Consumer complaint received 2025-07-24 00:00:00
Product: Debt collection — Rental debt
Issue: False statements or representation — Attempted to collect wrong amount
Company: Rowland Avenue Management, Inc. A/KA Columbia Debt Recovery, LLC d/b/a Genesis
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/year> I filled out an application and paid a {$99.00} fee to XXXX XXXX, an apartment complex as I was looking to possibly move from my current apartment. As it turned out I never moved in or signed a lease or anything else, only an application form. Nothing in the application form said anything about any additional fees ever being owed if I did not move in. Several months later I received a phone call from XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX who are the property managers of the complex at the time. They called and said that I owed them {$150.00}. I inquired why that would be and they were vague and said it was an administrative fee. At that point I asked for paper verification through the mail as I was not aware I owed them anything more than the {$99.00} application fee which I had already paid and have receipts for. I never received anything in the mail. We went back and forth for some time on this before I gave up after several calls. After an additional four or five months I received a call from a collection agency referring to XXXX XXXX  and the debt I previously described. I asked them again for something in writing to verify what they were talking about as I have no clue what they're talking about and again over several requests I received nothing in the mail. At that point I forgot about it and didn't think anything more of it until I got an alert that a negative report had gone on to my credit score. At that point I contacted all three credit reporting agencies have filed two appeals with all three of them and a third one with XXXX  and only XXXX  has taken this off of my credit report. This has significantly reduced my credit score from the upper XXXX to just below XXXX and has cost me to denials for life insurance and credit that I would otherwise be qualified for but was turned down. After over a year of already being on the credit reports they sent me to XXXX  one which was a copy of my application form that I had filled out and a computer generated form dated in XXXX almost 4 months after my initial application described as an administrative fee for moving out expenses. Since I have never lived there to move out and had never been informed of any additional costs in writing or verbally I dispute this is a debt that I owe.

When I appeal to the credit reporting agencies I received letters that confirmed that this was about me but it won't confirm that I owe anything and this has been my dilemma. I have to prove I don't owe
anything but XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX and XXXX XXXX  don't have to have any paperwork or anything to show I owe them anything and therefore my credit report goes bad or I pay money I don't owe. Furthermore the collection agency told me that even if I get it off the credit report they just will refile it the following month and it goes back on to my credit report. XXXX  has confirmed that to me that this is true. So per XXXX  advice I am filing a complaint with this agency. The total amount they claimed I owe is {$150.00} and they've been adding interest for the last 2 years. I do not have one late payment or any charge against me on my credit report except for this and it is ruining my credit score which ends up costing me money all because of this false report that I can't get off because there's no way to prove I don't owe it. Please help and thank you very much for your attention.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation