Collections...

[The Captain]

So if you follow my story you know my family moved to a new area about a year ago.

Nicer area, yep - definitely a few rungs up the economic ladder.  The house we purchased had been rented previously because the owner couldn't sell it during the financial downturn.

We've found out from discussions with neighbors that two guys were renting it.  Two dudes ratteling around in a 2,500+ sq ft house.

(yes, I know there's only three of us in there now but we're also ready for an in-law situation).

So a month ago the postal forwarding expires.  And we start getting a lot of letters that look like collections/bills from various places.

Hmmm...well we send those on to the post office to be forwarded.

Yesterday, yes - yesterday (Sunday) apparently some big mean looking guy walks up to our front door and starts ringing the bell and pounding on the door.

He demands to see (the former tenant) and doesn't believe DH when he tells the guy they no longer live there.  Asks if DH would allow him to go in the house.

WTF?   Of course DH said no and told the guy to get the hell off our property.  The guy asked DH if he would tell him when we purchased the house/moved in and DH told him when it was roughly last year.

The guy writes something down in a notebook and leaves.

Now folks, MR. Captain is about 6'2" and hefty.  If you didn't know him and he had his mad face on, you would hire him as a bouncer (never mind he's as sweet as a teddy bear) and be able to sleep soundly knowing you were safe. 

Of COURSE I wasn't home at the time so I got all this second hand.

Two questions:

1.  WFT?!?  Should I be worried (ok - count those as one question)

2.  WTH were these guys (former tenants) thinking? - They obviously couldn't afford this place and their bills.

Ugg.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

Probably owed money to loan sharks (or drug dealers) too ... Sounds like Vito and Carlo were coming by to collect on a debt.

[The Captain]

Jun 1, 2015 12:35:28 GMT -5 ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ said:

Probably owed money to loan sharks (or drug dealers) too ... Sounds like Vito and Carlo were coming by to collect on a debt.

NOT Helping!

[lexxy703]

It could be the IRS.  When my ex owed they pounded on the door.  They went to our neighbors & told them he was a deadbeat.

[Tennesseer]

I wouldn't worry about it.  The idiot had a face-to-face with your husband.  That should be the end of it.

[mollyanna58]

Jun 1, 2015 12:36:55 GMT -5 The Captain said:

Jun 1, 2015 12:35:28 GMT -5 ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ said:

Probably owed money to loan sharks (or drug dealers) too ... Sounds like Vito and Carlo were coming by to collect on a debt.

NOT Helping!

Don't worry.  Vito and Carlo wouldn't have waited a year to show up.

[Deleted]

Post "no trespassing" signs. If they come on the property you just call police to get them out of there.

The person didn't identify what debt collection agency they were from?

[wyouser]

Ummmm? Hire John Wick?? (the guy from the movie

[NancysSummerSip]

I would have demanded identification from him, and I would not have opened the door to him, nor would I have given him a scrap of information (the date you purchased the house is on file at the county property appraiser's office, BTW...the goon could have found out that info, and more, had he bothered to do the damned research).

And while people can run, they generally cannot hide...the former tenants can be tracked, if he has a minimum of information. Even just their names, provided they are not dirt-common names, can be enough.

This goon sounds like someone who was owed a personal debt and is out to collect it the hard way. If he shows up or contacts you in any way, get the police involved. A legit collection investigation does not generally go the way yours did, though sometimes, as Lexxy said, the feds get a little pissy.

[The Captain]

Jun 1, 2015 12:42:07 GMT -5 @rockit said:

Post "no trespassing" signs. If they come on the property you just call police to get them out of there.

The person didn't identify what debt collection agency they were from?

Our association doesn't allow signage on private properties.

The local county sheriff lives a few houses over.  DH knows him from local meetings.  He may casually mention it to him at the next meeting in a few weeks.

And no, the person didn't identify themselves as from any collection agency, that is just an assumption on our part.

We've owned this property for a year now and have actually lived there for 11 months.  It seems odd that something like this would take so long to happen...

[The Captain]

Jun 1, 2015 12:51:28 GMT -5 NancysSummerSip said:

I would have demanded identification from him, and I would not have opened the door to him, nor would I have given him a scrap of information (the date you purchased the house is on file at the county property appraiser's office, BTW...the goon could have found out that info, and more, had he bothered to do the damned research).

And while people can run, they generally cannot hide...the former tenants can be tracked, if he has a minimum of information. Even just their names, provided they are not dirt-common names, can be enough.

This goon sounds like someone who was owed a personal debt and is out to collect it the hard way. If he shows up or contacts you in any way, get the police involved. A legit collection investigation does not generally go the way yours did, though sometimes, as Lexxy said, the feds get a little pissy.

Yea, well like I said DH was there and he's nicer (much less suspicious of humanity) than am I. 

I'll brief him and if it happens again it will go down differently.

[NancysSummerSip]

Jun 1, 2015 12:58:33 GMT -5 The Captain said:

Jun 1, 2015 12:51:28 GMT -5 NancysSummerSip said:

I would have demanded identification from him, and I would not have opened the door to him, nor would I have given him a scrap of information (the date you purchased the house is on file at the county property appraiser's office, BTW...the goon could have found out that info, and more, had he bothered to do the damned research).

And while people can run, they generally cannot hide...the former tenants can be tracked, if he has a minimum of information. Even just their names, provided they are not dirt-common names, can be enough.

This goon sounds like someone who was owed a personal debt and is out to collect it the hard way. If he shows up or contacts you in any way, get the police involved. A legit collection investigation does not generally go the way yours did, though sometimes, as Lexxy said, the feds get a little pissy.

Yea, well like I said DH was there and he's nicer (much less suspicious of humanity) than am I. 

I'll brief him and if it happens again it will go down differently.

Aw, your DH is just a cuddly teddy bear. Not that I would want to poke and provoke that bear. Just sayin'.

[Peace77]

Put a pair of LARGE dog food bowls on your front porch.  Put a little water in one and a smear of gravy in the other one.

[wvugurl26]

The only people I've ever had knocking on the door was IRS for the former tenants. No one was home but they left all these pamphlets. I knew who they wanted because I'd been marking all their letters return to sender not at this address. I called the agent and told her they moved four years ago. Never saw another letter.

[Bluerobin]

It is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to advise any one other than the debtor of a debt.  These folks must not have been too professional.  Otherwise they could skip trace the debtors and find them.  Guess where I spent my career?
If anyone bugs you about debts that are not yours, firmly tell them not to ever bother you again, or you will take action against them.  Then if they persist contact your Attorney General's office.  You can usually do a complaint on line. 

ETA:  being a sick ticket, when I first got our present phone number, we got all sorts of collection calls.  I used to play with the collectors. 

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

These folks must not have been too professional.

That's why my first thought was "loan shark". They don't exactly have a reputation of conducting fair business practices - charging exorbitant interest rates, etc.

The guys they were looking for had probably ruined their credit and then robbed Peter to pay Paul, so to speak and then defaulted on the loan.

[NastyWoman]

Long. long time ago when xH and I bought our first house we were awoken within a few weeks of moving in with a very loud "POLICE, OPEN UP" in the middle of the night.  Turns out the husband of the couple we bought house from was the cops "go-to-man" whenever a specific type of robbery had taken place. 

It was only the one time but it sure as heck stuck with me...

[Deleted]

Maybe they've done something to piss someone off recently and your house was the last place the offended person knew they lived.

[lexxy703]

Jun 1, 2015 15:04:47 GMT -5 NastyWoman said:

Long. long time ago when xH and I bought our first house we were awoken within a few weeks of moving in with a very loud "POLICE, OPEN UP" in the middle of the night.  Turns out the husband of the couple we bought house from was the cops "go-to-man" whenever a specific type of robbery had taken place. 

It was only the one time but it sure as heck stuck with me...

I imagine that is not something easily forgotten.

[Opti]

Yesterday, yes - yesterday (Sunday) apparently some big mean looking guy walks up to our front door and starts ringing the bell and pounding on the door.

He demands to see (the former tenant) and doesn't believe DH when he tells the guy they no longer live there. Asks if DH would allow him to go in the house.

That is weird. Did he ask him why he wanted to go into the house?

[resolution]

We bought our house as a foreclosure 6 years ago and we are still getting mail (assumedly collection requests) for the former residents. We are also getting collection calls for them, even though they never had our phone number. Apparently the collection agencies look up the phone number for the address and then call us. However we have never had them actually show up at the house.

[The Captain]

Jun 1, 2015 15:53:29 GMT -5 Opti said:

Yesterday, yes - yesterday (Sunday) apparently some big mean looking guy walks up to our front door and starts ringing the bell and pounding on the door.

He demands to see (the former tenant) and doesn't believe DH when he tells the guy they no longer live there. Asks if DH would allow him to go in the house.

That is weird. Did he ask him why he wanted to go into the house?

Nope.  DH was too busy telling the guy hell no!

I'm presuming the guy though the deadbeat was hiding under a couch or something?

[andi9899]

That's pretty scary. Baby Daddy owed the IRS and they came looking for him at my house. Well, a lady from the post office did with a certified letter. I told them he didn't live there and they just said ok and left. I was so pissed he was still using my address that I wanted to call his brother and tell him to have his deadbeat brother to stop using my address. I didn't want to open a can of worms though.

[zibazinski]

Must make it tough when so many people don't have home phones now to track them with.

[Opti]

Jun 1, 2015 16:59:45 GMT -5 The Captain said:

Jun 1, 2015 15:53:29 GMT -5 Opti said:

That is weird. Did he ask him why he wanted to go into the house?

Nope.  DH was too busy telling the guy hell no!

I'm presuming the guy though the deadbeat was hiding under a couch or something?

Just curious if the guy was really looking for someone, or something?

[kittensaver]

Jun 1, 2015 16:59:45 GMT -5 The Captain said:

Jun 1, 2015 15:53:29 GMT -5 Opti said:

That is weird. Did he ask him why he wanted to go into the house?

Nope.  DH was too busy telling the guy hell no!

I'm presuming the guy though the deadbeat was hiding under a couch or something?

I hope the previous tenants did not hide money or goods somewhere in the house that this person now wants to come after!

[Sharon]

I can't find the article at the moment but a few months ago I read about an Aaron's furniture store that was using that type of collections tactic.  They wanted in the house to see if the furniture that they had financed was still there.

[Bonny]

Jun 1, 2015 14:34:38 GMT -5 Bluerobin said:

It is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to advise any one other than the debtor of a debt.  These folks must not have been too professional.  Otherwise they could skip trace the debtors and find them.  Guess where I spent my career?
If anyone bugs you about debts that are not yours, firmly tell them not to ever bother you again, or you will take action against them.  Then if they persist contact your Attorney General's office.  You can usually do a complaint on line. 

ETA:  being a sick ticket, when I first got our present phone number, we got all sorts of collection calls.  I used to play with the collectors. 

If the debt is big enough you may get a personal visit. My father and his girlfriend were visited by a debt collector looking for my brother. My brother's house (the former home of my parents) was finally foreclosed upon after being in some state of foreclosure for about 10 years.

According to my father, the debt collector said my brother listed my father's girlfriend's home as an additional asset on a home loan application.  Needless to say, it upset my father's girlfriend enough that she made arrangements to "hide" her ownership in a Trust.

When I asked my brother about it, the first thing he said was "I'm not on title how could they go after her" which I thought was a little strange. Why did he choose a technical response vs flat out deny that he did it? A year or two later he stated that he had listed my father as a personal reference at the address.

I don't know what the truth is and I'm not likely to find out. I know debt collectors will lie or try to manipulate to get what they want (I have direct experience from settling my mother's estate). I also know that my brother has a long history exaggerating his successes and I could easily believe he would list an interest in a house my father co-owned using the logic that he would get half of my dad's share when my father died. Since many of the home equity loan(s) to my brother were made during the NINJA times I could certainly believe that a loan officer or underwriting would not have followed up on a claimed partial ownership.

My brother is specifically excluded from my father's will and they do not talk to each other. As a practical financial matter this means nothing. Dad doesn't have anything meaningful in the way of assets and is not likely to have anything in the future. But it does make me sad that they are so bitterly angry at each other. I have tried to get them to see each other's point of view but they both prefer to stay in a hateful state towards each other. <Sigh> As they say, not my circus not my monkey. It's just another example of why I have limited contact with either of them.

[Bluerobin]

Bonny, I made many personal visits.  But you can only mention the debt to the debtor.  You are violating the law if you mention it to someone else.

[Bonny]

Jun 2, 2015 12:46:47 GMT -5 Bluerobin said:

Bonny, I made many personal visits.  But you can only mention the debt to the debtor.  You are violating the law if you mention it to someone else.

I'm not familiar with the details of the Federal Fair Debt Collections law. I did use the CA one to push back on a lender who tried to collect on foreclosure costs on my mother's condo supposedly incurred five years ago (CA statute of limitations is four years).

Could a debt collector state that a property that my father and girlfriend were living in was collateral for my brother's loan? This would have been in about 2009. Not sure when the last time the law was updated. And just for added amusement my father said the collector stated that he was a former cop; not sure if the collector added that information for intimidation or legitimacy reasons.