Jess and I finally settled on an apartment to move into on July 25th: Tuscany Villas in Plano, TX. Yesterday, we were both talking about how excited we were to be moving into a new place and how much both really liked it. Seemingly, minutes after we had that conversation, I got a call from our leasing agent. According to her, I have two outstanding debts with two apartment complexes and a bad mark on my credit. The two outstanding debts makes it impossible for us to move in there with clearing them up before-hand, and the bad mark means we have to pay additional deposit.
The first debt is from an apartment complex I lived in 5 years ago. I lived there with three other people and I was the first to move out. To be honest, it highly possible that we owed them money, as that place was trashed. And, since my other roommates handled all the move-out issues, it’s possible that they never notified me that we owed money. The weird thing, however, is that I’ve lived in 5 other apartments, bought 2 new cars, have been approved for a credit card, and opened a cell phone account all without any trouble. They claim I owe them $700. It looks like the only thing I can do is pay the bill, and I doubt my other roommates will ever provide their portion of that debt.
The second debt is from my apartment with Brad and Jaclyn: The Mansions of Coyote Ridge. About a month after moving out, I got a bill from them saying I owed over $790.30 in excess of my $700 in deposits. Then I got another letter stating that it was $651.30. I contacted their manager. I told them that I didn’t feel the charges were unreasonable, but that I didn’t feel the services they performed on the apartment were needed. I told her that the place was spotless when I left and that I had pictures to prove it. She told me that, because the damage was so extensive, they had pictures of her own. She agreed to call me back and not turn my account over to collection until this was resolved. She never did. I contacted them again sometime later only to find that a new manager, Amber, had been hired. I left Amber at least 3 different phone messages, yet she never returned my calls. Then, one day, in order to get a credit for my Cable Modem service, they printed my a ledger showing my zero account balance with them. I didn’t bother ever calling again, because I figured that, since I had a zero account balance, they must have taken care of it and getting any of my remaining $700 in deposit back was probably not going to happen. Apparently, I was wrong. Because it’s on my credit now. I called them yesterday only to find out that there is yet another manager, Amy, who now operates the property. She told me that Amy wasn’t in and that I’d have to call back the next day (today). Additionally, she told me that she couldn’t give me the phone number or contact information for their corporate office, which is the same thing they told me the last time I asked. The very unfortunate thing here is that, the pictures I had of that apartment were on the harddrive that crashed and I didn’t have any backups. So, I don’t really have any proof of the state of the apartment when I left it except for one picture of the kitchen after it was cleaned.
The supposed bad mark on my credit is from South Western Bell claiming that I have an account with them that is past due. While, given my money management skills, this is entirely possible in most circumstances, it is impossible right now as I currently have an account with South Western Bell which they would not allow me to do if I owed them money. Additionally, when I turned on service in this apartment, South Western Bell informed me that I had $194.43 in unpaid debt to them from a previous account and that I had to pay it before I could set up new service. Which I did. So, while I most likely will not have to pay South Western Bell any money, I will have to contact them, get a letter that states that I did indeed pay my balance, and ask them to clear my name with TransUnion (as well as, possibly, the other two Credit Reporting Agencies).
I don’t know what to do about the outstanding apartment debt. I can just pay the $1300 that is owed, eat it, call it a loss, and move on. Or, I can try to renew in this apartment and fight the charges, most likely losing because, if it comes down to me having to sue them, since they have better lawyers and I have no proof. I can continue living here, and just not pay the bill, but it will continue to haunt me from apartment to apartment until I take care of it. I can try to find a place that will let me put down a very large deposit in order to forget about my outstanding debt, but, even then, the trouble will still follow me.
What should I do? Are there any other options I’m overlooking? Is there anyway to fight this? What would I do if I didn’t have $1300?
One thing is for sure. Even the little bit of information I happened to post in my journal in regard to these things has been very valuable in figuring out what happened when and how. I need to post more of the mundane, day-to-day activities of my life here, in case I ever need to refer back to them.
When it rains… it pours.