Expert: Regan Shinski - 5/1/2010

Question
The collection agency William&Fugde took money out my account without me beening aware of the situation I didnot even know I still owed someone in the student loan area.But anyway the took EVERYTHING out of my account which was my rent money so now I'm going to back up in rent. Can they do this without notifying me first? The second thing is there someone out there that can help me pay my  rent because of the situation.
 
Thanks for ur help

Answer
Hi Nikki:

I'm sorry you are in this situation.  Collection can do this if they have a judgement in place.  In order to get a judgement in place they have to sue you.  Most jurisdictions require servicing or formal notification of you prior to the court date.  Additionally, the court itself would have sent you a letter explaining the result of that trial.  If you didn't show up, a judgement would have been entered against you.  They can continue to do this until the judgement is paid in full.

Another legal way they can take the funds is if you gave them permission at some point.  If you ever had an arrangement to pay a certain amount every month through an automatic withdrawal.

You should ask your bank on what authority they let the money go.  Was it through a court ordered judgement or pre-arranged withdrawal or some other type of agreement?  If it wasn't court-ordered and the creditor did not have your permission for automatic withdrawals, you should dispute it with the bank.  The most common thing is through a court-order and you don't have any recourse there, but you should find out for sure.

You need to switch accounts or start going to a "cash and money order" lifestyle until you figure out exactly what happened and how much more you owe.

On the rent issue, I really don't know.  For one thing, I don't even know where you live.  Try various non-profit organizations and call your local, county, and state agencies for rent assistance.  A longer process would be to try for section 8 housing.  It's a much longer application period and your rental property has to qualify by meeting certain criteria but section 8 can help each month for some time.  However, for short term and immediate assistance, you need to try non-profit organizations and crisis intervention style government agencies.  You are just going to have to make a bunch of calls and ask questions for the programs available in your area.  

Good luck.  I wish I had better news.  Find out for sure EXACTLY on what authority the bank transferred the money to the collection agency.  If it's not through court order, seriously look at disputing it to try and get it back.  It's a long-shot, but may be worth it.

Regan