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Possibly Suing a Debt Collector
Superdupe
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Real quick background on this:
Wrapped up my lease with an apartment complex in Atlanta in August 2010. On the final day of the lease I went into the office, made out a check labeled "final payment" for the amount they quoted, which they cashed. In October I start getting calls from Professional Debt Mediation, Inc. (PDM) claiming I owe $133. Never received the 5 day letter. I faxed them a basic letter asking for the notification, verification of debt, and requesting they cease and desist contact except through mail. Haven't heard from them since. Flash forward to today - I was checking my credit report and discovered they've reported the amount as a collection.
Now, I'm just curious what my options are. I still have the carbon copy of the check I made out to the apartment noted "final payment" which they cashed. I know I probably should have sent the fax as a certified letter instead, but the fax was time-stamped and verified both on my end and by an employee at PDM. Would that stand up in court?
Also, as I've not received a single written document from PDM, how can they report an unverified collection? Do I need to check to see if I have a judgment against me?
I am fully prepared to sue PDM and the apartment and whoever else I need to to the fullest extent of the law, as I am quite confident I don't owe this money and I believe it's fairly clear they violated the FDCPA. I just need to know where to start.
Wrapped up my lease with an apartment complex in Atlanta in August 2010. On the final day of the lease I went into the office, made out a check labeled "final payment" for the amount they quoted, which they cashed. In October I start getting calls from Professional Debt Mediation, Inc. (PDM) claiming I owe $133. Never received the 5 day letter. I faxed them a basic letter asking for the notification, verification of debt, and requesting they cease and desist contact except through mail. Haven't heard from them since. Flash forward to today - I was checking my credit report and discovered they've reported the amount as a collection.
Now, I'm just curious what my options are. I still have the carbon copy of the check I made out to the apartment noted "final payment" which they cashed. I know I probably should have sent the fax as a certified letter instead, but the fax was time-stamped and verified both on my end and by an employee at PDM. Would that stand up in court?
Also, as I've not received a single written document from PDM, how can they report an unverified collection? Do I need to check to see if I have a judgment against me?
I am fully prepared to sue PDM and the apartment and whoever else I need to to the fullest extent of the law, as I am quite confident I don't owe this money and I believe it's fairly clear they violated the FDCPA. I just need to know where to start.
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Is the carbon copy from your checkbook or a front-and-back copy showing the canceled check? The checkbook carbon will only show you wrote the check, not that it was cashed, cleared, or even if you gave it to them to begin with. Get bank documents showing the transaction, like the statement from the month it was cashed and a front and back copy of the canceled check.
I had a thread last year just before I went to court to fight a fraudulent collection. I'll add one other bit of advice: "They have to prove you do owe, you don't have to prove you don't," is the worst advice you can take. When you go to meet with a lawyer, take every relevant piece of paper you can get your hands on. It's kind of scary how much "proof" a shady collector can bring to court even when the debt never existed with the original creditor.
The carbon copy is from my checkbook, but my online banking stuff shows when the check was cashed and all that. Guess I could print that out for more ammo.
Print it out, but get a bank printout as well. They should be able to give you a front-and-back copy of the check if it was recent enough to still be online. Depending on what bank you're with, they might even have that online.
For each FDCPA violation, you can sue for $1000 and they add up quickly.
One thing that I have read about suggested sending an Intent to Sue letter, offering them to settle out of court. This settlement can include a clause that states the collection agency can never attempt to collect, sell, or validate/confirm this debt with any entity. They consider it paid in full, and then you dispute it with the bureaus and when they don't respond it just disappears. This is generally called a Pay for Delete, though you don't have to "pay" them to achieve it.
Writing "Final Payment" or "Paid in full" on a check memo doesn't really do anything. That's just a myth.
Calm down. Call them up and talk to them without threatening a lawsuit. Find out what the discrepancy is without raging on them about the perceived infringement on your rights.
Alternately, you can write a letter to the credit agencies disputing the validity of the account.
true, but it does kind of put them in a position where you can say 'why didn't you tell me that wasn't the final payment?'
I appreciate the advice, but a couple things. I'm a paralegal (although not in this area of the law, hence my lack of knowledge on this particular issue) and I've been told on several occasions by attorneys that checks, particularly cashed checks, represent a contract of sorts between the payer and payee, and can thus carry the weight of law in certain situations, which is why I included that stuff. I'm not sure if my situation is one of those times, but it's certainly not a myth.
Your second point goes to the heart of my problem. I've tried to find out what the discrepancy was. That's why I sent them the verification of debt letter. They never responded (which they are required to do by law) and reported the debt to a credit agency anyway, which is an infringements of my rights. That said, angry is probably too strong a word. I'm basically just irritated at their utter lack of compliance with basic debt collection laws throughout this process, and was hoping that if I slapped them on the wrist hard enough they wouldn't do this shit to someone with a greater amount at stake.
Also, I think the recipient can cash the check anyway without accepting it as a settlement if they write their protest on the check.
It's a myth, dude. It's a very popular myth. Also, in my experience attorneys do not know most intricacies of the law outside their day-to-day work.
Talk to your old management company and/or the debt collectors over the phone and find out what the debt represents. It's only $133. It'll probably cost you half of that and a decent chunk of your time to file this in small claims court. Chasing a few thousand dollars because the management company didn't accept your check memo as the final authoritative say on the matter and a first class letter that may have been lost in the mail probably isn't in your best interest.
Get it sorted and if you do actually owe the $133, see if they'll accept a "pay to delete" to get that shit off your credit report.
Also I want to say: if they violated the FDCPA (or whatever legislation applies to them), take em' to the fucking cleaners.
You can call them up and try to wring information out of them, but keep in mind that collectors routinely lie through their teeth. I know, I used to work as one.
I'd recommend getting real legal advice though.
Most collection agents work on commission. Their job is to get you to pay as much as possible RIGHT NOW, because that is how they get paid. I had a guy call me at work, first time I had ever even heard from these guys, they told me that if I did'nt pay them in full within 2 hours, they would have a cop there to arrest me...
I know that not all of these collection reps are total douchebags, but a lot of them are. They don't care if you legitimately owe the money or not, they just need to convince you to send in some money so they can get paid. I am currently fighting with a collection agency that tried all kinds of BS with me, and when I sent them a dispute letter the collection guy called me all pissed off and told me that he was just going to sue me. They did sue me, but without validating my debt first. I filed a counter suit for 18 FDCPA violations with a mountain of paperwork with detailed accounts of all contacts, mostly phone messages left on my work phone, which I meticulously transcribed. I spelled out each and every violation in detail and kindly asked for $18k (This is all for 2 seperate collections they state I owe totallying $1200, which they refuse to validate)
To my knowledge, the FDCPA does not require validation before suit is filed. Request for verification, does however, prevent any communication (with the exception of the summons anything else related to litigation) until the debt is verified. I'm surprised they didn't verify the debt. Usually they just send out some BS affidavit from Marjorie in billing or shit like that.
However the threat to get cops on you and all that other BS, totally egregious violations of the FDCPA.
This right here is why you should always keep track of FDCPA violations. It's glorious to sue dirtbags for things that are as innocuous as phone calls for more than 15x's the original debt.