Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Connecticut

I am the guarantor on a lease for my daughter. She lost her job and couldn't pay her rent. They started eviction process and there were 2 court dates. She moved out on Sept 1, 2009 owing partial June, all of July and August rent. She had made an arrangement with the apartment complex to give them money but she was late with the first payment so they sent it to collection. I have now received a letter from this collection agency and have spoken with them a couple times. The woman I was speaking with was extremely rude and talked over me many times - yelling that I was not taking responsiblity for my debt and so on. I attempted to set up a payment plan with them that would be affordable and she refused to listen. She contacted me at work the second day and again, spoke over anything I was saying. On the third day, when she called me at work I told her not to call me at work, my employer didn't allow it. She called me the next day (4th time) and denied hearing me ask her to not call me at work. She demanded payment immediately, saying she had seen that I had $2k available on a credit card. She would not listen to me offer to set up a payment plan and hung up on me. I sent a certified letter telling them not to call me at work. I also offered a payment plan with a much lesser total amount paid to them in this letter. They responded with a letter still insisting on the $2k by October 31st with no mention of my offer to set up a payment plan. Hand written on the bottom of the letter was mention that they couldn't call me about this debt but if I didn't pay in full by October 31st they would report me to the credit agencies.

My questions are - can they insist on this amount? If I have offered a lessor amount and a payment plan, shouldn't they be trying to work with me? And even though they stopped phone harassing me, can I do anything more than file a complaint with the FTC (which I have done already)? The apartment complex told me they probably "sold" the account to them for less than 1/3 of what we owed - shouldn't I be able to settle for what the agency bought the debt for? I'm in CT if this helps at all. Thank you in advance for any advice.


Asked on 10/27/09, 11:07 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Max Rosenberg Rosenberg,Whewell, & Hite, LLC

Wow. This is just another example of collection agencies being the bottom feeders that the majority are. What you have described are violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) Based on this federal law, you are entitled to up to One Thousand dollars paid by the Collection Agency to you as a penalty AS WELL AS your attorneys fees paid to your attorney. Since these cases can take some time, attorney fees can rack up and be pretty intimidating to the collection agency. Sometimes we are able to dispose of the debt entirely in this manner. I advise you to keep a diary of all communications with them (ie: date, time, name, substance of conversation, anything said that was offensive) There are very very few attorneys in Connecticut who handle these types of consumer cases. The learning curve is very steep so be sure to get a lawyer who is versed in consumer protection practice. Also you may eventually have Fair Credit Reporting Act claims as well depending on the outcome. I believe I wrote a blog or article on this topic on LawGuru or Avvo.com. Feel free to check it out as well. We are very experienced in this type of case. Feel free to contact us at 203.870.6770.

Read more
Answered on 11/01/09, 4:32 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Credit, Debt and Collections Law questions and answers in Connecticut