Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Georgia

This sounds suspiciously like a question that was asked before.

This is not a collections issue. You need to see a landlord tenant attorney about the security deposit. I don't know why they are garnishing you for $8000 when the judgment was vacated. They should have stopped this immediately.

Correct information can stay on your credit report. If you owed rent and were evicted for non-payment of rent that is going to stay on your credit report. The judgment will be noted that it was paid in full if that is what you negotiate. However, if you are paying in full, see if you can negotiate the removal of tihs - I caution you that the landlord may not bee able to do anything about this. The credit bureaus have their own way of checking public information. The only way to get public information corrected is to either get the judgment vacated or have it marked satisfied.

I am not sure why the landlord would owe you any security deposit at all if you owed rent. Did the landlord not provide you with a damage statement? Or not put the security deposit in an escrow account like he was suppposed to?

Here is the statute on security deposits: OCGA � 44-7-35. Remedies for landlord's noncompliance with article

(a) A landlord shall not be entitled to retain any portion of a security deposit if the security deposit was not deposited in an escrow account in accordance with Code Section 44-7-31 or a surety bond was not posted in accordance with Code Section 44-7-32 and if the initial and final damage lists required by Code Section 44-7-33 are not made and provided to the tenant.

(b) The failure of a landlord to provide each of the written statements within the time periods specified in Code Sections 44-7-33 and 44-7-34 shall work a forfeiture of all his rights to withhold any portion of the security deposit or to bring an action against the tenant for damages to the premises.

(c) Any landlord who fails to return any part of a security deposit which is required to be returned to a tenant pursuant to this article shall be liable to the tenant in the amount of three times the sum improperly withheld plus reasonable attorney's fees; provided, however, that the landlord shall be liable only for the sum erroneously withheld if the landlord shows by the preponderance of the evidence that the withholding was not intentional and resulted from a bona fide error which occurred in spite of the existence of procedures reasonably designed to avoid such errors.