They Say I Owe More Than I Think From an Old Apartment Lease

Question:

Dear Steve,

I owed an apartment complex $800 in 2012. I completed the lease but they kept my deposit and charged me an additional $800 for replacing the carpet and cleaning the garage which had stains on the floor. I tried to pay it but recently when I inquired, they sold the debt to a Firm in Florida and now they are saying I owe $2,000.00. What can i do to dispute it? Do I sue them? In what type of court?

Efren

Answer:

Dear Efren,

Well there is no dispute you do owe a debt. The dispute seems to be regarding the balance claimed. Over the past four years you’ve probably been charged additional interest and collection fees.

You can certainly ask for an accounting of the balance due. In fact you can use one of these sample letters to do that.

Alternatively you could attempt to settle the debt for less than you owe. If the $2,000 balance proves to be legitimate, you could always cough up $1,000 and try to reach an agreement with the collector to settle the debt.

Keep in mind, if you are not insolvent at the time you settle the debt, you could owe income tax on the forgiven debt, and the settlement will be reported on your credit report.

Steve Rhode Debt Coach and Author

Steve Rhode is the Get Out of Debt Guy and has been helping good people with bad debt problems since 1994. You can learn more about Steve, here.

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