Hello all, Over four years ago I lived in Denver, CO and signed a short (8 mos.) lease with a girl from Brazil. The landlord's name was Troy Walker. We met at a restaurant to sign the lease and we chatted a bit about our lives. He mentioned he owned a Private Investigating Company. After a few months of solely being repsonsible for the rent (although the Brazilian girl and I were both on the lease) I told my roommate that I needed some money and by the end of the week. Well I came home one day to find she was gone and with some of my stuff too!
After calling the police, I then called my landlord. He was understandable and I was honest and told him I would not be able to pay the full rent alone. The girl (we found out) was an illegal alien who had used a fake SS# therefore we couldn't find her (GREAT!) I offered to move into his 1 BR apartments (same building) and he said not to worry... That I didn't need to go anywhere until we found new tenants (it was winter and not the "busy" rental season.) So for Dec. And Jan. I paid my half of the rent which I understand was not the whole amount agreed to.
My lease was up in February but he had found new tenants so I moved out (in January) and stayed with friends. He also kept my security deposit (which was half a month's rent.) Therefore the landlord was really only "out" one-half rent (which equalled $450.00.)
I then moved to S. America and my mom started getting harrassing letters in the mail from his company saying that I owed thousands of dollars for bogus reasons. One of the reasons being a $25 DAILY late fee starting December (the first month I only paid half the rent.) That fee even went all the way until the end of February when I wasn't even living there anymore and new tenants were! I told her not to worry - that they were from his PI company and shouldn't be taken seriously! I didn't understand how he had gone from "nice understanding guy" to trying to get me for thousands of dollars!
Fast forward to a few years later, I am now living back in the US (a different state) and all of a sudeen I am getting calls from a collection agency AVINEX saying that the balance is due and that because of interest it has become $10,000.00!! I don't know what to do... It hasn't affected my credit score which I think is weird. The lady form AVINEX told me they didn't report this for my credit scores "as a courtesy."
Shouldn't I be hesitant to send them a check? I feel like this situation/company is bogus but I am still nervous! Any suggestions with similiar experiences? Sorry this is so long but I am worried and trying to explain the story as precisely as possible! Thank you for reading.
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