Consumer complaint received 2021-02-02
Company: National Credit Systems,Inc.
State: GA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not yours

Complaint:
My daughter is a college student in XXXX GA. She rented an apartment from XXXX XXXX at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, GA. 

Her lease agreement began XX/XX/XXXX, and ended XX/XX/XXXX. I was listed as her guarantor. 

My daughter moved out of the unit near the end of XX/XX/XXXX. Two months after she moved out she received a letter stating that she owed miscellaneous bogus fees of XXXX. She had not received any notification of these fees prior to the time. She had a video of her unit when she left showing no damages. She cleaned out all trash, and her father witnessed. I attempted to contact the apartment management via telephone numerous times, and they refused to speak with me. I sent emails. 

Upon move-in, she completed a move-in inspection form. There was no move-out inspection done, and per Georgia landlord-tenant laws if there were damages, they were obligated to notify her within 3 days of moveout, or the end of her lease, not two months later. 

Per the lease agreement, they were required to submit photos to us of damages claimed. There were no photos. 

" Within three ( 3 ) business days after the lease terminates, or a reasonable time after the landlord discovers the tenant vacated, the landlord must inspect the unit and prepare a list of all damages and the estimated dollar value of such damage. The landlord must sign the list and provide it to the tenant. O.C.G.A. 44-7-33. '' The lack of notification until two months later was noted by the management in the letter attached below. My daughter did not open the email sent over two months after her move out because she was not concerned about any issues, and she received other junk emails from them in the past. 

In addition to violating these laws, we were unaware of the law whereby a person who has an emotional support animal or a service dog can not be charged additional fees for the animal. 

My daughter 's dog is an emotional support animal and a certified service animal. We were quick to inform the apartment complex of this emotional support animal upon signing the lease agreement, and we supplied the necessary paperwork, attached. It was not until a few weeks ago, that we discovered the illegality of charging additional fees for her animal, but they did. The additional fees were a total of : XXXX over the course of the year. 

XXXX is not a large sum of money. My refusal to pay the fee is the result of the principle of not allowing them to steal from college kids. At this point, both my and my daughter 's credit scores have been affected. My score was XXXX and is now XXXX. My daughter 's score is now XXXX.

The collection agency name and address is : National Credit Systems , Inc . 
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX We have sent a letter to them as well as to the apartment complex. See attached. Letters were ignored. 

They have violated the Fair Housing Amendments Act by charging my daughter additional fees for her emotional support animal. 

I personally attempted to contact the apartment community many times and received no return calls. I emailed letters. I spoke to the collection agency. Nothing. 

We hired an attorney to send letters, which I will attach, to both the apartment community and the credit collection agency. The letters were sent and received, per certified mail, but we received no response. 

Please assist us with this matter. Thank you.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation