Removing Collection from RESIDENTCOLLECT INC

[establishedin1985]

I have a few things to cover, so Ill be as concise as possible. I lived at an apartment complex in Hunting Beach called the Huntington Breakers for 14 months. I lived with my girlfriend who had bad credit, so put down 800 dollar down payment for her side. Time passed, and I decided to try a new city. I contacted the manager one month before I planned on moving out, said I was moving to a new city. Next morning I wokeup to a letter on my door requesting I fill out the attached "notice to vacate" I filled it out, folded it up and dropped it in the rent box the next day.

 

Skip forward a week, the manager calls me and says you moved out but never filled out a notice to vacate. I said yea someone else must have opened the letter I dropped because I enclosed the letter you left on my door. She said alright, ill ask around. Skip forward another week, another call telling me they are confident I never gave them that notice and I am now responsible for the last months rent (again), and in addition they had to replace the carpet in the apartment.

 

I insisted I did turn in the notice to vacate, and offered a photocopy of the form I filled out. I was told this did not help, they dont have a copy from me on file, and now I had to pay. The carpet also was not damaged, I asked about that and they said it was in a condition that was not rentable and had to be replaced.

 

Now something that came to mind after I got off the phone was that I never did an initial walkthrough of the apartment. I remember this specifically because the manager said we normally do a walkthrough on move in day but im busy today, well do it with you guys later in the month, and it was never completed. So how they justified the carpet was in any condition that I was responsible for is confusing to me, it seems to be I could claim the whole apartment was on file when we moved in and theres no evidence to the contrary.

 

That aside, its now been a couple months and I received an email from CreditExpert (my credit monitoring) that I just received a negative mark. Logged in, and saw RESIDENTCOLLECT INC with a debt for $2,138.00. I immediately disputed the amount, and this must have triggered some kinda of war between myself and RESIDENTCOLLECT because they proceeded to bombard my credit report with the same debt, everyday, for a period of time in september. (see image below)

 

 

Now I can no longer dispute the debt online due to the number of times they re-reported it. The apartment manager wont talk to me about it, she insists I owe that money. I told her I have no walk-through, she said she does not care (exact words, not exaggerating) and if I wanted to hire an attorney then go ahead.

 

So, my credit score was previously 746, and is now 630. Thats one hell of a ding for a debt I do not owe. Can someone advise me the best way to handle this (be it an attorney, or letters) so it is removed from my report. They have to prove this debt is mine, right? Well how are they justifying this debt to the credit bureaus, and how can I request a specific breakdown of the debts and ask for each one to be validated with proof?

Edited October 8, 2012 by establishedin1985

[dcook80]

OMG, I'm sorry, I don't have any advice but I want to bookmark this for the answer! Is that even legal? How can they report daily like that and bring down your score? That shouldn't even be allowed and I'm sure there's something they've violated. I'll keep watching for some expert responses here because that is crazy!

[NAC]

TTT!