Product: Debt collection

We short sold in XXXX and, as part of the agreement, we would pay Real Time Resolutions ( who was not our original lender, but purchased our loan in the middle of the short sale ) {$15000.00} at 0 % interest with a monthly payment of {$120.00}, after receiving threats that they would wait to sue us for the balance after the economy recovered. We never had one late payment, even when they stopped sending us monthly statements for several months in XXXX and XXXX. ( We made a lot of payments via USPS signature  confirmation because they didn't have any kind of business ethics. ) I called to find out why no statements and was told that the lender put a " cease and desist '' on the account but that they would again start sending us statements. Then in XXXX, we purchased another home and our broker had to call them since they were not reporting any of our payments to the credit bureaus. We continued to pay. We did a refinance with our current lender, XXXX, in XX/XX/XXXX and were notified that in order to refi, the " real estate loan '' had to be paid off since it looks like we own property somewhere. They said they would roll it into the refi and that would be cleared up. 8-10 months later, we purchased a car and they said something was coming up on our credit, a real estate loan with RTR. We had never gotten a phone call, email or letter from RTR, absolutely no communication whatsoever. I called RTR and they said that we owed around {$1800.00} after all of the late fees they attached. They said I would have to email a request to receive any statements or balance to XXXX. Otherwise they could not help me or actually show me how much was owed. I then called XXXX since when we signed the notarized copy of the refi, the payment to RTR was on the documents. XXXX said there must have been a mistake with the paperwork and apologized for the confusion. In the meantime, I emailed RTR 's required address multiple times with absolutely no returned communication, I called and XXXX, XXXX and several other reps could not help me, claiming a cease and desist on the account ( I have no idea what that is and not one could explain ). I spoke with an XXXX XXXX today, XX/XX/XXXX and he stated that " since the file had been opened since XXXX, its passed the statute of limitations. It's been in collection for 7 years so they can no longer collect according to state law, '' and that our account is " uncollectible. '' He said it is charged off but not written off and that RTR did receive several emails from me regarding money owed, requesting statements, and verifying our address. He says that now for us to get this handled, we have to email another request to XXXX to " ask for the charge off to be lifted and pay the debt. '' My concern is that they have never been honest, never tried to contact me, they have never reported correctly to the credit bureaus. We don't know what to do. We never had one late payment, it was a ZERO percent interest deal, and I pride myself on trying to get bills paid. We only owed a little over {$1300.00} when we went to refinance. I never would have defaulted and feel like they hold some responsibility in this since they have a correct address, phone number and email on file. We have never dealt with such a shady, manipulative business.