Reporting debt to Credit Reporting Agency after SOL

[AbbiLou]

I am having a hard time finding this answer and applogize in advance if I am just overlooking it.. but if anyone can help, I would truly appreaciate it. I have had a sudden collection pop up on 2 of my credit reports. Worse possible timing as I had just applied for a mortgage days before I saw it. 

The collection is supposedly from Doctor visits in Nov 2011. I am in Oregon which has a 6 year SOL. Because I know we have never seen, spoken with or interacted with this Doctors Office in any way since late Nov 2011, I believe the SOL should have ran out by the end of 2017. The issue is that suddenly late April 2018 a collection agency hit my credit with this "debt". My question is are they allowed to do this? Report it after the SOL?  I do not know if it is the same in all states but in Oregon it must be removed within 6 months of SOL expiring and one of my report says it can only stay on my report until Aug 2018.  I assume if it must be removed by Aug they believe it expired Feburary and so based on that it was still after the SOL ran out.. Am I missing something? Are they allowed to add an expired collection to a report 6 years and 5 months after the last time you interacted with a Doctor's office in a state with a 6 SOL? Even if they say it wasn't late for another month or so it was still after SOL when reported. I have not reached out to the Doctor's Office or CA yet as I do not want to accidentally trigger anything in their favor. Thanks! 

[Pikaboo-icu]

Greetings,  Welcome to My Fico. 

I dealt with something very similar, same dates and a med bill- strange..

Anyway, in my case I had reached out to the CA to pay and they never replied.

I eventually sent them a DV/debt verification letter and included the attempts I had made to pay as well as it being the one & only item on my CR. It had been on mine for 5 years with no communication from them, ever.. 

I told them it cost me several points on my new auto loan- honestly, I wasn't entirely sure the debt was mine..

Long story short; they didn't do the DV and deleted it from all my reports..

Have you disputed this for age via the CB's?

That said, you might have better luck having a mod move this over to the rebuilding board.

So many folks there that are fab at this topic.. Perhaps they read this board too **shrugs**.

Best of Luck!! 

[AbbiLou]

Hi Pikaboo-icu, 

Thanks for responding. I have not reached out to anyone yet as I just found it Friday and was quite blindsided by it as I had just applied for a mortgage. I was so careful to be sure I had my credit perfect before applying only to learn someone felt it necessary to add a collection to my credit report after the SOL. I have not heard from the loan people to say if they saw it also, but I cant imagine they didn't. My biggest concern is that this will halt the mortgage approval. Even if I did owe it at some point, to add it after the SOL feels like a deliberate attempt to hurt the consumer. Just truly disappointing. 

Do you know if they can legally add it after the SOL generally? I am not finding a straight answer other than it must be removed within 6 months of the SOL. Thanks for the tip on posting to the other forum. I guess I could just repost it there, unless not allowed?? 

[Pikaboo-icu]

This is something that Robert will know for certain. He posts over on that board frequently and is a wealth of knowledge on those laws..

Not to imply that others aren't  no offense to other members, just that I read his replies about the legal stuff most often. 

ETA: I see Robert's name on this board too so perhaps he will chime in eventually. 

From what I recall, the original creditor can sell your debt but whatever reports as the DOFD/Date of first delinquency, is the date it must be removed, well that plus 180 days.

The SOL here is 7 years but you said your state was 6-

It's complicated but I think it can stay on your report for 7 years plus 180 days. The SOL is just how long they have to sue you seeking a judgement..

I'm not 100% on all that but pretty sure from what I recall reading here prior. 

It might be the mortgage that triggered it. Many debt collectors monitor reports for things like that as they know you'll be wanting to keep your report clean.

Have you thought about offering them a settlement for removal? 

[RobertEG]

Credit report exclusion of adverse items of information is covered under the FCRA, and more specifically, FCRA 605(a).

That is superceding federal law that applies to all states.

With respect to collections, FCRA 605(a)(4), as clarified by section 605(c), mandates that the CRAs must exclude any collection from normal credit reports that it issues after expiration of 7 years plus 180 days from the date of first delinquency (DOFD) on the debt.

States can pass their own exclusion provisions, providing they do not contradict the federal statute.  That means that a state can enact a shorter exclusion period, but cannot enact a longer period, as that would be contrary to superceding federal law.

A primary example is New York State, which has a shortened exclusion period of no later than 5 years for paid collections.

My cursory review of Oregon state code does not show any provision that provides for requried exclusion no later then 6 months after expiration of the Oregon state statute of limitations on civil action.  The Oregon state SOL for credit card debt, for example, is 6 years, which would, according to the post, mandate credit report exclusion no later than 6 years plus 6 months after DOFD.

Can you please provide a cite to the asserted provision of Oregon state law that provides for a shortened exclusion period of 6 months after expiration of SOL?

As a side note, credit report exclusion is totally separate and distinct from state statute of limitations on debt, which govern the period within which civil action must be initiated to seek a civil judgment from a court ordering payment of a debt.

Credit report exclusion governs the time after which a CRA must normally exclude an adverse item from credit reports that it issues.

It does not control the period within which a creditor or debt collector can report information to a CRA, it governs whether a CRA can include that information in credit reports they issue.

The federal FCRA defines the exclusion periods that apply to the CRAs, and those periods are not absolute.  FCRA 605(b) exempts all of the exclusion provisions for certain types of inquiries, such as when a consumer is seeking debt in the amount of $150K or more.  Under those cirsumtances, the CRA can provide a full factual credit report that includes any normally excluded item of information, such as a collection with a DOFD of more than 7 years plus 180 days prior.

Thus, the FCRA does not restrict reporting of collections, it only restricts the CRAs in including that reporting in credit reports they issue.

A debt collector can, under federal law, report after expiration of the normal credit report exclusion period.  It is the CRA that then determines whether they can include that reporting in a requested credit report.

[AbbiLou]

I have not really considered anything as this point since it all just happened. The idea of paying this collection agency anything is pretty bothersome especially after the SOL. I believe they are saying the original debt was about $400 and now $800 with fees of some sort. The Doctor listed was a pretty horrible experience and why we never saw them again and how I know with certainty the dates of interaction. (thankfully it is still on my phone calender as well). This CA can also be pretty horrible to interact with as well. I do not want to approach either until I am certain of what I am doing and how to go about it. 

[AbbiLou]

Hi RobertEG, 

Thank you for responding to my post. I am not remotely educated in all of this beyond very basic knowledge. After reading a lot about collections and reporting I am unsure how I happened to come to believe in Oregon that collections need to be removed within 180 days of SOL other than I read it a few times during research, but my credit reports seem to back this up with some previous collections I had paid in the past. I worked really hard to clean up my credit reports and so have watched them closely after a medical crisis left us with 10's of thousands in sudden medical bills. All the previous ones had removal dates of 6 months after the 6 year SOL. This one indicates it must be removed Aug 2018 and given the dates of the appointments, I am assuming they believe the debt defaulted Feb 2018. Given we have only seen this practice in the fall of 2011 it all kind of adds up to 180 days after SOL.. But I really cant prove that other than it has been my experience, which does not mean much really. 

So it seems that if Oregon does require removal by 180 after the SOL expires the collector can add it to my credit reports up until the last day of the 180 day period?

I appreciate your help.  I am sorry if my questions should have obvious answers that I am overlooking.