Unvoided check from 1997, resurfaces with threats of warrant being issued!

What is the name of your state? Texas

From 1995 to 1997 I rented office space in a business park here in Houston. I was never late paying my rent and never had a problem. In 1997 when my lease ended and I gave up the space . The manager and I never had a problem or an issue. I cleared the office space and got my security deposit back.

This week (May, 2003) I received a call from a collection agency saying that they have a check that I wrote to the business park back in 1997 and if I don't pay it immediately they are going to have a warrant issued for my arrest. I explained to them that a check would have come back to them because when I went to the leasing office and explained that I had taken my money out of that account and gave her a different check to replace it. She was going to mail the original check back to me or tear it up when it was returned. That was the end of it. That was 6 years ago. Since that time I have talked to the office manager there about again renting space but decided not to. I never worried about getting the check back since there were never any problems. I have never gotten a phone call, a letter, nothing to indicate that there was a problem. If I had I would have been able to clear it up immediately while I still had my paperwork handy. I have some paperwork from six years ago but I can't specifically find the lease agreement where the manager signed off that the check was replaced.

When I got the call from the collection agency I tried to call the office of the person who turned the check over to them (which was not the office manager). He would not speak to me but had someone tell me I needed to call the manager at the office park. Luckily, when I called the office park the manager was the same one that was there while I rented. I told her what was happenning and she was really surprised. She never thought that I had a bad check, either. She said she would try to find receipts from 1997 but she's not sure if she has them either.

The amount is $200.00 and I am able to pay it, but the issue is that I think that he knows that it is taken care of and is expecting me not to be able produce paperwork that shows it was replaced.

If I must pay - I will in order to protect the reputation of my former business although it is not functioning anymore, also I do not want the office manager get in trouble. I have no smears on my business reputation and I will do what I must to keep it that way. If no one can find the paperwork and I am pressed to pay in order to protect my business name - Is there any recourse I can take against the person who sent the check to the collection agency. I really do believe that he knows that the check is not bad and is just trying to get money out of whoever he can. I realize that I should have insisted on getting that check when I first left the complex but I never, never expected something like this to happen since we had such a good business relationship. Even though the manager was trustworthy and probably just forgot to mail the check back to me or shred it, the check made it into the hands of someone less trustworthy.

What can I do?

I have no legal advice to give, I'm not an attorney. I just wanted to say that it really surprises me that a check that old can even try to be cashed six years later. I would think the collections agency would say that the check was six years old - too bad! Just my opinion. Hopefully, a lawyer will jump in here and tell you what you can do.

Coolection agencies are used when the company wants their money but minus a fat fee from the agency. You cannot be prosecuted over it because of the technicalities involved, I know the Harris County DA will never accept charges nor will the Houston PD hot check division write the report. They can however report it to the comsumer credit reporting agencies and it will be a mark against your credit report. The bank will have records of the second check being cashed although it may take some time for them to find it. When was the old check cashed?

I wasn't real clear in my response, the police will have nothing to do with this case. There will be no warrant issued, the collections agency does not have the authority to do so. The collection agency will be the ones to report it to the credit agencies.

A quick fix may be this. Did you notate on the check that it was to "replace" the one that was written on the closed account?

If you did and you can get the bank to produce the cancelled check then you may have a chance of blowing the agency out of the water.