Hello everyone. So, here's my dilemma. We are literally just starting to focus on repairing credit. In April of 2012, my family & I moved into a brand new apartment complex, signing a year lease. We had 3 vehicles-his, hers, & our 16y/o. The complex still hadn't rented all units when we moved in. After about four months of being there, the manager tells us we are only allowed 2 parking spaces and that the third vehicle, or any visitors, had to be parked at the office. I skoured the lease finding nothing about the parking spaces. So, we continued to park in front of our home. We then received a notice that if it was not taken care of, we would be in violation of our lease and it would terminate in 30 days. We consulted a lawyer that said we were not in violation as there was nothing in the lease about parking. We took that notice as a prime time to leave since we knew if we pushed it, we would win, however, we didn't really like the place. Our lease said we were responsible for rent only until the unit was re-rented, which was in a month's time. So we left on Aug 17th, owing just for that month.
Now, I received a letter saying we owed nearly $6000 for the early termination. The company had immediately sent our account to Rent Recovery Solutions. I disputed this amount and they came back saying oops, you just owe the one month's rent because the unit was re-rented. As of today, both the $6000 and the $685 rent are still showing on our credit reports. They both say "in collections" and they both say there's a dispute. The $6000 amount is from the OC, the other from RRS. Frankly, we were not legally evicted and I still have the paperwork - lease, eviction notice, etc- to prove we broke no rules so I feel like I could fight this entire charge. However, the other part of me knows we didn't pay for the 17 days of August we were there so I'm not sure how to go about this.
Does anyone know where to tell me to start? I have reported to Equifax that the amount is wrong. I'm just not sure what else to do ... pay the whole month's rent? take them to court? see a lawyer? Help! And thanks. 