Need advice on how to deal with a debt collector! Desperate for help plz

[Aduke1122]

First off I would like to say that I absolutely love this forum, it has helped me so much and given me alot of useful info to help me on my journey. I started the process of rebuilding my credit in Feb this year , it's been a long road so far but I'm making some small progress. After ten years of not using any sort of credit and letting some things go to collections just bc I was never taught the importance of credit , and carelessness on my end for not starting sooner. However I have resolved alot of things on my own by disputes and so forth , but I'm stuck on this one , I don't know where to go . Last year My fiancé and I had to move on very small notice for a job , we had one mth left on our lease at an apartment complex we had been withaving 2 years . I was told we would have to pay 1/3 of the last mth of rent , plus any damages which were none , we moved I left forwarding address and never recieved a bill., I called several weeks after moving and was told they were still getting everything together and would send the final bill to me asap , it never came , waited another mth amd called and was told they already sent it to cooperate office bc I DID NOT PAY withing alloted time . Cooperate office tells me that they have already sent it to collections and gave me the collectors info , I called them got the run around , they claimed they haven't updated the system with my account in it , I leave my contact info witg the guy I spoke to , he was supposed to call me back after he looked for my file , never got a call back , all the while we were in the middle of another move but across several states this time , we had some unfortunate events and had to move yet again. I never recieved anything although I had all mail transferred to new address . We pull our reports in Feb and it's on our report and they first submitted it only one mth after we moved out , with no final bill no letter nothing. I finally was able to get a final bill calling cooperate and being a pest with them , they claim i owe 1570 dollars ,.I should only owe 440 dollars for the 1/3 mth of rent . I called collection agency bc OC would not ever talk to me about any payments of any form . Debt collectors which is Fair Credit and Outsourcing said they will absolutely not do a pay for delete , all I can do is dispute the amount .What should I do ?

[RobertEG]

I would first check with your local tenant/landlord agency that regulates in the jurisdiction and check the requirements for assessing fees in view of the terms of your rental agreement.  They may be in lack of regulatory compliance and/or terms of your lease.

I would then, in view of their commitments, sent them an intent to sue letter, asserting as basis their failure to have complied with their oral contract commitment of notifictions to you.  You want deletion of any credit reporting, and ability to, after proper reconciliating of any fees, settle with no holding of default on your part.

[Aduke1122]

Thank you for your advice , I feel so over my head with these guys as they have threatened to sue us . Do you think writing the CEO of the leasing company that I rented from would do any kind of good?

[RonM21]

I would personally try the suggestion given by Robert before going that far. It may be the smarter route amd also eliminate the need to go in this direction. See if you can work it out that way first.

[Aduke1122]

Thank you , I wasn't sure if maybe contacting a higher up within the chain of command would help maybe get them to recall the collections and give me a fair chance to pay my debt , like I should of been given first . I have a question I'm new to all this so plz dont hold it against me lol , so now that a collection agency has the debt , does my OC even have any control over the matter anymore or is it all on the collection agency now ? Like did the buy the debt from OC ? Just not sure how it all plays out , but I have read that is what happens . I will most definitely check with landlord/tenant agency next week to see if they can offer me any help at all.