Round 2: Disputing Bogus Apartment Damage Charges in Collections
January 16, 2015 1:01 PM
So, this is a follow-up to this previous question. Looking for some tips for next steps. Long story short, after moving out of a DC apartment in May our corporate landlord billed us a totally bogus damages. Now they've sent it to collections and it's showing up on the credit report. How do I fight this and get it off my credit report for good?
*You Are Not My Lawyer* and no advice given will be taken as legal advice
Actual Questions:
-This debt is now on my credit report. How do I get it off?
-I have been told that we have an excellent case should we go to small claims court. But, if we do win in court will that guarantee that the credit agencies will remove this from our reports?
-The business practices of the apartment building are also just utterly unethical and I'm not sure the best agencies to report this to in order to ensure they don't continue this kind of BS with other renters.
-I'm willing to pony up to talk to a real lawyer. If you have a recommendation for a DC attorney who could be helpful please feel free to send info along.
Important Background Points:
-Building claimed $250 in "wall damages" but had no records of any actual repairs. Building claimed over $500 in re-finishing the entire floor of a three bedroom unit because they claimed there was a scuff in one hallway. The building took a series of photos the apartment after we moved out, none of which show any damage whatsoever.
-After a walk-through of the apartment before we moved out, a building staff member signed a form stating that no major damage was apparent (although this form does not prohibit the building from charging for damages later).
-The management company, and all billing, is through a giant national apartment company. We are only directed to an anonymous 1-800 number where we talk in circles with folks reading scripts at a call center.
-We tried to officially dispute the purported damages (as there were none) with the apartment company. There was no dispute process. Without any warning our dispute was sent to collections.
-The building could not supply evidence of any kind (such as a contracting bill) for the wall damage and after months finally gave us the receipt for re-finishing the floors of the entire unit which had no mention of damage to the floors whatsoever.
-Additionally, the building and collections agency refuse to mail me anything in writing. There were four people on the lease. They arbitrarily decided that one of us is the "point person" and refuse to send anything to anyone else. This seems totally fishy and illegal, but is it?
-I have still, months later, not received a single thing in writing from either the building or the collections agency despite asking via phone, email, and certified mail to use my current address for all communications.
-We all sent in a letter based on the one provided by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau via certified mail asking for proof the debt. It has been several months and the collections agency has refused to supply this information because they claim one of us hired an attorney so they're "waiting to be contacted" by this purported attorney before giving us anything. No one called a lawyer or threatened to and the collections agency people don't even know which of us purportedly hired the lawyer.
*You Are Not My Lawyer* and no advice given will be taken as legal advice
Actual Questions:
-This debt is now on my credit report. How do I get it off?
-I have been told that we have an excellent case should we go to small claims court. But, if we do win in court will that guarantee that the credit agencies will remove this from our reports?
-The business practices of the apartment building are also just utterly unethical and I'm not sure the best agencies to report this to in order to ensure they don't continue this kind of BS with other renters.
-I'm willing to pony up to talk to a real lawyer. If you have a recommendation for a DC attorney who could be helpful please feel free to send info along.
Important Background Points:
-Building claimed $250 in "wall damages" but had no records of any actual repairs. Building claimed over $500 in re-finishing the entire floor of a three bedroom unit because they claimed there was a scuff in one hallway. The building took a series of photos the apartment after we moved out, none of which show any damage whatsoever.
-After a walk-through of the apartment before we moved out, a building staff member signed a form stating that no major damage was apparent (although this form does not prohibit the building from charging for damages later).
-The management company, and all billing, is through a giant national apartment company. We are only directed to an anonymous 1-800 number where we talk in circles with folks reading scripts at a call center.
-We tried to officially dispute the purported damages (as there were none) with the apartment company. There was no dispute process. Without any warning our dispute was sent to collections.
-The building could not supply evidence of any kind (such as a contracting bill) for the wall damage and after months finally gave us the receipt for re-finishing the floors of the entire unit which had no mention of damage to the floors whatsoever.
-Additionally, the building and collections agency refuse to mail me anything in writing. There were four people on the lease. They arbitrarily decided that one of us is the "point person" and refuse to send anything to anyone else. This seems totally fishy and illegal, but is it?
-I have still, months later, not received a single thing in writing from either the building or the collections agency despite asking via phone, email, and certified mail to use my current address for all communications.
-We all sent in a letter based on the one provided by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau via certified mail asking for proof the debt. It has been several months and the collections agency has refused to supply this information because they claim one of us hired an attorney so they're "waiting to be contacted" by this purported attorney before giving us anything. No one called a lawyer or threatened to and the collections agency people don't even know which of us purportedly hired the lawyer.
Go public. See if you can get the Washington Post or other news media to do a story, not just about your case but about this whole practice in general. They can probably get leads on more cases via BBB, social media or even this thread. The best defense etc.
posted by beagle at 2:57 PM on January 16, 2015
posted by beagle at 2:57 PM on January 16, 2015
- Follow the process for disputing the dings to your credit report via the proper process indicated by Equifax and the other two credit reporting agencies (I totally forget their names!!) Get those reportings removed.
- Monitor your reports, make sure they stay off your credit reports.
- Do nothing about the bill. If you get a collection bill, send back copies of your original request for proof of debt + re-request for proof of debt. Certified and return receipt.
- Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
The whole outfit is unscrupulous. This may come back periodically as zombie debt so keep an eye on credit reports, but in general, you're done.
Take them to small claims if they owe you for withholding deposit. Does DC have a penalty for doing this like CA does? If so, ask for the allowed damages + the return of all deposits.
Good luck.
posted by jbenben at 2:57 PM on January 16, 2015
- Monitor your reports, make sure they stay off your credit reports.
- Do nothing about the bill. If you get a collection bill, send back copies of your original request for proof of debt + re-request for proof of debt. Certified and return receipt.
- Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
The whole outfit is unscrupulous. This may come back periodically as zombie debt so keep an eye on credit reports, but in general, you're done.
Take them to small claims if they owe you for withholding deposit. Does DC have a penalty for doing this like CA does? If so, ask for the allowed damages + the return of all deposits.
Good luck.
posted by jbenben at 2:57 PM on January 16, 2015
i would go to small claims before i even tried to get it removed. having a judgement against them there is pretty much a slam dunk as far as evidence to get it removed goes, and challenging it without that(or just going "this is fake because i'm disputing this with the management") will probably go nowhere.
"I went to court and they decided against them" can't really be argued with.
Seconding that this is a stupid zombie that will probably come back. I was denied a credit union account fairly recently from a stupid thing like this that was settled, and happened many years ago.
If you have the time and money to get a lawyer who specializes in housing, i would at least use some of their time to ask for advice. Anyone i've ever talked to who took this kind of thing to small claims won though. Once the judge even said "if you're a landlord trying to illegally withhold a deposit, you better be ready to pay up" at the beginning.
The building took a series of photos the apartment after we moved out, none of which show any damage whatsoever.
Do you have copies of these, or evidence these exist? Were you emailed them or anything? Having these, or access to them right now, would make it extremely unlikely you will lose. This is basically all anyone i've talked to has had who won. In my case, they never filled out a walk through before or after and then tried to fake one later. But you know, they didn't have my signature on them.
posted by emptythought at 3:19 PM on January 16, 2015
"I went to court and they decided against them" can't really be argued with.
Seconding that this is a stupid zombie that will probably come back. I was denied a credit union account fairly recently from a stupid thing like this that was settled, and happened many years ago.
If you have the time and money to get a lawyer who specializes in housing, i would at least use some of their time to ask for advice. Anyone i've ever talked to who took this kind of thing to small claims won though. Once the judge even said "if you're a landlord trying to illegally withhold a deposit, you better be ready to pay up" at the beginning.
The building took a series of photos the apartment after we moved out, none of which show any damage whatsoever.
Do you have copies of these, or evidence these exist? Were you emailed them or anything? Having these, or access to them right now, would make it extremely unlikely you will lose. This is basically all anyone i've talked to has had who won. In my case, they never filled out a walk through before or after and then tried to fake one later. But you know, they didn't have my signature on them.
posted by emptythought at 3:19 PM on January 16, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
Contact the credit company and dispute it. It's likely on all three of the major reporting company and you're going to have to get all three removed.
I have been told that we have an excellent case should we go to small claims court. But, if we do win in court will that guarantee that the credit agencies will remove this from our reports?
If you win in court, your court records will substantiate that it should not be on there. The more documentation you have, the more likely they are to remove it.
The business practices of the apartment building are also just utterly unethical and I'm not sure the best agencies to report this to in order to ensure they don't continue this kind of BS with other renters.
I think the Better Business Bureau may be your only option, unless there is an organization in town specifically dealing with landlords. You can also review the landlord on online sites like Google, and that tends to show up when people do online searches for the company.
posted by maxsparber at 1:16 PM on January 16, 2015