Advice needed. A conflicated credit problem??

This happened about 4 years ago. me and my ex boyfriend together signed an apartment. We lived there for a few month. Later somehow we didn't work out together. I decided to leave, My ex went crazy push me on the wall wanna beat me in the night, police officers came and made report on it and i still keep that. Anyway, i had to get out of there.. But thing is like unfinished,,,After a couple of month, collecting agency called, ask me to paid about $ 2,200 fine, include breaking lease, early termination, or apartment damage, etc. I called the apartment manager talk about this situation, he didn't seem like willing to help, even after i made half of payment, that is lot of money for a college student like me. BOTH of us signed the lease, but my ex was like trying to do everything in the world make me in trouble, he definitly didn't pay anything. still unfinished til today, my credit report still shows i have collecting amount,what the easiest way i can get this solved.


Thanks a lot!Advice needed. A conflicated credit problem??
You have a couple of problems, first off you and your ex-boyfriend are equally responsible for the debt, not 50/50, if they can not contact him or collect from him they they can go after you, which they already have.


Secondly, once your ex-boyfriend beat you the first thing you should have done was to speak to the manager and let him know what happened and told him that you would be leaving because of that incident, then ask him to remove you from the lease. Of course hind sight is always 20-20.





Your only recourse is to pay the collection agency, keep your receipts and a copy of your lease which was broke, then file a claim against your ex-boyfriend in small claims court. You receipts will be your proof that you paid the debt and the copy of the lease will prove that he is equally responsible.


Getting the judgment will be the easy part, collecting from him will be tougher, once you have the judgment you can pursue collections my attaching his wages.





After you have finished with the paying off of the debt, contact each of the 3 credit bureaus and file a letter explaining the situation and how the debt was only 50% yours.





One last thing, find out how long after you (or your boyfriend) left the apartment before someone else rented it, the landlord can only charge you for the time it was un-rented. If you had a one year lease and both of you left after 3 months, you would technically owe 9 months rent. However if someone rented the apartment after 1 month that is all that you would owe. It would be good to see exactly what the $2,200 is for, it should list the damage and how much it cost, even replacing the carpet can not be charged to you unless it was new when you moved in and ruined when you left. The landlord can not charge you for normal wear and tear nor can his charges be unreasonable. Get an itemized list, if it doesn't make sense that you are paying this much file a dispute with the collection agency (in writing) and make a note in your credit file that this is being disputed.Advice needed. A conflicated credit problem??
Wait the seven years for this to fall off of your credit score.


You only have three more to go.
You can take the S.O.B. to small claims court. This seems to be the only way. You legally can't do anything else. The judge should rule in your favor, as you will have the police report and everything else. If he doesn't pay, it will be on his credit record until he does pay.
Go back and apologize to your ex for getting him Pissed off to begin with..............
Legally, you are obligated. If the apartment owners want to they can get nasty, i.e. take both of you to court for the money you owe. Many times, if they can rent the place quickly, they don't spend the money and time needed to sue but still go ahead and try themselves, or with a collection agency, to get the $ owed. Anytime you bail on a contract like that bad things will happen.
Did you pay the apartment manager or the collection agency, I assumed you gave it to the apartment manager, but wish you had paid the collection agency, as they would have taken a monetary settlement, which would still be a negative on your credit report but not as bad as the unpaid amount. You could go ahead and pay the rest, then sue your ex in small claims court. You can also place a note on your credit report stating that you have paid your responsible half, really does not make a difference to creditors, but at least you will be stating that you did react to the amount, also if you do decide to pay this be firm in getting, in writing the agreement that they will show this account current and on time. Use the argument that if they do not want to agree to this, then they will get nothing, placing it back on their shoulders, as remember, they get commission off all accounts settled to the positive, Be Tough.