new to the collection game, please help

[aaron087]

My former roomate, my girlfriend, and I currently owe Ardent Property Management 568$ We were unwise and put it off until it was sent to their Collections Division. We recieved a phonecall from the Collection Division on Friday giving us a deadline of Tuesday the 16th to pay it before they posted it on our credit record. We felt as if some of the charges were unfair, such as a 25$ charge for a water bill that we already paid to the water company but Ardent refused to take it off the bill or talk to us about some of the other unfair charges (such as a prorate of 91$ because we turned in our keys 3 days after our move out date). We tried to work with their collection agent but he was rude and unwilling to hear us out and would even hang up on us at times. We tried to get him to let us talk to someone else but he refused saying he was the only one we could talk to. We have since then decided we are not going to deal with him and yesterday we recieved a letter in the mail saying we have 5 bussiness days to pay the debt or it may result in the charge being put on our credit and/or turned over to a collection agency. What should we do here? We are more then willing to pay off the debt, we just want to be treated fair and not have to pay for what we already paid for. Should we just let it get turned over to a collection agency? or should we send them a letter with a check written in the amount we are willing to pay?

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Pay what is owed and stop worrying about something as small as $25. It's not worth wrecking your credit over this.

Until your keys are actually turned back into management, you continue to owe rent on the unit.

Gail