Credit Bureau Case Study about credit rating drop and collection on credit bureau.
We will call him Robert(obviously not a real name). Robert is 31 years old with positive trade lines on his bureau since mid 2011. Revolvers are all R1 with no missed payments. Installment are I1 with no missed payments. Utilizing is approximately 60%. So for lack of a better statement I would say that Robert has good credit for his age, with decent management. He has spent the last 1.5 years building his credit to where it needs to be, to move forward. Here’s where the story begins. Robert and company had rented a house for sometime and decided to move out of this house. After leaving this house the landlord, who we will call “Calgary Landlord”, decided to place a collection on Roberts bureau for a very large amount. I would assume this is for damage that was apparently caused to the house. My first question would be “is this allowed”?. Can a landlord place a collection, through a collection agency, on a persons credit bureau without actually getting a won judgement in court? Am I too assume that every landlord out their can place a collection on a tenants credit bureau without actually having a guilty tenant. I have to understand that if landlords were able to do this that their would be pissed off landlord all over the province placing collections on tenants. My next question would be “How can the collection agency place this on a persons credit bureau without factual proof the tenant was aware of this outstanding bill”? We will follow Robert in his quest to get this collection removed from his bureau and have”Calgary Landlord” held accountable, and also have the collection agency held accountable for their error. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and the hours involved into getting this situation handled. If Robert has a legitimate dispute he can contact Equifax at this link http://credittalk.ca/?p=127
CBC did an article on credit bureau mistakes. See it here
My suggestion would be to contact Equifax and submit a dispute. I could be wrong but I think Equifax has 90 days to complete the investigation and properly report the action to the persons Credit Bureau. I think Equifax would contact the collection agency and ask for proof of the outstanding amount. I would think if that document cant be produced then its an easy win. But here’s the thing. If Robert goes to get a car loan Calgary or a low interest car loan would he get approved with a new collection that reports in Dec 2012, and a collection for a very large amount, lets just say $7000. Would Robert now qualify for a bad credit car loans Calgary or an Everyone Approved Car Loan in Calgary ? If so, does Robert have the right to go after damages for the outstanding interest amount he paid?
We will follow up with this story to see how Robert can handle this situation. As we get updates we will keep it posted here
Just my 2 Cents
-M
Mark
