AboutApex Credit Services, LLC Expertise Our expertise encompasses the legal frameworks under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act amendments to the FCRA, and the FCRA. We are also well versed in Tennessee and West Virginia consumer law as well as Texas consumer law.
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Experience Our staff is comprised of CCPA experts. Apex Credit Services, LLC, which is a registered, licensed, and bonded credit services organization and certified by the Consumer Data Industry Association.
2 years ago, my girlfriend (at the time) and i purchased truck. Me the buyer and her the co-buyer/signer. The truck was insured with me and she made the truck payments and was the primary driver. We ended the relationship and she would not sell the truck. I received 2-3 phone calls that the payments were behind and informed them to contact her since she was in possession of the truck. A couple of months later I get a 2nd key made to pick up the truck only to find out it was reposed. I did not receive any info regarding how far behind the payments were or any indication such an action would take place. Before we ended the relationship we were living together. After, she stayed put and I moved. Now any info that might of been sent was sent to her address and she did not forward me any info. The tuck went to auction and now I have a collection agency calling me and saying that I have to pay the remainder of the balance. $16,000 was left on the loan and the truck was auctioned for $8,0000. I sued her for the amnt and won a judgment but have yet to collect. (She has multiple judgments against her, about $85 grand worth and is facing 8 felony G,H for theft/ false id to obtain $ as well as another repo case for a bike and a truck.) So the collection agency is saying that "We" are responsible for the $8,000 but are only seeking me out. I aske for validation of the debt and sent 2 letters requesting validation on 9-29 and on 10-14 and have yet to recieve anything. Also, the collection agency called me and sent me a letter trying to get me to pay 70% of the debt AFTER i verbaly and written for validation of the debt. I thought that they are not suppose to contact me after i ask for validation and thats a violation? I am starting to get really drained, my lawyer is no help, i cant afford to pay for another one. What other options do i have? Any other resources to look at to help me out?
Thanx
Dan in WI
Answer Dan:
You and your ex-girfriend are both liable for the deficiency insofar as it was a joint application and by extension, loan. They are coming after you insofar as they likely know that she is virtually judgment proof (they do look at credit reports).
As for your question regarding your requests for validation, the protections of the FDCPA are only invoked if you requested validation from the debt collector within 30 days of your initial contact with them. Otherwise, they can continue collection efforts without providing validation. If you request was timely, yes, you do have a violation of the FDCPA. However, they don't have to send you validation rather, only if they wish to pursue the matter. Again, if your request was on time then they are violating the FDCPA.
You may use that in an offset if they sue you for the deficiency. Moreover, if the debt collector is reporting on your credit reports dispute their account tradeline and that of the original creditor as well. Target things such as date of last activity, date of status, pay status, account history. This is what we do at Apex Credit Services, LLC.
You could get the tradelines deleted or at the very least, accrue some FCRA violations. The difference here is that the FCRA is a per violation statute so each violation can be worth up to 1k whereas the FDCPA is only worth 1k no matter the number of violations. Again, think counter-claim and offset here in the event they sue.
