Collection on debt not mine

by shannon
(boise, idaho )

I just recently pulled my credit and see that i have a collection account open on my credit for lawn care provided at a property i was staying at. However, i was not in a lease with property owner my boyfriend was. i was asked to call lawn care people by owner cause grass was dying and my boyfriend was not around at the time. I called they came out. The billed me later???? and now sent me to collections. i was never obligated in anyway to pay for this even my ex boyfriend agrees since it was his home he was renting and obligated to. The lawn care people refuse to take off my credit because i was the one who called them. i do not believe this is my responsibility.

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Apr 12, 2010
 challenging collection account
by: Gerri

Thanks for submitting your debt collection question on our Q&A page.

This is a tough one. It's not clear to me whether you signed an authorization for the lawn here to be done..? If so, it may be hard to demonstrate that you weren't accepting responsibility for the bill.

Because this item is on your credit reports -- and is probably really affecting your credit scores -- you have to come to some resolution. (I am probably stating the obvious there, sorry.) You can send the collection company a cease and desist letter asking them not contact you again, and if they did, it would only be to take legal action against you. At that point you could go to court and tell the judge your side of the story. I am not sure how the judge would rule, but if you are confident you have a good case, then that approach is one option.

But even that would remove the item from your credit reports.

You could try to talk to the lawn care company and see if they would be willing to bring it back from collections if you could come up with payment. Then you could try to get the landlord to pay. You would need to get something in writing stating the item would be removed permanently from your credit reports before you paid it though.

I'm not an attorney so I can't give you legal advice. I think it may make sense to consult a consumer law attorney on this. Find out how to get FREE or low cost legal advice about debt collection from a consumer law attorney here. If I were you that would be my next step.

Will you let us know what happens? Use the comments link below. I am interested to find out how it turns out.

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