Expert: Ray A Miller - 11/12/2011

Question
hi..in 2004, my girlfriend was renting a trailer in wisconsin. she was making payments on time. after several months, she employer closed down, so of course everybody lost their income. now greentree has been calling over here, demanding she call them. i had done searches on greentree, and see awful things they do, such as not crediting payment to customers. in january this will be 8 years since this has transpired. is there a statute of limitations on this kind of activity by greentree? do you have any suggestions about what to do or how to do it to make them stop calling for money they will clearly not get? thank you!!

Answer
You are right, Greentree is awful.  The statute of limitations in TN is 6 years.  What this means is, they can call and ask for the money, but there is nothing they can do legally such as sue or put this on your girlfriends credit history. Tell her not to pay anything on this as is will start the clock over again.

Send them a letter informing them that they are attempting to collect on a time-barred account and demand that they communicate by mail only and to stop all calls.  If they continue to call, report them to the BBB, Consumer Affairs and the Attorney General.  Good luck with this.