Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

I recently pulled my credit report and there is a Collection from a company that I did not recognize. So, when I called their number it was a collection company who told me that the collection account was for a garbage bill for an office building that I had previously rented. I had vacated that office in January 2011. So, I called the garbage company and they told me that I still had an open account and I was still being billed. I told them that before I moved out in January 2011, I had called and canceled my account. They agreed to disregard the most current bill which had accumulated for the past 22 months. However, now they said that I owed them for a few missed bills in 2009. I was shocked. I hadn't missed any payments in 2009 and the other collection account was just assigned in August 2012. They faxed me a generic printout to show that I owed them $240 from 2009. If I had owed them money from 2009 why didn't they assign it to a collection company back then? Don't they need to establish that I owe them this debt under Collection Law?


Asked on 11/29/12, 4:45 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Charles Perry Law Offices of Charles R. Perry

The fact that the company delayed sending the bill in question to a collection agency is not relevant to the question of whether you owe the money. The easiest solution for you is to go through your records for 2009 and show the company in question that the bill has been paid in full.

Since there is no question that you were using this company's services in 2009, and since they have no record of payment, the company can meet its initial burden of proof to show that the money is owed. It is now your burden to show that the company is mistaken as to the lack of payment.

Best of luck to you.

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Answered on 12/01/12, 2:10 am


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