Consumer complaint received 2018-12-19
Company: HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENT ASSISTANCE AUTHORITY (HESAA)
State: FL
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Private student loan debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive enough information to verify debt

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from an attorney 's office, XXXX XXXX, XXXX located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, NJ XXXX that I owed a debt to NJ Higher Education Assistance. On XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted a letter to the law firm formally disputing the debt and asking for proof of this debt. ( See attached letter ). Also, on XX/XX/XXXX I ran my credit report to investigate this claim, and all reports from each credit reporting agency reported ZERO accounts in default, zero late payments and had absolutely NO record at all of a debt to the NJ Higher Education Assistance. ( See attached credit reports from each agency dated XXXX ). 

On or about XX/XX/XXXX, I was in the process of purchasing a home, and my lender, XXXX XXXX  ran my credit report and at this time, yet again, there are no records of any late payments, or any outstanding debt to NJ Higher Education Assistance. ( See attached lender report ). You can imagine my surprise that only 6 short weeks later, I was declined a refinance application because my credit report was now reporting this loan in default for well over 90+ days, and it significantly dropped my credit score and my lending qualification. Furthermore, I never heard anything back from either NJ Higher Education Assistance or from the law firm, XXXX XXXX. It was only a year later when I was preparing to refinance my mortgage on XX/XX/XXXX, that my lender advised me that there were now two delinquent accounts reporting negative information for a total debt in the amount of {$5600.00}. It was HESAA 's responsibility to report this to me immediately, and they never did. 

To date, I have still not received proof of the validity of the debt. However, I have since learned on my own that I am listed as a co-borrower for this debt. Therefore, my issue is not the actual debt. It is the fact that the lender never reported this account on my credit profile in over 7 years. At no point did the lender notify me that the original borrower was behind. The lender NEVER sent me invoices or notices of the account being late. The lender NEVER gave me any opportunity to work with the original borrower to bring this account to a current status. The lender then defaulted on this account and sent it to collections. After a year of this debt being parked, it was only when I went to apply for a refinance that the collection law firm posted this debt with all if it's late payments on my credit profile. Then, a year after the account defaulted they reported all the late payments on my account. 

This directly goes against the Fair Credit Reporting Act which requires lenders to send notice before reporting negative information to credit reporting agencies. This lender, NJ Higher Education Assistance regularly extends credit and regularly furnishes information to the consumer reporting agencies. In fact, it was regularly reporting information on the original borrower. At no time over the course of 7 years, did it EVER report any information on my credit report. Furthermore, NJ Higher Education Assistance failed to notify me and failed to give me any opportunity to bring this account to a current status. I was never provided with any written notice or communication from the lender, including any billing statements, late notices, etc. 

Thereafter, I disputed the debt with the collection law firm representing NJ Higher Education and again they failed to provide me with any information on this debt. After parking the debt for a year, they then reporting all the late information to the credit report agencies as I was applying to refinance my home. Therefore, my loan was denied. In addition, NJ Higher Education Assistance refuses to speak with me directly after my several attempts to contact them. They always redirect me to the collection firm, XXXX XXXX who also refuses to acknowledge my claim. All they say is that I owe this debt and I must pay. They refuse to remove the negative information off of my report. They also failed to provide me with any documents of the validity of the loan to date. 

Lastly, I received a notice from the NJ XXXX XXXX ( attached ) informing me that they will now hold my NJ XXXX XXXX to apply towards this debt. Once again, I was never notified about this loan, and now they are taking multiple actions to hurt my credit and hold my tax rebate. NJ Higher Education Assistance has caused me undue harm by failing to notify me for years about this debt. They should not get away with destroying my credit history when they neglected their duty in notifying me of this debt, and failing to report to me that the original borrower was falling behind.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation