Consumer complaint received 2024-01-23 00:00:00
Product: Debt collection — Rental debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt is not yours
Company: Rowland Avenue Management, Inc. A/KA Columbia Debt Recovery, LLC d/b/a Genesis
State: NJ

Complaint narrative:
XXXX of XXXX my hot water heater had broke and I requested a work order to repair or replace the hot water heater. After XXXX weeks of submitting multiple work orders and calling the leasing office, they finally had a third party contractor come to replace the hot water heater. While replacing the hot water heater, they caused a flood in the apartment which had flooded the second bedroom and had spread into the living room. We had to provide our own box fan to help dry out the flooding and no immediate action was taken to remedy the flooding by XXXX XXXX XXXX staff. XXXX weeks later they decided to rip out the carpet in the XXXX bedroom and the vinyl flooring from the living room to see if it would dry out. Floor was not drying out due to it being the middle of XXXX at this point so they decided to spray a bleach solution on the exposed flooring to stop any spread of mold. Apartment smelled like bleach for a solid XXXX weeks after the fact. Since I had renters insurance through XXXX XXXX XXXX I reached out to them in order to make a claim. XXXX XXXX XXXX sent me a form to fill out for the insurance and I sent it back to them and received no follow up on the claim. Now being XXXX of XXXX, we still had exposed flooring and mold present on the bare flooring. After attempting to communicate with the XXXX XXXX XXXX and management staff multiple times, there was not a resolution in sight to get our flooring cleaned and fixed. Due to being an unhealthy and safe environment my roommate and I submitted a 30 day notice to vacate the apartment complex. Once we submitted the notice, we started to get harassed by the leasing office saying we cant break our lease early and that we now owe them {$4200.00} and whatever interest and late fees we would incur since we were leaving early but still REFUSED to fix the apartment. I presented them with the Idaho renters code and the section of the lease saying we can vacate due to an unsafe and unhealthy environment were the leasing manager told me in person they would take care of the costs and we would not have to worry about it and we would received our security deposit of {$450.00} back. So I figured there would be no legal or financial issues since in my head it was deemed " resolved '' but when I went to apply for a mortgage on XX/XX/XXXX to purchase a home in my home town of XXXX, 2 days after having a mortgage inquiry on my credit report, XXXX XXXX sent the {$4200.00} balance to collections with the company Columbia Debt Recovery LLC DBA Genesis and has no incurred interest making the new balance of {$4300.00}. I have not had contact with XXXX XXXX since we had submitted our 30 day notice to vacate early and we never given any information on receiving our deposit back and now have a huge collection on my credit report by a predatory collection agency. While writing this complaint I have now conveniently received an email from the collection agency.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation