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I had an issue 6 years ago with my apartment rental company. Long before my lease had ended I had informed them that I was moving out of the state. I visited the leasing office and handed whoever was on duty my written notice that I was not renewing my lease. Well a month after my lease ended I received a bill from them asking me to pay 2 months rent as a penalty for not informing them that I was leaving. I contested this bill and told them that I dropped my notice off in the office and I was not paying $1500 for a clerical error on their part.
After I sent them my letter contesting the bill I never heard from them again until now, 6 years later. I recently started getting collection calls about this bill even though it doesn't show up on my credit report. I wonder what I should do about this, should I just ignore the collection calls?
Unfortunately, "ignoring" collection calls can lead to adverse consequences for your credit rating, if not a judgement against you which may be aggressively pursued.
Your best course is to get back to the collection agency and let them show you what they have as a basis of collection. If they're acting as agents for the old landlord, then you have a very contestable dispute, should it go to court ... your word against theirs that you'd given proper written notice. If, however, they bought the account (usually for pennies on the dollar), then it's a lot tougher for them to prove what happened so many years ago, and to get a judgement against you. But you need to stay in communication with them so that you know if they're going to court ... and for $1,500, they most likely will ... so you need to stay on top of the situation so there's no miscommunication about what they're doing.
I think the OP's experience underlines the importance of obtaining proof that a written communication was delivered.
When I moved to AZ from NY, I sent back my NY plates by certified mail. NY then pretended that they had never received them. I told them I had sent it by certified mail and that I had proof it was delivered. They then tried to tell me it was my problem. So, I asked them who they though the judge would believe. Never heard from them again
They have 5 business days to send you a dunning letter, telling you what the debt is for and explaining your rights to dispute the debt, known as "requesting validation"
If they don't send this letter, or don't send it within 5 days of initial contact, you have an FDCPA violation. When you receive the letter (or even if you don't receive it say, 15-20 days after the call) you should send this collection agency a certified letter with return receipt demanding that they provide validation of the debt. By law, they must stop collection activity immediately upon receiving a demand for validation letter provided it is timely.
There is more, but it's late, my foot is killing me after having a box dropped on it and I can barely stay awake, so I'll have to add more later.
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