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Collections for rent I've paid

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hlemay

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?What is the name of your state: Washington
I've posted on the forum before, but didnt get a whole lot of replies and my situation has changed a bit now. I co signed a 12 month lease on an apartment, and moved out about 8-1/2 to 9 mos in, but stayed on the lease. I didn't keep in detailed contact with my former roomate, however at some point ahe came to me and said that the apartment management had changed and the new managers were saying that they had no records of us paying rent for our entire lease. They asked us to provide rental receipts (which we didnt have because the office was almost never open so we left our money orders in the drop box), or money order receipts to proove we had been paying rent.
As a first time renter i neglected to keep those money order receipts, told my former roomate that, and that was that. I later find out that within the next month they are evicted for not paying rent January-September (even though they had paid the month between when i left and then, acoording to my roomate).

I wasyoung and wasnt quite sure what to do, couldn't afford legal representation, etc., soni just left it alone and lived for about a year with an eviction on my record. Then it went to collections. It has been about 4 years since i rented the apartment, and the collection agency is asking me for THOUSANDS of dollars. I sent a certified mail letter requesting them to prove they owned the debt/ prove that i owe it and they sent back part of my former lease and a itemized list of charges, including at least 9 months rent. The other things (pet damage, items having to be removed after they vacated, etc.) Im totally willing to pay, but at this point I'm not sure how to go about dealing with this.

I could foreseeably pay $600 to ATTEMPT to track down, through western union, proof that the money orders i purchased were cashed; but then id have to double that, assuming my ex roomate has her bank records indicating date, time, and location of purchase, because we paid our own half of rent seperately each month.

Basically, what is my recourse? Are my bank statements, indicating i paid half the amount of rent on nearly the same day every month to purchase a money order, possibly good enough proof that rent was paid? Do you believe a judge would throw this out because, oer my lease, if i hadnt paid rent for 9 months inwould have been evicted MUCH earlier? Do i need to retain legal help?

Thanks so much.
 
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HRZ

Senior Member
Something does not add up..it would be quite unusual for management to let slide multiple months of non payment.

THe burden is on the collector to show you did not pay rent...and if management changes and records are missing that may not be so easy to do ...and there may well be a hearsay problem if original staff are not there on stand to be examined ......but it requires a bit of moxie to challange the collectors presentation.

SUre would be helpful if you or ex could find records to even one of the payments the collector says you missed ..discredits him big time .

BTW lock boxes are a big problem in some areas ...stuff goes missing and worse....does management /lease address use of lockbox ..and if so how ? Views and issues vary ..from you use it at your peril to LL uses it at his peril

Missing LL records about payments does not bode well for management but you need to cross examine the collectors witness (s) ..judge will not do it for you ....

THis probably hinges on credibility of the sides ....

Are you sure your former RM paid ?
 

hlemay

Junior Member
Are you sure your former RM paid ?
There were many times we walked together or i fropped off her money order for her so, yes, im fairly certain she paid every month like i did.
And the lockbox was really a slit that dropped straight into the locked office, but im not certain what the lease said about liability of using it. Again, young, didn't even think about it.
 

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