Old Landlord/Rent Question

[ficofreaks]

Back in 05/06 my husband and I were renting an apartment and he got transferred for a job to Arizona (we previously lived in Illinois).  We spoke with our property manager which was a good friend of ours at the time and explained to her our situation and she was very understanding and told us that she would start looking immediately so there isn't a laps in time between the time that we left and the new tenant took over the apartment.  Yes, we broke our lease, however, the manager was able to get it rerented and the month after we moved out, they moved in.  I came back to IL to visit family and friends (one of them lived directly above us) at the apartment and saw that it was being occupied (lights on in the home, furniture inside, people walking around, all at around 7pm) so I myself was able to verify that it was rerented the month after we moved out.  She told us not to worry about having to pay any costs for breaking the lease and since it was rerented there was no loss on their end.  Well, within that same month she got transferred to another state and that apartment complex was bought out by another company and was under new management.  Fast forward to today, they are now coming after us for not only the past due rent, but also a huge carpet replacement bill, mind you this apartment was only 960 sq ft and not all carpet and not only did they not even send us anything, they put us in collections!  The collection company has not sent us anything, but it shows a date of being opened of 08/06 (we moved in May of 06) and Date of last activity of 03/07 yet we just found this out about a month ago by running hubby's credit.  We were not given anything from the landlord saying that we weren't responsible for anything (dummy us I know) and we have no clue what was in our lease since we had gotten rid of it.

What are our options?  I thought it was illegal to collect double rent but how would I even prove that someone was living there at the time since this was so many years ago.  Plus I hear that this collection company, IQ Data Int, is extremely difficult to work with.  Any help/advice is appreciated!!!

[guiness56]

I would read the Landlord Tenant laws for your state.

Since it was rented the month after you moved out, I can't see that they would be able to come after you for rent.  Double payments is frowned upon.  Did you give them written notice?

As for the carpet, see what the laws say about replacement and notifications.

For instance, in WA state, both parties have to do a walk through and both parties have to sign the paperwork in order for it to be legal.  Now, if you just left and didn't give notice, that would be different.  It would fall under abandonment.

[ficofreaks]

We didn't do anything in writing because the property manager was a very good friend of ours and quite honestly, we didn't even receive anything from the apartment complex for a few years!  This is in IL and I have read only parts of posts from people where it says that it is illegal to collect double rent, so I'm not sure how they think they can get away with it.  This was also just sold to a collection company.  I'm wondering if I can do anything to dispute this to the collection company itself.  Any ideas?  I'm new to this and any help is appreciated.  Thanks all!

[guiness56]

Illinois has a landlord tenant law and so do some of the separate towns. 

I do know a 30 day written notice was required.  Even so, if they rerented the unit right after you moved out, they cannot charge you for rent.  It very clearly says they cannot get double rent.

As for the condition of the carpet, they can't charge you just because it was old.  I couldn't find anything about doing a walk though.  You may need to contact the Tenant Rights Union or whatever it is they have there.

[ficofreaks]

Thank you so much guiness56!  Besides contacting them, do you have any suggestions on what I should do to try to get them off the credit report?

[guiness56]

If you find out that those charges never should have been in the first place, it will be up to the complex to have the CA remove it.

If they sold it and/or won't cooperate, small claims may be in order.

I believe it is going to be totally up to you to fight this and show you are right and they are wrong. 

After contacting the Tenant Union, you may want to do a direct dispute with the complex per FCRA 623 and ask them how they came up with these charges.