the tenant, but they need to have communicated some difficulty prior to the event. Other than that you are looking at some legal action, request for full validation and accounting to challenge the amount alledgely owed. You may have a chance if there was anything "uninhabitable" about the apt., but again you would need communication evidence.
As I stated, they sound "experienced" at these collections, I'm sure they will present a "standard" breakdown (perhaps legal but not entirely justified).
Such a breakdown, fabricated after the fact, or "signed off" by a manager that wasn't even present at the initial time of the alleged debt, might make such "validation" fail to support that any attempt to notify the renter within 21 days of claims against the deposit, as required by California law, had occurred. If it had occurred, there should be a contemporaneous copy of that notification on file.
