Dispute of dispute result

[Anonymous]

I decided a year or two ago to start working on my credit and realized there were two collections account listed for a previous utility provider, Conedison. In using my google, I found this to be a common issue with ConEd in that several people mentioned a failure for them to disconnect services, continue billing and then claim they sent notices, but to the old address. All of that said, I moved from NY to GA in 2012 and the debts are showing from 2014 and 2015 on my report. I disputed thru Credit Karma and received notification that the debt was valid. I have piles of documents showing I wasn't a resident of NY and resided in GA for two years before the 2014 date of the collections added to the report. Additionally, why are there two when I only ever had one residential service account with them. My question now is how to dispute these results and what pertinent documents of all that I have (college enrollment, drivers license with date acquired in new state, utility bills, etc) should I include and what is the typical, best method to resolve this. Thanks in advance for any direction on this.

[medicgrrl]

Do you have the DOFD or are you using the "open" date from the credit report?

[Anonymous]

I'm going by the open date because my assumption was that the account was closed when I turned off utilities at my old address in September of 2012. It took two years to show on my credit report, and as I mentioned there are two collections showing both for ConEd and both with different open years/dates. One is 2014 and the other 2015. One shows $795 owed and the other shows $796 owed. Such a mess.

[Anonymous]

And I should add that 1) I have no idea when it transitioned to collections from ConEd, and two, why there's a year difference and 3) both are listed as two different collection agencies. I've read if debts are sold that sometimes the original agency AND the new will show up and since I only ever had one account am curious if this is the case. I filed a dispute as "I have no knowledge of this account" and it came back as valid. Again, being that this was from 5 years ago, i of course don't have any documentation anymore from when I had ConEd.

[medicgrrl]

The open date is the date the account was sent to that collection agency and doesn't reflect the DOFD. I would attempt a DV to each one to figure out who owns the debt at this time...and then go from there. Are they both updating every month?

[RobertEG]

It is unclear as to how a showing of when you moved will determine whether or not you have a legitimate debt with ConEd.

The issue is whether or not, when you terminated service, there was any amount due.

Hence, the basis for the earlier question as to when the account would have become delinquent as opposed to when the debt collector opened their collection.

The date of your first delinquency establishes when any collection, regardless of any other date such as date opened of the collection, must become excluded from your credit report.  The DOFD is apparently in 2012, which will result in a likely exclusion sometime in 2019.

What is showing in your credit report as the reported DOFD?

If your new dispute challenges the accuracy of the reported DOFD as opposed to the legitimacy of the debt, then it would be a new dispute.

Documentation to support a dispute of the DOFD would relate to a showing of when you would first have become delinquent, which would likely be approx a month after your termination of service.

[Anonymous]

So it is still reporting each month and in looking at it again I see one was last reported in 2015, so I'm assuming that's the previous agency. I'm new to all of this so, so some of the abbreviations go over my head. But I'm not seeing any dates listed other than the currently reporting delinquency - but I'm also using credit karma. I'm not with my paperwork at home but do have a full credit report from a month ago, so I assume it should show on there when it was first listed as delinquent. Am I basically out of luck if it's showing delinquent as of let's say Jan 2013 and have no proof of cancellation? Do it not matter to have proof that I resided in an entirely different state immediately following when that account was to have been closed? As in, why would I need service at an address/state I no longer had residence at? Any suggestions on how to dispute this again is appreciated. Thanks all for all the help so far!

[RobertEG]

When a debt collector reports a collection, they are required to separately and specifically report the DOFD to the CRA no later than 90 days after they report their collection.

The CRA does not speculate or determine the DOFD based on any other information reported to them.  It thus must be of record in your credit file.  See FCRA 623(a)(5).

If your commercial credit report does not show the DOFD (which is common), you can get a report from annualcreditreport.com, which will usually show the reported DOFD.

You then have a date upon which to base any dispute of its accuracy.

Personally, I would provide documentation of when you sent notice to the utility of termination of service rather than simply sending documentation of when you moved.

It is possible that a consumer could move and yet not terminate service, such as if they are still the owner and are thereafter renting to another.

Documentation will depend upon the facts of your individual case, and should relate as closely as possible to actual termination of your service agreement.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the feedback, again. The problem I'm having is that due to my request for cancelation being only a phone call to the utility I have to physical paperwork documenting this request. My error was assuming that that was all was needed to end services. That being said, without anything physically documented, is there anything else I can provide to dispute the amount stated as owed? I was renting and did not own the building, which is public record. Since moving twice thru two states since then I no longer have a copy of my lease stating it's end date either. I'm hoping this doesn't turn out to be an almost thousand dollar mistake on my part for not retaining my documents better. Anything else I could provide to dispute?

[RobertEG]

When you dispute the accuracy of reported information, the CRA forwards a copy to the furnisher, and the furnisher must conduct a reasonable investigation and report their finding back to the CRA.  They are not required to "prove" the accuracy, or support their finding with documentary evidence.  There also is no appeal process to contest the finding in a dispute.  However, you can file another dispute if it is not "substantially the same" as a prior dispute.  A second dispute is not substantially the same as a prior dispute if it includes substantive new information pertinent to the dispute.  Otherwise, the finding concludes the dispute process.

If you disagree with the finding, you can then obtain a full legal review, including obtaining discovery of any pertient evidence, by filing a civil action and getting the matter before a court.