House call at 6:15 a.m., and call to my landlord!

Yes, revealing any information about a debt to anyone other than YOU is illegal. (If your husband's name is on the account, they will be able to discuss it with him, but not your landlord.)

If they served you a subpoena, you NEED to answer that subpoena, and if there is a court date involved, you need to show up for that court date, or the judge will enter a default judgement in THEIR favor, and your credit will be badly affected by this...for a long time.

Regardless of the outcome of the court date, I would file a complaint against this collector with your state's Attorney General or the FTC (or both) for violation of the fdcpa (provided they are a true third party collector and not the original creditor). They violated that act when they contacted your landlord and revealed private details of your debt with them.

Your landlord, even though the collector contacted him illegally, is not acting illegally - he is just concerned about protecting his income from the rental. He has every right to demand payment on time and in whatever form of payment he wants. It's unfortunate that the collector contacted him and gave him that information - now he fears you may be in financial trouble that will affect HIS income. Your landlord has quite likely been burned in the past by non-paying tenants, so he is just doing a little CYA.
(Cover Your A--)

hiya guest--

a few questions for you:

1--do you know what time they called the landlord?
2--when you say "an old debt", how old are we talking?
3--what state do you live in?

Here's the thing--federal law(the fdcpa) prohibits them from disclosing anything about a debt to a third party. That is one violation right there. I asked about how old this is, and what state you live in, because each state has what's called a SOL, or statute of limitations on debt. Simply put, it doesnt wipe the debt clean, but it does limit the amount of time a creditor has to initiate the legal process against a non-paying debtor. It is entirely possible that they are trying to sue you for a debt that the SOL has expired on. Let us know what state you live in and I will let you know the SOL for that state.

If the SOL has expired, then you need to bring this up--the court will accept it as an affirmative defense, but only if you invoke it. I like to call it an active-only defense, because the court will not automatically declare the SOL in your defense. More on that in a minute....

OK, the first thing you need to do is to check with the court that issued the summons. You must do this to make sure that it is a legitimate summons. It is illegal for them to try to trick you by using a fake one, but companies have done it.

Next, if it is a legit summons, you must file an answer. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT--do NOT ignore the summons. If you do, they will automacally get a default judgment against you. An answer is simply an answer to each of the statements that the plaintiff made in their complaint.

Usually, at this point, most people deny the statements that the plaintiff has written in the complaint. So, looking at your summons, it should have something along these lines on it:

1. Plaintiff, a debt collector, holds ownership of this debt, which defendant owes an outstanding balance of $2,749.00

Now this is obviously just a very basic representation. In your answer, you would reply:

Defendant denies the statements in paragraph 1.

Thats basically it. Go on down the line, include the statement that the plaintiff makes, then include defendant's denial of that paragraph. After that, you have the opportunity to include your Affirmative Defense. If we find that the SOL has expired, this is all I would say in it--again, the dates are just for example:

"AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE

Defendant hereby requests that this matter be immediately dismissed due to expiration of the statute of limitations on this debt. Statute of limitations on this kind of debt in (insert state here) is (insert number) years. This debt has been delinquent since (insert month and year here). The statute of limitations on this debt has been expired since (insert month and year here). Therefore, plaintiff has no legal right to bring suit against defendant on this matter."

If you're really feeling frisky, you can then file a countersuit against them. You see, for each violation of that federal law I mentioned earlier, they are liable to pay you actual damages if any, plus up to $1000....per violation....so far, you have them on at least one violation when they informed your landlord of the details of the debt.

If you want to go that route, I would be happy to help you prepare what you need. Just let me know....also, how's your health, if I might ask? I've been down that road myself, and I know how much fun it is...

Jon

Found out who they are and SUE THE CRAP OUT OF THEM!!!!Then after you get the money from then pay your landlord 2 payments :wink: .

Yes, sue them. As to serving you at 6 am, state rules of civil procedure usually dictate things such as serving process, as to the times etc. Find out your state's law in this regard.

The card was last used/paid three-four years ago. I live in NY. I know the SOL is not up.

They called my landlord around 7 p.m. They asked for me by first name, and the landlord stated that they had the wrong number. The caller "laughed" and said "I know this is you". The landlord asked who exactly they are looking for, and the caller then stated my first and last name. The landlord then informed them that I did not live their, I lived in a different apartment and asked how they got their number. The caller stated I applied for a credit card and used that number! Which is completely false because (a)at the time I opened the card, I wasn't living here, and (b)I don't even know the landlord's home number! Only their cell phone number.

The caller asked why I would use their number, were they a relative? And the landlord stated no, she rents an apartment from me. The caller then said something along the lines of "Oh, do you know that she is being sued for not paying her bills? I have a credit card she has been avoiding paying, and I am trying to collect $8,000.00 from her but she refuses. (The card's limit was 1500.00, and I was no where near the limit. Could their actually be 7000.00 of fees on there???)

SO now my landlord is pissed, because they think I am trying to use their information. I probably would be pissed too if I was in their shoes.

I would talk with your landlord, inform him/her of the fdcpa, and let them know that they were just called illegally by this company, and that you do now owe $8000 to anyone. Show the FDCPA to your landlord if need be and let them know that they dont need to worry about you paying your rent because this is an illegally operating debt collector that is trying to scam you. Maybe once your landlord realizes that they are acting illegally, they migh tease up a bit. Also, let them know that this account was supposedly opened before you lived in that apartment, so that they will understand you arent using their information like that. At this point, I think its a good idea to try to handle the landlord as much as you can because you have to live with them in your life as long as you have that apartment.

If you can get the landlord to calm down a bit, you could then perhaps see if he/she would be willing to testify on your behalf, because I really think you need to sue this CA for that call. Especially considering the strain that this has put on your landlord/tenant relationship. They were 100% in the wrong to tell your landlord this information, no matter if the info is correct or not. At this time, I would also send a DV letter and a cease and desist letter, right away, by certified mail return receipt. When you send the C&D letter, be sure to inform them that they are not to call that telephone number again....that way, if they do, you have them on yet another violation.

Beofre your court date, file a counter claim against them for violating Federal Laws, or work something out with the creditor, informing them that it is in their best interest to work it out with you, or the courts will be enlightened of the illegal acts of the creditor.

Just an FYI for all: the call and summons came from Eltman, Eltman & Cooper, P.C. 212-660-3100. The plaintiff on the summons is Erin Capital Management, LLC.

I'd file a counter complaint, as Anthony suggested. However, if you don't do so at this time, don't mention violations (such as communicating to a third party, etc) in your defense. If you do, you might not be able to use these complaints if you sue later.

You definitely need to file a countersuit and make the courts aware of their tactics. Hopefully your landlord will back you up. If you explain to him/her the situation, perhaps he/she will. I sued LTD Financial Services last year for a similar situation. They had called me repeatedly about an old debt, but would not validate it as I requested. They called my 85-year old neighbor asking her where I was because I owed them money. They also made the mistake of sending a document to me with the requested validation that listed the numbers they called looking for me. It included my neighbor, several other people on my street and three people in the city with the same last name as me. I sued them, but they did not show to the court and I won.

A subpeona (spelling?) for the landlord will take care of her apprehension to testify.

yes it will, anthony, but our guest has to deal with that landlord after this is all done, so I feel that getting the landlord on your side now is important. You dont want to have to drag your landlord into court with a subpoena unless you have to, because you dont want that landlord to end up hating you if at all possible. Hopefully, explaining that this company is acting illegally will help your case....

The landlord will be informed of reprisals due to this case. It is against the law for the landlord to do anything adverse towards her in light of the court case. Bottom line, if the rent is not late, the landlord can take no negative action towards the tenant. This would be considered 'reprisals' under the law, and brings huge fines, if not complete loss of license to rent out to tenants.

How is this allowed to happen? They need to be stopped.

Calling before 8AM or after 9PM is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, violations may be pursued via civil action for up to $1,000 per call or 1% of the company's net worth, whichever is less.

I only have a couple of accounts left in collections, the rest have been paid for, so your saying I'll be next? Who do you work for? I doubt for either of the agencies I owe as one of them has provided me the validation I requested and I'm on a payment plan that is satisfactory to both the CA and myself. The other I haven't heard back from for validation. Make that three but they are getting it paid off from my state workers compensation commission, it went delinquent due to an oversight on workers comp's side.

So, who is it you say you work for? Maybe you just opened your mouth without thinking troll...

Guest ,try that in this state and you find your self behind bars and your company!!!!!

Crap. He tries that here, he's likely to get shot.

How about properly validating the debt? How about NOT tacking on thousands of dollars just to line your pockets illegally? I do not think this poster was being a 'deadbeat' and that is a very offensive title BTW and completely uncalled for.....This CA acted totally illegally and they should be brought before a judge on that and THEY should have to pay. Not to mention that it seems this CA is going after the WRONG party, IE the hubby (unless they live in a community property state and the card was gotten during the marriage).

Every debtor has the legal right to demand validation because it is a proven fact that the majority of CA's and ALL JDB's act illegally and unethically. You are NOT being a deadbeat for invoking your legal rights and only unprofessional and morally reprehensible collectors would try to weasel out of that.