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Someone bought the paper and is trying to collect. Offer them pennies on the dollar (try 1000.00) and DO NOT pay by direct transfer or credit card. Pay with certified check with notation on check "to release lien and all debts associated with..." Send by certified mail with signed return card
Wow! And you think this will satisfy the judgment? The courts require the payee to go thru them on liens and judgements. Not some unknown third party claiming (without following procedure) that they are the rightful owner of this judgment.Please allow this op the rightful opportunity to converse with a lawyer. I disagree with your suggestion.
Somebody is trying to go after your property as legally and sneaky as possible. With the current tax decision that "Did not include NY state" I am not surprised.
The $30K is for court, lawyer, and interest fees charged from the date the judgment was issued in 1998. The Florida lawyer did try to negotiate and they stated that they will only accept $22,500 paid within 2 weeks. Problem is I do not have that kind of money laying around. Everything I had went towards my down payment. I do not dispute owing the $6K. Had I known of the judgment, I would not have ignored it. In the 20 somewhat years since the car situation, I have not been late on any bills nor defaulted on any loans.
As I explained, the judgment is unenforceable in New York State, unless they file the judgment in New York State.
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Originally Posted by raso87
I am also worried about my credit. Can anyone tell me if this judgement will now appear on my credit report.
I already explained that, too.
Assuming the judgment actually appeared on your credit report, it would have done so from 1998 to 2005, at which time it would no longer be reported.
The judgment will not appear on your credit report, except under one circumstance, which I will probably explain to deaf ears in a minute.
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Originally Posted by raso87
I am going to take the advise posted here and try to negotiate with them before trying to come up with money to pay another lawyer.
If you pay the judgment, the judgment would then appear on your credit report as a satisfied judgment.
Some people might have noticed that their student loans "fell off" their credit reports years ago after having been reported for 7 years. However, if you manage to meet the 3-prong test and have the student loans discharged in a bankruptcy, or if you are on Social Security Disability or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or you otherwise meet any of the criteria to have your student loans forgiven, they will reappear on your credit report has having been paid, and remain there for 7 years from the date forgiveness or settlement, showing a $0 balance.
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Originally Posted by raso87
Just really afraid right now.
Ignorance breeds fear.
As I explained earlier, a Florida judgment is not enforceable in New York. They cannot attach a lien to your property, unless they file the judgment with a court in New York State. At the time they attempt to file the judgment, the clerk of courts will send you a notice, and at that time, you may challenge the judgment. With a prepared affidavit stating you were not properly served in Florida, because you were a resident of the State of New York, you have a chance to have the judgment vacated or at the very least, barred from being filed in New York State.
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Originally Posted by raso87
I am on a very tight budget and do not want to jeopardize my mortgage. I am still trying to wrap my head around this nightmare. For 20 years the debt collector/lawyer did not contact me even though they had my address in New York.
Then you may be successful in applying the Doctrine of Latches. The delay in enforcing the judgment is inexcusable and solely the fault of the collector and not you.
You hired the wrong attorney. Not every attorney is competent in every aspect of law. You need an attorney who specifically specializes in consumer matters such as debt collection and judgments, not a divorce attorney or a family law attorney, or a criminal attorney or a general practice attorney or a real estate attorney.
Why do you suppose the ownership of the debt was sold by the original holder, to this collection company? Because it was known to the original holder, that the debt was either not collectible or the amount that could be collected, would be small. Both the original holder and the collection company were gambling, that each could get more money out of it, by taking the courses of action they did.
The original holder didn't think you could be made to give up any more than the small amount they received for selling it. That should tell you something about how good a case the collection company could make against you.
From the advice given previously, it doesn't seem likely they would waste money bringing legal action against you in New York, given the poor chance a court there would give them anything. My opinion is, that they were just testing you with a notice, to see if you were a soft target and would pay them something, with no further expense on their part, than a stamped letter.
Lots of demands for payment are sent out by this two-bit type of collection company. Many of them go to people, who just happen to have the same names as the debtors. They use information services that provide huge lists of names and addresses and employ the shotgun approach, to send them to anyone with the same name, hoping for good luck.
I've received some myself, just because I have the same last name and live in the same metro area, as the alleged debtors. Some I've received, are sent addressed to someone with the same last name and the same first name of a long-deceased relative, who never lived at my address. If anyone ever has a piece of junk mail sent in their name to your address, the Post Office will probably put that name on the list of mail recipients at your address and then it will be added to a list that is sold to scammers and spammers. I hope that things never sink so low, that fictitious debts can be collected from people who never incurred them, in the first place.
Last edited by Steve McDonald; 05-13-2018 at 12:40 AM..
OP - visit this forum https://creditboards.com/forums/
The regular posters over there are truly experts at dealing with collection agencies, past debts, etc. It's very much like city-data, but with a financial twist.
1. Do not say anything to the alleged creditor acknowledging the debt.
2. Do not communicate with the alleged creditor at all.
3. Get a lawyer.
You don't know if this ever was a valid judgment, whether there was valid service, or even whether under Florida law a judgment that old is still valid. Don't attempt to resolve this on your own.
Also, make sure that you never pay any money towards the debt, not even 5 dollars. That would affirm the debt. Lots of debt collectors try to get you to make a small payment for this reason.
Someone bought the paper and is trying to collect.
This part is correct. There are some disreputable 'collection agencies' who purchase packages of names of people who [allegedly] owed some amount of money to some company many years in the past, they pay pennies on the dollar for these alleged debts, which in most cases have been 'charged off' and are basically uncollectable...unless you 'reactivate' it by agreeing that you owe the money (whether you really do, or not).
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Offer them pennies on the dollar (try 1000.00) and DO NOT pay by direct transfer or credit card. Pay with certified check with notation on check "to release lien and all debts associated with..." Send by certified mail with signed return card
No. Offer nothing. Admit nothing. Agree to nothing.
The scam is that they cannot collect anything unless the person agrees that they owe money, or offers to make some payment toward the [alleged] 'debt' (an offer to pay carries an implicit agreement that you owe the money). Such an agreement or offer to pay reactivates collectability and resets the clock to zero, even if statutes of limitations had already expired.
Last year I had one of these [unprintable] 'agencies' hounding me with phone calls on a daily basis- always recorded messages left on my answering machine. Such messages often included dire warnings of a 'judgement' entered against me, or 'legal actions filed', etc., etc.. I knew I didn't owe any money to anyone, many people have my first and last name (including one [unprintable] in Florida who has the same first, middle initial, last name, and date of birth...who was responsible for my driver's license being suspended three times over a fifteen year period...what a horror show getting *that* straightened out). Several times I attempted to call back the number left, just because I wanted to screw with them, but I always ended up getting disconnected or stuck on 'hold' for longer than was amusing.
Eventually, I answered a call (because I happened to be home at the time, I don't have 'caller ID', and I always answer the phone when I'm there)) and, to my surprise, there was actually a live person on the other end. The individual claimed to be calling 'on behalf of' [some lawyer whose name I don't remember]- of course, this was an attempt to 'intimidate' me, as many people get concerned if some attorney wants to talk to them for some unknown reason...but that doesn't scare me because I have dealt with plenty of lawyers for various reasons, and have faced off against some in court. The [unprintable] asked me if I had received the 'urgent legal notice' which [he claimed] had been sent to me some days earlier, I said "I don't know anything about that."
I had, in fact, received no such notice. Next, he informed me that the matter was concerning a debt owed to [some bank with which I have never done any sort of business] and my response was the same- "I don't know anything about that", followed by a firm "Good-bye."
Like magic, the harassing phone messages finally stopped...actually, I didn't really find them to be all that harassing, amusing really, it had become routine to walk in the door when I got home and see the blinking light on the phone telling me there was a message...which I promptly deleted after hearing the first few words. There were some days when I was actually disappointed because (for whatever reason) no message had been left.
Anyway, do not admit or agree to anything, tell them to send you a notice with the details in writing and to stop calling. In most cases of these uncollectable/invalid/wrong claims, everything ends there, because they know that you aren't going to be fooled into falling for their scam.
Unfortunately, it is probably too late for the OP (if this story is even real) because it sounds as though he/she has made some sort of spoken (and recorded) affirmation of owing money and the clock has now been re-set, allowing for further action against him.
I don't see how they can place a lien on his home, I thought liens were only for items pertaining to work done on the home, not just random acts. I thought for other debts you have to pay for the sheriff to try to recover your other property to settle the debt.
I wouldn't pay anything or worry about it. The original person you owed the money to wrote of the debt decades ago and sold it to some scummy debt collectors for a small amount. I thought that if you ignore the debt collectors they go away eventually or you can tell them never to call you and after a certain time they can't collect. And if they won a judgement against you they would have to go back to court every 7 years or so to renew it if it was not paid.
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