I'd appreciate any advice I can get on this, I haven't found many sites that address this particular issue.
I've been living with a friend for the past year, and things have recently gotten a bit ugly. In particular, we have a several month past due electric bill on an account which was started in his name, but which I had orally agreed to be my responsibility as part of our arrangement for splitting bills. For reasons I won't get into here, I have been unable to keep up with this. I have made payment arrangements with the utility company to get the bill in order, and the agreement is currently up to date, but the amount still owed is a bit less than $600. On the other hand, part of our agreement on splitting of the bills was that he would pay for a high speed internet bill, a service I made it clear I could not afford and did not want, but ended up agreeing to after days of bullying and abusive treatment. Now, due to some unrelated fighting that has been occurring, I am leaving the apartment, and my former roommate has made arrangements to have me removed from the lease (which I am fine with), and is threatening to take me to court over the past due amount. He has put a password on the account, is taking it into his own hands to pay it up, and is seeking compensation for this amount, as well as possibly recompense for damage to his credit. For my part, I am interested in settling out of court, and have no interest in contesting the amount I owe for what is due up to this date.
My question comes down to this:
What, if anything, can he claim for damage to his credit? I've been led to believe that a situation like this will not typically affect one's credit score if the debt has not been sent to a collection agency (it hasn't). As I've said, I have no problem in getting this bill settled and would rather not waste any more time than necessary quibbling, but I'm pretty concerned about being railroaded for far more than is reasonable, as this is pretty clearly his intention based on a conversation we had earlier tonight. Perhaps I should have mentioned earlier, my roommate's father is a lawyer, a fact which he has frequently used to his advantage to bully people. I just want this to be over and done with with as little damage and stress as possible. What am I supposed to do here?
I've been living with a friend for the past year, and things have recently gotten a bit ugly. In particular, we have a several month past due electric bill on an account which was started in his name, but which I had orally agreed to be my responsibility as part of our arrangement for splitting bills. For reasons I won't get into here, I have been unable to keep up with this. I have made payment arrangements with the utility company to get the bill in order, and the agreement is currently up to date, but the amount still owed is a bit less than $600. On the other hand, part of our agreement on splitting of the bills was that he would pay for a high speed internet bill, a service I made it clear I could not afford and did not want, but ended up agreeing to after days of bullying and abusive treatment. Now, due to some unrelated fighting that has been occurring, I am leaving the apartment, and my former roommate has made arrangements to have me removed from the lease (which I am fine with), and is threatening to take me to court over the past due amount. He has put a password on the account, is taking it into his own hands to pay it up, and is seeking compensation for this amount, as well as possibly recompense for damage to his credit. For my part, I am interested in settling out of court, and have no interest in contesting the amount I owe for what is due up to this date.
My question comes down to this:
What, if anything, can he claim for damage to his credit? I've been led to believe that a situation like this will not typically affect one's credit score if the debt has not been sent to a collection agency (it hasn't). As I've said, I have no problem in getting this bill settled and would rather not waste any more time than necessary quibbling, but I'm pretty concerned about being railroaded for far more than is reasonable, as this is pretty clearly his intention based on a conversation we had earlier tonight. Perhaps I should have mentioned earlier, my roommate's father is a lawyer, a fact which he has frequently used to his advantage to bully people. I just want this to be over and done with with as little damage and stress as possible. What am I supposed to do here?
