Judgments on CR for LATE RENT

[Anonymous]

I have a friend that has about 10 judgments on his CR because he was late on his rent past 15 days each time but them paid up each time and did not get evicted. These are years old and have not fallen off yet.

The property owner is not even around anymore,

After he disputed with CRA they said they were able to validate them.

Anyone in this situation?

What is the best plan of attack?

It is killing his FICO

Thx in advance!

Message Edited by 700clubmember on 07-22-2008 10:03 PM

[Anonymous]

How old are these judgments? How soon were they paid? Were they paid BEFORE the court date? I'm assuming so, if he wasn't evicted.

If he paid them PRIOR to the court date, he can file a motion to vacate on the basis that the debts were already paid. He would need, more than likely, proof of payment (dates important) to substantiate his claim.

If each were a SEPARATE judgment and case, he will need to file in each. That MAY cost him roughly $200 in filing fees EACH. But getting them vacated would get them OFF his CRs.

[Anonymous]

Those judgements were from 2002 - 2003, and some was paid prior to court date, but some were paid after the court date but it was paid in full including court fees. But the problem is that he has moved a few times since and he can't get any proof of payments, but it was obvious he paid since he didn't get evicted.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Those judgements were from 2002 - 2003, and some was paid prior to court date, but some were paid after the court date but it was paid in full including court fees. But the problem is that he has moved a few times since and he can't get any proof of payments, but it was obvious he paid since he didn't get evicted.

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Good news? They'll be off his reports soon (approximately '09 and '10, if not sooner).

Bad news? The judgments are more than likely too old. Most states put a cap on how long you can file motions after judgment. The most lenient I've seen is 5 years.

Even then, if he can't prove that he paid them prior to court, the judge more than likely wouldn't have carried the motion, anyway.

If he can be patient, they'll be off his reports soon without spending $200 a pop to file.

[Anonymous]

You might want to call the courthouse where the judgments were entered. I had an issue with a previous landlord years ago. I was late on rent (the 5th of the month) a couple times and they automatically served tenants and filed papers with the court.

I didn't know until years later (when I was checking my credit) that I had judgments on my reports. I was shocked because I didn't have any judgments and was never evicted.

The court clerk told me that the credit bureaus just come in and take any filings and add them to your reports as "judgments" - whether they have gone through the proceedings (vacated, etc.) or not. So the credit bureaus are going to add those to your file no matter what the case. They don't come back and check for notice of vacate or to verify if the case was dismissed.

It took me forever to get 2 judgments off my reports that were vacated/dismissed. The credit bureaus kept stating they verified and left them on my reports. It took numerous letters and cc:s to the Attorney General and FTC to finally get them to actually "verify" the information and it was deleted.