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Hi, my ex-roommate had to move out and thus we had to break the lease. He agreed to pay the lease break fee of about $10k but his check to the apartment management bounced and he is not responding to any messages anymore.
I'm preparing a lawsuit against him in small claims court to get him to pay since the aprtment management has said they will send it to collections within a week.
What options do I have to protect my credit apart from paying the lease break fee myself?
I was thinking of freezing my credit until the court claim is settled so that the collection doesn't show on my credit. Is it possible? Please advise me! Thanks a lot!
my opinion is that a credit freeze will not stop a collection agency from reporting.
Any suggestion on what I can do then?
@Fico82 wrote:my opinion is that a credit freeze will not stop a collection agency from reporting.
Also check into your local state laws. Many states do not allow lease breaking fees, and any lease breakage is simply the unpaid rent left on the lease. It is illegal for an apartment to charge you unpaid rent for time when the apartment is rented out by another. I've seen 5,000 worth of lease breakage get knocked down to 100 bucks because the apartment was only on the market for 2 days.
They will never admit that though, and keep trying to bill the full amount unless you are proactive.