Can a creditor send a final bill to collections before the debtor has recevied the final bill?

[Anonymous]

I turned in my notice of move out within the time stated in my lease (2 months) and moved out by the date stated I would be moving out. I knew I would have a final bill from the apartment complex but never received this final bill (I provided my forwarding address, email and telephone number on the notice provided). On approx. 1/27/2018 I received a call from Hunter Warfield stating my account had gone to collections. On 1/28/2018,  I then notified Water’s Edge Apartments of this issue and I was told they did not have my forwarding address or email. I finally received my final bill on 1/30/2018.

Can they turn this bill into collections if I have not been given the chance to pay it first? If so, any link to a Federal or State (Texas) law would be extremely helpful

[Kree]

Unfortunately they do not need to send you a bill to send the account to collections.

EDIT: cannot provide a link to laws, as the reason they can do it is a absence or relevant laws.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. Our credit system seems pretty **bleep** antiquated at this point. As a consumer you really don't have many protections until the account has gone to collections.

[RonM21]

OP, When was your move out date?

[Anonymous]

"OP, When was your move out date?"

Move out date was set for Dec. 1, 2017

[RonM21]

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@Anonymous wrote:

"OP, When was your move out date?"

Move out date was set for Dec. 1, 2017

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Okay.  I was just wondering how much time passed between your move out date and when out date and when you received the collections notice.  I would have to think if there is nothing that can be done, that you can work something out with the apartment complex to get the bill paid and see if they would remove it from your reports. 

[RobertEG]

A creditor can choose to seek collection assistance at any time after a debt becomes delinquent without any notice to the consumer.

They do that by entering into an agreement with the debt collector that assigns them legal authority to attempt to collect on the debt as their representative.

The debt collector can then choose to report their collection without any prior notice to the consumer.

You are under notice via your account agreement with the creditor of your obligation to pay, and no additional notification of their decision to seek collection assistance from a third party is required.

If the debt collector has not yet reported the collection to a CRA and you dont wish to disptue the legitimacy of the debt, you can make a pay for not reporting offer to the debt collector, and if they accept, it will legally prevent them from reporting the collection.