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A few years ago I made a bad decision to break a lease on an apartment in Seattle and now I've got these to deal with. (If I'd have only known...)
A quick Google search reveals that these guys are known to be shady/unscrupulous/liars/etc and get all sort of BBB complaints and even occasional lawsuits thrown at them for their collection practices...just the kind of people you want to deal with in an already-unhappy situation right?
Check your State's UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) as leases generally have a 4 year Statute of Limitations.
If more than 4 years has passes since you broke the lease, the debt "out of statute." They can take legal action against you, but you need only respond with an Absolute Defense of Statute of Limitations.
What state do you live in? I am experienced and have won cases like this. I am a licensed detective, This debt is 2013 we are in 2017. The statute of limitations may have expired depending on the state and if you have made any payments on this account. When one creditor sends this to another creditor they must prove that they are rightfully entitled to this money by being the " successor" company. Do not make a payment on this account PLEASE. Big mistake as it starts the clock again. Do not share this information with a collection agency or the person who you owe the money to. It will tip them off to how to handle this. I would imagine they would have had time to rent this property out when you left. I am a detective and could surely find out. Perhaps they did and want your money too. Possible? I just won of these case in Massachusetts as a result of a statute of limitations expiring and that the company who bought the apartment had to prove they had rights to these funds on the sale of the property to the new company. Be happy to assist. Remove the PDF immediately somebody may rat you out. This may not be legitimate, You have put way too much info online.
Yes, the Hue Apartments were sold in 2015 and no longer exist. (The building is called something else now and am guessing is a totally different legal entity.) Something tells me this detail MAY be relevant in my case.
Doubtful. By this time the debt has no doubt been purchased by the collection agency, and if so the fact that the company you signed the lease with no longer exists is completely irrelevant.
You can check the SOL, and if you're close you might as well hold out and see if they pursue a judgement. If they don't get a judgement before the SOL expires they will no longer be able to collect via legal means. But you will still owe the money, and they can pursue collections via mail and telephone until Kingdom Come.
Doubtful. By this time the debt has no doubt been purchased by the collection agency, and if so the fact that the company you signed the lease with no longer exists is completely irrelevant.
You can check the SOL, and if you're close you might as well hold out and see if they pursue a judgement. If they don't get a judgement before the SOL expires they will no longer be able to collect via legal means. But you will still owe the money, and they can pursue collections via mail and telephone until Kingdom Come.
Agreed.. Several problems that I see here from OP's standpoint.. Others can weigh in as they see fit.
First, the time for negotiating with the apartment owners has passed. That's where you really could have done some work on this. You could have negotiated at that time, and not had a big-ass hit on your credit. The first thing I would have gone after would have been the 4-5 months rent they charged you.. You really didn't 'break the lease' here.. They charged you the full amount until the lease expired from what I can tell. You could have just sat there for 4 months and had the exact same bill.
Where you could have fought that some is if they rented the place back out in those 4 months. If they did.. You could probably say that THEY broke the lease with you, since they didn't provide you with a place to stay.. And in MOST cases.. They'll cut you some slack if they do rent it back out.
But.. The rest of that.. Is valid. You left early, so don't expect to get that 6 weeks free rent.. Forfeiting the deposit.. Standard.. But.. You could have taken a chunk off that $8000 most likely. That 6 weeks free rent.. My opinion.. That PLUS the charging you until the end of the lease period is dirty pool. If they're charging you the rent as if you were there. Dammit, they can give you the 6 weeks free. If they rent the place out and don't charge you rent for the time they did re-rent the place, then it's fair to make you pay the 6 weeks back.
Now, you're negotiating with the collection agency.. They'll settle.. but it's already affected your credit. Oh, and don't be surprised to find a 1099-c arrive if you don't pay this back, and even if you do and settle. Then, you don't owe the collection agency anymore, you owe the government. They have a WHOLE lot more tools to get their money from you.
And, that could happen even if you make it to the SOL.. Just imagine having to add that $13k as added income on your taxes. You think things suck now?
It's best not to ignore it. Deal with it. As someone else mentioned, an attorney can be helpful.
I'm seriously kinda doing the calculations here... In a 12 month lease, you paid... 4.5 months? You had 6 weeks free, and hadn't paid the November rent? So, End of April.. Figure mid June to end of October is all you actually paid rent for, and you were there from the end of April to end of November..
Doubtful. By this time the debt has no doubt been purchased by the collection agency, and if so the fact that the company you signed the lease with no longer exists is completely irrelevant.
Could be the case, I agree. Like I said they never sent me any official DV paperwork in the mail and I provided my real address for them to do so. I question whether they actually have any like one of the other posters mentioned. I should have an attorney send them a nasty-gram demanding paperwork within 30 days right? That sounds like the first move.
Quote:
Originally Posted by duster1979
You can check the SOL, and if you're close you might as well hold out and see if they pursue a judgement. If they don't get a judgement before the SOL expires they will no longer be able to collect via legal means. But you will still owe the money, and they can pursue collections via mail and telephone until Kingdom Come.
Also a valid tactic. This was near the END of 2013 so there's still some time on that if the SOL is 6 years...a little less than 3 at this point. These people never send anything in writing except for that one settlement offer and I've recently changed my phone number. I had a "212" number for almost 7 years and was getting a lot of garbage robo calls and of course a few people I genuinely wanted not to be bothered by. Point being I don't care if they try forever. They've sufficiently angered me with their nonsense to the point where I'm not going to play nice with them.
Yes this was a commercial building and are correct. Now the statute on contracts for this type of property is 6 years. This is a tough one ,the debt will expire in 2019. Just don't know how long it will take for the collection agency to take legal action. Two years is long time. If you have not responded to the collection agency wait as long as you can which could backfire. You say that these people were not honest w/ you as I recall, or do as I mentioned and ask for ALL documentation. They have a pulled a credit report and more likely than not, know where you live and financial situation. They may have rented the unit as I stated before,this you could find out, but need a pro to do this or kind of poke around at the unit and ask how long so and so has lived in the unit when you you left and the person before. I could determine this easily. I am just giving my take. I don't want business as I do not like this type of work. Just trying to help. They may offer to settle, but prolonging the debt and telling the agency you are considering Bankruptcy is an option due to your finances and this money needs to be borrowed perhaps helps I do not know if you own hard assets like a house? It really boils down to finding out if this was an asset sale by Hue to another company. Hue may have kept the receivables in the deal. It is the responsibility in this situation to prove that if the company was sold and that this new company has the rights as the creditor to collect. Keeping them from filing suit is the issue here and running the clock down. I agree with this person as well it wall fall off your report.
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