landlord threatening to ruin CreditReport for "unpaid utilities" but rent included it

[Sandrabee]

landlord threatening to ruin CreditReport for "unpaid utilities" but rent included it

I am a student and was so excitied to get an internship.....I moved rented an apartment in Tennessee where I signed a 3 month lease.

It was a studio apartment where the rent included ALL utilities, such that the rent was $700/month (which is alot in Tennessee).

Specifically, when I signed the lease, there was no information IN the lease with regards to the apartment unit's utilities.

However, for her whole apartment unit everybody pays a flat fee for rent + utilities, including all garbage, water, gas, electricity, sewage, etc (all units look the same, but the longer lease you sign, the cheaper it is per month)

I recently got an email from my landlady a month after I had moved out stating that I owe her X amount of money in unpaid utilities, as apparently, she had said in the email that she had told me earlier that any utilities above $80 I must pay to her directly.

I never signed anything stating that I would pay this amount. It's not in the lease.

I never signed anything with ANY utility company.

Now, she is threatening in her email that she might report me to the credit agencies and give me a "bad credit report" if I don't pay her for those utilties....

1) The only information she has on me is my Driver's license (from CA, albeit), my name, and some checks I wrote to her for the rent/utilties, all inclusive.

She doesn't have my SSN.

Now here are my questions.

---If she wants to report me, can she even do that? She doesn't have my SSN, only cashed checks and my Driver's license number.

I fear that she might somehow wind up being able to report me to credit bureaus, and it would take a LONG LONG time : ( to get that off my credit report...and all the meanwhile, my credit score would be lowered during that time.

Should I really fear her? Can she even do anything to me?

 

[FarmerJ]

First thing any so called reports she makes to a credit reporting agency with out a court ordered judgement in her favor can be disputed. So no she cant wreck your credit she can try to sue you for it but then again that leads to a more important question `do you still have your copy of the lease ? If the copy you have is silent about utility obligations ,then make a copy of it and write a paper letter to her, send it via certified mail and state you have sent a copy of the lease for her to highlight the part that says what utilities you are to pay and send it back to you. BTW you wrote >However, for her whole apartment unit everybody pays a flat fee for rent + utilities, including all garbage, water, gas, electricity, sewage, etc (all units look the same, but the longer lease you sign, the cheaper it is per month)
< what she does with other units in the building has no bearing on what your copy of the lease says , if your copy doesnt clearly state what utils are included or what utils you are to pay then its fair to argue that your not obligated to pay utility fees that are not marked as your obligation.

 

[Sandrabee]

BUt if she does report it to a credit buearu with false information (given that I didn't sign the lease), then wouldn't my credit score be lowered *while* I was still trying to dispute it?