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Expert: Creditwrench - 8/11/2009


Question
I am a manager and have a staff working for me that lost her job previously and was unable to make rent.  I gave her a job and she was still unable to afford her rent so she moved out of the complex. She was on a month to month lease but failed to provide a 30 day notice, although she was out by the end of the month.  The apartment manager hit her with an eviction and charges including a months rent, and several other "damages" to the property.  My staff claims that the apartment was spotless and undamaged and the apartment management did not take any pictures to prove the damage was relevant. The staff went and spoke with the apartment manager to try and reverse some of the fees with no avail. My staff informer the manager that she did not have the $2000 to pay off the amount but that she would make payments. One week later she got a notice from a collection agency wanting the full amount and each day she didn't pay, there would be 12% interest charged to her account.  Can this really happen? The apartment manager didn't even give her the opportunity to set up a payment plan or even gather some cash to start a payment plan! What are her rights in this situation and what should she do? Each day her amount goes up and she is making barely minimum wage! Please help!

Answer

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That debt collector will probably end up taking her to court and getting a judgment against her. Of course,the debt will be much greater than it is now by that time. Instead of $2K it will be 3 or 4k. They will get a judgment and then go after her wages through a wage garnishment. They can also do other things such as seize any money in her bank account(s). They can take up to 25% of her wages in most states. The only way she can hope to stop that from happening is to learn how to defend herself. By the way, that debt collector will probably start calling her at work. You can help her and yourself by teaching whoever answers the phone for you how to handle those phone calls. First of all, employees should not be allowed to receive phone calls that are not of an emergency nature. Your phone is for business purposes only and employees getting hounded on company time wastes your resources. Before a caller can be forwarded to the employee you should learn who the call is from. Callers who won't identify themselves and the nature of their call should be told to send their inquiries to your personnel department. You should not give out any information about your employees to anyone other than known family members or known customers. If the caller won't positively identify themselves and the nature of their call then they should learn nothing whatever. They should not even be told whether or not you have such an employee. Debt collectors are pretty cagey on the phone and the cagier they are the less they should be told. Let this employee know you are on her side and you don't want her getting embarrassed at work with debt collectors calling her. Protect her at work and she will be a better employee because she will appreciate what you are doing for her. Get that debt collector's address and if they call send them a cease & desist letter telling them never to call your company again. You have the right to do that under FDCPA. If they disobey that cease & desist you have the right to sue them for damages.

Creditwrench

Expertise

Debt Collections law, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), federal law, how to properly answer court summons for collection cases, how to prepare federal cases against debt collectors, how to deal with debt collection phone calls.

Experience

I've been an active consumer advocate for more than 40 years and have helped hundreds of people win cases against debt collectors as well as helping them defeat demands for summary judgment lodged against them by banks, debt collectors and defeat mortgage foreclosures and keep their homes.

Education/Credentials
Paralegal courses for the most part.
I have been teaching people how to deal with judgments, mortgage foreclosures and other such problems both on and off the internet for many, many years. I am a Richard Cornforth information provider ever since 2000 and worked with many other organizations and causes since 1980. I was Oklahoma State Chairman for the nationwide drive to defeat the Constitutional Convention which was proposed by various factions within our federal government such as the Council of State Governments and the National Organization of State Governors who were working hard to organize a Constitutional Convention to be held in 1995 for the purpose of rewriting our American Constitution to be more acceptable to the United Nations. I worked with Senator Charles Duke of Colorado and Senator Don Rogers of California and many others across the nation to keep them from getting the number of delegate states required to lawfully hold a Con-Con and we were successful. I have worked with many other legislative issues in Oklahoma and have always been very successful.

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