How should I deal with a collection agency regarding a debt of $600 and what are the consequences?
1. Do not contact the collection agency. 2. Do not, under any circumstances, pay them a cent, until you have more information. If you contact the collection agency, they are going to interpret that as having “established a relationship” with you, which they will further interpret as carte blanche to call you 20 times a day. If you pay any amount whatsoever, that will be interpreted as an admission that you owe the money, which you may not. You say that you received no prior notification of the debt, that you haven’t been able to get in touch with the apartment manager to get any further info and that, of the three names on the old lease, you were the only one contacted. It all sounds very dodgy to me, and you may very well not owe anything. You haven’t even established what this is all about. Pay no attention to the collection agency’s deadline. They are hoping to spook you into contacting them and paying – that is their job. They will have no end of threats, but don’t be intimidated,
You need to contact a lawyer find one that will give you a free consultation. I know they can not threaten to sue you, then not, and also you should have gotten a notice from the collection agency in the mail because by law they have to give you 30 to dispute the debt. Don not make any promise to pay. Also they are not aloud to ask you to borrow money, etc, if you feel like your being harassed write down the name of the person your talking to, time and date and details of the conversation, you may need it later on in court, you can sue them for a violation of your civil rights and collect money from the collection agency. I know when things go to collections it’s really hard to prove what your original debt was, you don’t know what you really owe the complex company and what fees where tacked on for collections. Definitely contact a lawyer and see what they have to say.
This afternoon I received a call from a collection agency saying that I owe them $600. Supposedly I owe $600 to my old apartment complex for a “breach of contract” eight months after I moved out. I received no prior notification of the debt from the management company. I have not been able to contact the manager of the apartment complex to figure out the details of my alleged debt. In addition, there are three names on the lease, and I was the only one to be contacted. The collection agency has given me until 4 pm on November 9th to come up with money before he adds on legal fees or something. I am a UCLA student and I am broker than MC Hammer. I couldn’t pay this debt even if I wanted to. I was wondering how I should go about handling the situation. What would be the consequences if I simply didn’t pay the debt? Would it affect my credit score? What are my legal rights? Any help would be much appreciated.
