Judgement against a different tenant on my credit report

[piper623]

I also posted this in Landlord-Tenant - not sure of the most appropraite place for it.

We entered into a lease with a mobile home community in 2003 and a separate lease with the owner of the mobile home at the same time. The lease was 1 year for the first year and month to month for the second and subsequent years.

In March 2008, we purchased our first house and I submitted a notice to vacate effective June 30, 2008 to both the mobile home community and owner.

The mobile home was leased to another tenant in July 2008.

I was checking my credit report tonight, and low-and-behold a judgment appears from the mobile home park effective 06/2009. I was never served for this court appearance.

I checked the court records on the county website and though the party name is mine, it says "Served to whom: <name of the later tenant> OCCUPANT. So they served the new tenant, but the case was against me?!?

Now, the owner of the mobile home just happens to be my best friend. She also took the tenant to court at the same time to sue for eviction and past due rent. The mobile home land lease is now in her name and she had to pay the back rent on the lot to ressume the lot lease. During all of that, not ONCE did it come up that the land lease was not in the new tenant's name.

On the upside, I have lots of backup documentation - the case filing served to the new tenant, copies of lease agreements between the mobile home owner and the new tenant, testimony of the mobile home owner that the park claimed to her that the land lease to the new tenant was in place (they had to do a background check - she was not entitled to a copy of the lease).

This judgement is totally jacking my credit.

How do I go about disputing this?

 

[jharris352]

Wow. I use to be a lawyer and a mortgage lender so I suppose I'm the one to answer this one. I've heard some screwed up crap in my life but this one takes the cake! This is going to be a complicated answer so let me take this piece by piece to make certain I understand it.

We entered into a lease with a mobile home community in 2003 and a separate lease with the owner of the mobile home at the same time. The lease was 1 year for the first year and month to month for the second and subsequent years.

In March 2008, we purchased our first house and I submitted a notice to vacate effective June 30, 2008 to both the mobile home community and owner.

You had two leases: one for the mobile home and one for the lot. When you vacated each you were on a month to month and you gave them notice, paid your rent, and left on good terms on or about June 30, 2008.

The mobile home was leased to another tenant in July 2008.

I was checking my credit report tonight, and low-and-behold a judgment appears from the mobile home park effective 06/2009. I was never served for this court appearance.

I checked the court records on the county website and though the party name is mine, it says "Served to whom: <name of the later tenant> OCCUPANT. So they served the new tenant, but the case was against me?!?

During your mortgage loan you find a judgment from the MOBILE HOME PARK not the mobile home owner against you for a time period when you were not an owner.

The rest of the post is just fill in information because you weren't sued by your friend but she can help prove that you weren't in the property etc etc.

Ok, I think I get it. Correct me if I'm wrong up there. Here is what you do.

I imagine the Mobile Home Park used an attorney to get a judgment against you. (I hope so this will be so much easier if they did). Contact that attorney and tell them your story, forward what proof you have to them. Tell them you need a letter on their stationary that indicates that they are the attorneys of record on this judgment, that you were sued in error, and that they are diligently working to vacate the judgment.

They should have NO PROBLEM giving you that letter because they screwed up big. Take that letter to your lender and tell them to attempt a "rescore" of all three bureaus with regard to the judgment. That letter should be enough for the bureaus to remove the errant judgment, rescore your credit, and you can move along with your loan. Provide the closing attorney with a copy of the letter for his/her records also.

The Mobile Home Park's attorneys will then go back to court and seek to vacate the judgment that they got. If the mobile home park didn't have an attorney I'll tell you how to do that yourself.

Good luck, that is the most screwed up credit issue I have run into in a long time.

 

[piper623]

Thanks for the information!

Fortunately, we had already closed on our house before we moved out of the mobile home and before the judgement, and we aren't seeking credit at the moment, so we have to time to get this taken care of.

We'll find out tomorrow if the park used an attorney and I'll be back to get the DIY version if the they did not.

This is exactly why I check my credit twice a year whether I need to apply for credit or not!

 

[jharris352]

If you have a copy of the judgment it will tell you on it's face if an attorney was handling the case. Look on the last page and see if an attorney wrote the order. His/her name and address and signiture will be there.

Since you are in no rush, a regular request to the credit bureau to correct your credit will be sufficient. You might even wait until the judgment has been vacated.

What a strange case you have!