Statue of Limitations and credit collection

[semerick]

What is the name of your state?FL

I moved from an apartment in Tampa due to a job transfer two months before the lease expired. I had lived in the apartment for almost three years and was a good tenant. Because of this, I made an agreement with management to take care of carpet and other cleaning in return or not being charged termination fees. A month after I left, the manager I made the agreement with was fired and the complex owner sent me a bill for $1045 in fees. It was a verbal agreement so I had no proof.

That was in December, 2000. Since I told the owner where he could shove it, he turned it over to a credit collection company called Southern Mangement in Orlando. It's been on my credit reports ever since.

I understand Florida has a five year statute of limiations for written contracts. I contacted Southern Mangement today to ask that it be removed from my credit reports since it's been over five years. An extremely rude, nasty office manager told me too bad...statute of limitations mean nothing. It stays on my credit report for seven years.

Is this true? Is there any other avenue I can pursue to get this off my credit report?

Thanks!

[seniorjudge]

Originally Posted by semerick

What is the name of your state?FL

I moved from an apartment in Tampa due to a job transfer two months before the lease expired. I had lived in the apartment for almost three years and was a good tenant. Because of this, I made an agreement with management to take care of carpet and other cleaning in return or not being charged termination fees. A month after I left, the manager I made the agreement with was fired and the complex owner sent me a bill for $1045 in fees. It was a verbal agreement so I had no proof.

That was in December, 2000. Since I told the owner where he could shove it, he turned it over to a credit collection company called Southern Mangement in Orlando. It's been on my credit reports ever since.

I understand Florida has a five year statute of limiations for written contracts. I contacted Southern Mangement today to ask that it be removed from my credit reports since it's been over five years. An extremely rude, nasty office manager told me too bad...statute of limitations mean nothing. It stays on my credit report for seven years.

Is this true? Is there any other avenue I can pursue to get this off my credit report?

Thanks!

Standard answer on expired SOL and/or validation and/or dispute letters. There are thousands of posts similar to yours on this forum so I have prepared a standard answer.

SOL
[url]http://www.bcsalliance.com/y_debt_sol.html[/url]

[url]http://www.fair-debt-collection.com/Disputing_Collections/SoL-dispute-letter.html[/url]


Validation letter samples you can get at :
[url]www.creditinfocenter.com[/url]
and [url]www.creditboards.com[/url]


Disputes: You can write a letter of dispute to the three credit reporting agencies.

Go this website to find instructions and samples for how to dispute: [url]http://www.creditinfocenter.com/creditreports/[/url]

Sometimes errors are easy to remove and sometimes they stick like glue. It is inexpensive to try and not difficult.

I am NOT a creditor-debtor lawyer; stand by for further help.

I am NOT vouching for the accuracy of these websites!

Debt settlement:

[url]http://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=293829[/url]

[Ladynred]

An extremely rude, nasty office manager told me too bad...statute of limitations mean nothing. It stays on my credit report for seven years.

Is this true? Is there any other avenue I can pursue to get this off my credit report?

Absolutely its true ! The SOL for legal action to enforce collection of a debt has NOTHING to do with the reporting period of a debt on your reports. The debt WILL stay on your reports for the full 7 years per the FCRA and it sounds like the collection agency won't budge if you try disputing the tradeline with the credit bureaus. Looks like you're stuck with it.