Prior landlord sent me to collections for an exhorbitant amount. How do I dispute with the credit agencies? personalfinance

I lived in an apartment for 2.5 years where I paid the last month's rent in full at the time of the lease, a $600 security deposit, and a $25 pet rent per month each month. I notified them that I was moving to a city 3 hours away, showed them my offer letter, and vacated on the 22nd of the month with that month paid. I put an ad in Craigslist for a subtenant or replacement tenant, and they turned away every person I sent them and/or failed to return their calls.

I started getting nasty letters the month after I moved out, demanding that I pay that month's rent, even though that month was paid at move in. I then received a 7-page invoice detailing damages to the apartment (which I left completely empty): Two cleaning services (that both list carpet cleaning), breach of lease agreement, $1,000 carpet damage repair (with photos of it pealed up from the floor), rental concession and re-rent fees of $1,400 for leaving early, small issues like blinds and cabinet damage (<$100 total), and $600 of refrigerator damage that I honestly don't think was in my refrigerator. They claimed it was from someone using it as a step stool, and I would never do that--absurd. In total, they charged me $2800 on this invoice and did not take into account the $850 in pet rent I paid over 34 months. At that time they offered to settle for $1430 and, if not paid, threatened a state code that would penalize me 2x for neglectful and willful defacement of property.

They did apply my last month's rent to the unpaid rent of the last month, so most of these charges are these massive fees for these massive so called repairs where there is no proof that I caused them (ie, under the carpets or in the refrigerator). This complex has a reputation for doing this--I found out after I moved in and out.

I sent them a letter citing NM Civil Code for landlord's responsibility to mitigate damages, written evidence of the potential subtenants who stated they shrugged them off, stated no evidence of move-in condition was provided, and letters and notice to me continued at my current home after lies to my emergency contact to call them with my address because they had a check for me (right).

The $2800 is now in collections. I tried to dispute it through Equifax as an incorrect amount but it was denied.

What can I do? I won't pay it, period, but I want it off my credit. I am in New Mexico.

Submitted December 12, 2017 at 07:02AM by PsychedelicDoc http://ift.tt/2C3xmWR personalfinance