(Debt Collection) PDM - What Should I do?

[MOSHIE]

Hello.

Several months ago I come to an issue with a former landlord (apartment) regarding my final statement. We couldn't reach an agreement and the account was handed over to PDM. 

PDM sends me a Debt Validation Letter and I responded with a letter disputing a PORTION of the account statement in question and requested that I am provided evidence/validation that the charges are legit and not just made up. Long story short, plank flooring deemed needs to be completely replaced due to 'pet odor' by former landlord. No physical damage just odor. I requested evidence and every time they do, they avoid it and here we are, with PDM. 

I responded to the letter on Nov 21 and they've received the certified mail on Nov 22. Fast forward today, January 18th, they've now responded by attempting to call. I answered the call, reiterate that they're not to contact me in any way besides certified mail, which was stated in my response letter to them.

Question is, what do I do? Since Nov 22, they haven't responded back to my response letter and is just now trying to collect on the debt again. Is that even legal? Aren't they supposed to respond and then continue to collect via certified mail?

Also, as of Jan 18th, they haven't added the account to the credit bureaus, which I think is because they need to get a judgment (which means burden of proof?) to have this added to my credit?

Any insight would be helpful, thanks! 

[FireMedic1]

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@MOSHIE wrote:

Hello.

Several months ago I come to an issue with a former landlord (apartment) regarding my final statement. We couldn't reach an agreement and the account was handed over to PDM. 

PDM sends me a Debt Validation Letter and I responded with a letter disputing a PORTION of the account statement in question and requested that I am provided evidence/validation that the charges are legit and not just made up. Long story short, plank flooring deemed needs to be completely replaced due to 'pet odor' by former landlord. No physical damage just odor. I requested evidence and every time they do, they avoid it and here we are, with PDM. 

I responded to the letter on Nov 21 and they've received the certified mail on Nov 22. Fast forward today, January 18th, they've now responded by attempting to call. I answered the call, reiterate that they're not to contact me in any way besides certified mail, which was stated in my response letter to them.

Question is, what do I do? Since Nov 22, they haven't responded back to my response letter and is just now trying to collect on the debt again. Is that even legal? Aren't they supposed to respond and then continue to collect via certified mail?

Also, as of Jan 18th, they haven't added the account to the credit bureaus, which I think is because they need to get a judgment (which means burden of proof?) to have this added to my credit?

Any insight would be helpful, thanks! 

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If you sent a cease and desist letter to a debt collector. The collector must stop contacting you except to tell you that it's ending communications or use another legal remedies to collect the debt. While telling a debt collector to stop contacting you might provide some temporary relief. It can also keep you in the dark about what the debt collector is doing and increase the chance that the collector will go legal. Work out a payment plan. Tenants normally dont win.

[vntrsc]

Did the collection letter you received contain the 30-day validation notice?  Is so, did you respond within 30 days after receiving the letter?  If so, the company had 2 choices.

1.  It could respond back to you with proper validation before it could resume collection efforts.  Note that it is not required to send that validation via certified mail.

2.  It could cease collection efforts all together.  If it chooses to cease collection all together, it does not have to validate the debt.   

[MOSHIE]

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@FireMedic1 wrote:

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@MOSHIE wrote:

Hello.

Several months ago I come to an issue with a former landlord (apartment) regarding my final statement. We couldn't reach an agreement and the account was handed over to PDM. 

PDM sends me a Debt Validation Letter and I responded with a letter disputing a PORTION of the account statement in question and requested that I am provided evidence/validation that the charges are legit and not just made up. Long story short, plank flooring deemed needs to be completely replaced due to 'pet odor' by former landlord. No physical damage just odor. I requested evidence and every time they do, they avoid it and here we are, with PDM. 

I responded to the letter on Nov 21 and they've received the certified mail on Nov 22. Fast forward today, January 18th, they've now responded by attempting to call. I answered the call, reiterate that they're not to contact me in any way besides certified mail, which was stated in my response letter to them.

Question is, what do I do? Since Nov 22, they haven't responded back to my response letter and is just now trying to collect on the debt again. Is that even legal? Aren't they supposed to respond and then continue to collect via certified mail?

Also, as of Jan 18th, they haven't added the account to the credit bureaus, which I think is because they need to get a judgment (which means burden of proof?) to have this added to my credit?

Any insight would be helpful, thanks! 

---

If you sent a cease and desist letter to a debt collector. The collector must stop contacting you except to tell you that it's ending communications or use another legal remedies to collect the debt. While telling a debt collector to stop contacting you might provide some temporary relief. It can also keep you in the dark about what the debt collector is doing and increase the chance that the collector will go legal. Work out a payment plan. Tenants normally dont win.

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Thanks for the reply. They called out to me yesterday and was simply asking if I was going to pay the balance owed or not. Basically ignoring my validation letter. 

I won't work out a payment plan over the disputed part. I've reached out to the original creditor in regards to solving it together but they completely ignored my requests as to proof of the balance owed is valid or not and every time I ask for mere proof, or anything that basically doesn't say "hey yes so we decided to renovate the flooring of the entire 6th floor and decided it to stick it to you since you moved out." The fact that they have not replied to my letter, the collections not reporting to credit bureaus and the fact they dodge my repeated requests for evidence for the balance disputed means they don't have any solid proof. Hey, I even stated I was willing to meet them (creditor)  halfway so long as I have evidence. But then they decided to send it to PDM instead of providing proof.

So here they;

1) Refused to work with me though there is a solution I was willing to meet as long as they provided evidence - shouldn't be a problem if its legit.

2) Continued collections despite me responding to their validation letter

3) Contacted me through phone even though I explicitly stated I would like to be contacted via certified mail only. 

[MOSHIE]

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@vntrsc wrote:

Did the collection letter you received contain the 30-day validation notice?  Is so, did you respond within 30 days after receiving the letter?  If so, the company had 2 choices.

1.  It could respond back to you with proper validation before it could resume collection efforts.  Note that it is not required to send that validation via certified mail.

2.  It could cease collection efforts all together.  If it chooses to cease collection all together, it does not have to validate the debt.   

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Thank you for replying.

I've replied to their validation notice within the time frame allowed. This was the date mentioned in the first post. 

1. They continued collections through phone despite me telling them I want all communications to be via certified mail only, as is my right. They have not replied to my validation letter, at all in any shape or form though by law since I requested to be via certified mail, it must go through there. 

2. This is what I thought they were doing. No credit activity, no mail back from them after 30 days+ I thought they were giving up. But nope, they decided to act as if nothing happened and just continued collecting. 

[vntrsc]

If you can show that you sent your request within the 30-day time frame and that they have continued collection efforts without responding to your request, I would speak to a consumer attorney that specializes in the FDCPA.  The National Association of Consumer Advocates website allows one to search for consumer attorneys in specific locations.

In regard to your demand that they respond only via certified mail, it does not matter that you made that demand.  The law does not require that a debt collector comply with specific demands such as certified vs. regular mail.

[MOSHIE]

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@vntrsc wrote:

If you can show that you sent your request within the 30-day time frame and that they have continued collection efforts without responding to your request, I would speak to a consumer attorney that specializes in the FDCPA.  The National Association of Consumer Advocates website allows one to search for consumer attorneys in specific locations.

In regard to your demand that they respond only via certified mail, it does not matter that you made that demand.  The law does not require that a debt collector comply with specific demands such as certified vs. regular mail.

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I've sent the request/validation letter back with certified mail so I have the proof they've received it well before the 30-day time frame. In regards to the consumer attorney, I will give that a shot if. Thank you

To my request, I guess the point of the request was so I have paper trail of every communication. Mail, certified or not, really doesn't matter in this situation. I'd like to avoid all phone communication because by phone, they really are very condescending. 

[bass_playr]

Hiya, 

When you say they sent you a validation letter, I'm assuming this was the first letter you got from them which stated your right to dispute within 30 days, in writing?  If so, and you did reply back within that 30 days disputing any portion of the debt, they are barred from collection attempts against you until they respond to that dispute.  

Unless I'm misunderstanding, you got their dunning letter, you sent written dispute within 30 days, and they have ignored your dispute but are still trying to collect.  And PDM is Professional Debt Mediation out of Jacksonville, FL, right?  

PDM has a history of this and many other issues.  24 years in business, an F rating at the BBB and tons of complaints and 1 star reviews.  

You're not going to get them to make things right by speaking to them, as the many complaints show.

First, you can request that they only contact you in writing but the law does not require them to honor that.  

Next, you're asking for proof of something that's basically not possible to prove.  Even if they produced receipts for the materials, many places will not have anything written in there that would tie those materials to any specific apartment, and of course, they could have decided to replace the flooring and just claim it was due to odor, and there's no way to prove that now.  For future reference, any time I have ever rented a place, I've always done a walkthrough with the landlord or their representative and got it on video so that they cannot claim something like this later.  If there were an odor, they would not make it through a walkthrough with you and not notice it.

So, it comes down to this debt collector.  You disputed within the 30 days and they refused to abide by the law.  So, you have a couple of options.  First, you can keep trying to fight it out with them--and you will basically get nowhere.  The folks on the phone dont care about anything but your money leaving your hand and going to theirs.  

You could meet with an attorney who works with consumer protection issues.  What they did is an FDCPA violation and they could end up paying you money for it.  

You could try to speak with the landlord about it, but you've already done that and it didn't work out. 

Finally, they dont need a judgment to put this on your credit.  But now, if they DO put it on your credit and they still have not validated your dispute, then I would definitely call an attorney.  

[MOSHIE]

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@bass_playr wrote:

Hiya, 

When you say they sent you a validation letter, I'm assuming this was the first letter you got from them which stated your right to dispute within 30 days, in writing?  If so, and you did reply back within that 30 days disputing any portion of the debt, they are barred from collection attempts against you until they respond to that dispute.  

Unless I'm misunderstanding, you got their dunning letter, you sent written dispute within 30 days, and they have ignored your dispute but are still trying to collect.  And PDM is Professional Debt Mediation out of Jacksonville, FL, right?  

PDM has a history of this and many other issues.  24 years in business, an F rating at the BBB and tons of complaints and 1 star reviews.  

You're not going to get them to make things right by speaking to them, as the many complaints show.

First, you can request that they only contact you in writing but the law does not require them to honor that.  

Next, you're asking for proof of something that's basically not possible to prove.  Even if they produced receipts for the materials, many places will not have anything written in there that would tie those materials to any specific apartment, and of course, they could have decided to replace the flooring and just claim it was due to odor, and there's no way to prove that now.  For future reference, any time I have ever rented a place, I've always done a walkthrough with the landlord or their representative and got it on video so that they cannot claim something like this later.  If there were an odor, they would not make it through a walkthrough with you and not notice it.

So, it comes down to this debt collector.  You disputed within the 30 days and they refused to abide by the law.  So, you have a couple of options.  First, you can keep trying to fight it out with them--and you will basically get nowhere.  The folks on the phone dont care about anything but your money leaving your hand and going to theirs.  

You could meet with an attorney who works with consumer protection issues.  What they did is an FDCPA violation and they could end up paying you money for it.  

You could try to speak with the landlord about it, but you've already done that and it didn't work out. 

Finally, they dont need a judgment to put this on your credit.  But now, if they DO put it on your credit and they still have not validated your dispute, then I would definitely call an attorney.  

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Okay so let's look at an alternative. Hypothetically if I were to come up with an payment arrangement of some sorts to PDM, would they report to credit bureau immediately or only if I break the arranged payment plan? That's assuming they are willing to work one out. 

In the end, I am trying to avoid having the account into my credit. I know, based on research, that PDM doesn't really do PFD.