Bad Credit Agency

Can I collection agency sue me and report a debt from a repo that is 6.5 years old?

This is a tricky multiple part question. I have a debt from a leasing company that has been reported for 6.5 years. It comes off in August. I just received a letter in the mail from a collections agency that bought the debt from the leasing company. Can they legally report it onto my credit report for ANOTHER 7 years or will it fall off in August like the original debt from the leasing company? Also, can they sue me since it has not been 7 years yet? Will I have 2 references to this same debt on my credit report? I will give a gazzillion points to the one who answers all my questions! If you can't answer my questions perhaps you know a good credit lawyer that can?

Public Comments

1. what state do you live in??? there are statue of limitations on how long they can sue and 6 years is the average. The SOL is diffrent from state to state. search SOL debt and find your state, the SOL starts from your first late not the date of the repo. Items fall off 7 year after the last of activity. i posted a sample letter to send them to prove that debt, could be a good resource to you. and i provided a link to the rules they must follow. (Your name) (Your address Collection company name Company address (Date) Re: Acct# 00000000 To whom it may concern: This letter is being sent to you in response to a notice sent to me on March 8th, 2050. Please be advised that this is not a refusal to pay, but a notice sent pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 USC 1692g Sec. 809 (b) that your claim is disputed and validation is requested. This is NOT a request for "verification" or proof of my mailing address, but a request for VALIDATION made pursuant to the above Title and Section. I respectfully request that your offices provide me with competent evidence that I have any legal obligation to pay you. Please provide me with the following: 1. What the money you say I owe is for 2. Explain and show me how you calculated what you say I owe 3. Provide me with copies of any papers that show I agreed to pay what you say I owe 4. Provide a verification or copy of any judgment if applicable 5. Identify the original creditor 6. Prove the Statute of Limitations has not expired on this account 7. Show me that you are licensed to collect in my state 8. Provide me with your license numbers and Registered Agent At this time I will also inform you that if your offices have reported invalidated information to any of the 3 major credit Bureaus (Equifax, Experion or TransUnion) this action might constitute fraud under both federal and State Laws. Due to this fact, if any negative mark is found on any of my credit reports by your company or the company that you represent, I will not hesitate in bringing legal action against you for the following: 1. Violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act-reporting inaccurate information 2. Violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act-continuing collection activity on a debt which has not been validated Also during this validation period, if any action is taken which could be considered detrimental to any of my credit reports, I will consult with my legal counsel for suit. This includes listing of any information to credit reporting repository that could be inaccurate or invalidated or verifying an account as accurate when in fact there is no provided proof that it is. REQUEST FOR CEASE AND DESIST OF CONTACT BY YOUR OFFICE: I would also like to request, in writing, no further contact, either in writing or telephone be made by your office to my home or to my place of employment, unless it is to provide validation or release of liability of the debt. If your offices attempt telephone communication with me, including but not limited to computer generated calls and calls or correspondence sent to or with third parties, it will be considered harassment and I will have no choice but to file suit. It would be advisable that you assure that your records are in order before I am forced to take legal action. This is an attempt to correct your records; any information obtained shall be used for that purpose. Thank you, Signature Printed name
2. It's actually not that tricky. First negative information can only be reported on your credit report for 7 years. With things such as a charge off this date starts from the date of charge-off, which actually makes it come off at about 7.5 years from the date of the first delinquency. A creditor can not re-age the debt keeping it on there for another 7 years. If they did that would be a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act(FCRA). On your credit report you may see up to 2 references. However, only 1 will have a dollar amount. In most cases you will see the original creditor listed as a "Charge-Off" and a 0 balance. You then can see another collection account with the actual amount due. If you see more than this you can send in disputes to the Credit Reporting Agency. They can sue you as long as they are within the Statute of Limitations, which is NOT the same as the credit reporting period. In most cases a lease would be considered a written contract so depending on your state the SOL can be anywhere from about 3-15 years from the date of the last delinquency. The link below is a list of the SOL by state. http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/statuteLimitations.shtml
3. A collection agency/creditor cannot legally re-age the account so it appears for another 7 years. Negative information will generally fall off your credit report 7 years from the time you first defaulted. Whether the creditor can sue you or not depends on the Statute of Limitations in your state. This is totally independent of the 7 years the creditor can report derogatory information. You can check the Statute of Limitations for your state here: http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/statuteLimitations.shtml Car loans are generally considered a "written" agreement. So, if you lived in Delaware, the statute of limitations would be 3 years - this would be considered a time-barred debt. If the creditor tried to sue, you could get the case dismissed by proving the statute of limitations have passed. Although the derogatory information would stay on your credit report until August. However, if you lived in Iowa, the Statute of Limitations on written agreements is 10 years! In this case, the creditor could still sue you this time next year even though the debt no longer appears on your credit report.
4. Like the others said, they can only report it for the original time and cannot reage it to report for a longer period. Like OC1999 said, if both the original creditor and the collector are reporting it, the original creditor "must" report it with a zero balance. As for the collecting SOL, the repo voided the original contract. The deficiency balance does not fall under written SOL statutes but rather under the UCC (Article 2) with a 4 year collecting SOL. As far as suing, they can always "try" to sue even if you are past the collecting SOL. It would be up to you to use an affirmative defense of SOL if they do happen to sue. It may be in your best interests if you informed them that the collecting SOL has passed and that it is time barred. If they are smart they wouldn't sue if it is proven to them, in writing, that the alleged debt is time barred. If they are dumb enough to file, you have the defense of SOL plus you could file a counter claim on them for filing on a time barred debt. The letter a previous poster posted is a request for validation. If you simply want validation you might consider sending it. If you want to inform them the account is no longer legally collectible you might click on my profile and click on the last link I have listed. It is to a free credit discussion board. Do a search in the credit forum for "repo" and do some reading. You may find the link to the repo letter, but if you don't you might post a question in the credit forum and ask for the link to the letter to dispute the repo deficiency. The letter is also free to use and it has the UCC statutes and case law included.