Consumer complaint received 2016-08-01
Company: FAIR COLLECTIONS & OUTSOURCING, INC.
State: SD
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other (i.e. phone, health club, etc.)
Issue: Cont'd attempts collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not mine

Complaint:
Hello, I lived in a property that had such a poor reputation by the people who lived there it had to be renamed from : XXXX to XXXX in XXXX, XXXX. The properties management company was out of state ( XXXX apartments ) and a rental office was on site. The XXXX did not communicate well, and after a man was shot and killed in the garage of the complex I decided not to resign my lease. My relationship with the office was poor already because I called homelinemn on them because none of the properties out door security parking lot lights were functioning and because of the shooting I felt incredibly unsafe. I made a verbal agreement with the office manager in the leasing office on property who told me that was fine and to write out a letter and bring it back to him when I had time. I made XXXX attempts to bring it in, once he was not in, and once the office leasing agents asked me to come back later because they were preparing for their holiday party. I obliged and I brought it in the next week. 

When we moved out we assumed that some of our XXXX XXXX dollar deposit would go towards the two years of wear and tear of living there, however once we left we received XXXX invoices, the first had less charges then the second which also now said we owed a months rent for not getting our letter to leave in on time. The charges owed took our deposit and demanded an additional XXXX. This invoiced sited things like the black mold on the window seals and toilet, photo charges for them to take pictures of that mold, dog fesses they found outside they said was my dogs, new closet doors because the doors they replaced while we were there did n't match, and a late charge of XXXX month 's rent from the property management for not submitting my letter to leave in time, something I was verbally told by the leasing office was fine, and was attempted twice. 

We went to the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( who should have a file on this still ) and spoke with someone who said they could have helped with this had we still been living there but that because we moved and the bill came after they could not. 

Because we refused to pay they forwarded the charges to collections and now I am called at all hours of the day from debt collectors and my parent get harassing mail sent to their home address in XXXX. Please help me stop this. This was a wrongful charge, I believe they sent this to collections and did n't take us to small claims court because they knew they would lose. And this XXXX thing is making my credit score suffer. I need your help in removing this or at the very least asking them to stop harassing my family. I have copies of the charges and the letter they send my parents monthly. Please let me know if you would like these documents. 

Thank you,

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation