wrongedinandout
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Illinois
100% innocent here. I was evicted. It was a clerical error. Full stop. I'm not here to say, "I was evicted, but, yeah, I had a pitbull". Nope. Office person, or whomever, sent the paperwork on my unit instead of Bob's. Full story follows, but, I just wanted to ask how far I should take this.
IL
Important: Though this all happened in July 2014, I did not find out about any of this until Sept 2016.
Moved into property in July 2014. Signed, paid, got keys. Went to apartment. Was told to pay rent at the online portal. No checks accepted at property. New user. Portal would not recognize me. Played that song and dance for 13 days with documented calls to the property and their parent corp. Have evidence of all of this. In retrospect, company agrees they are completely at fault.
Property manager tells me they'll take a check. Write a check. Live a feckless existence there for 12 months. Move out in July 2015. Receive pristine rental record. No lates. Receive full deposit. No missed.
FF to September 2016. Two years later. Eviction filing with judgment of 1467 sits on the rental bureau reports and credit record and has been there for nearly 3 years. I can't get an apartment anywhere. Luckily, the place I was staying at already knew me and I had been a model tenant. They ignored the judgment and let me stay.
I blew up the phone at all rental property. Lawyer moves. Property manager (old one long gone) moves on this. Assure me it's their fault. Look at their books. Still their fault. Calls to corporate. Still their fault. Apologies from everywhere immediately to get it removed at the courts.
All parties weep that it was an automated eviction because they told me to skip the online portal but did not update my status as paid. They caught it later which is WHY I CONTINUED TO LIVE THERE.
in December of 2016, Lawyers "downgraded" the "judgment" to satisfied. I had asked for deletion and they assured me of deletion (motion to seal). Apparently, they did not do this, despite admitting this was their error.
This popped up again just the other day. New rental company says too bad, so sad; you seem nice, make good money, etc., but rule is, no J's, satisfied or not.
Went back to them. This time, I talked to the attorney of the property. He understood in under 2 seconds that they were at fault and cleaned it up immediately with a motion to seal. Apologies again.
Here's the rub:
I tell the company I would like the fees that I wasted in applying for apartments reimbursed. It was their fault, after all. They admit that. Attorney tells me to write up a ledger.
I'm busy. I talk to a couple of attorneys in the meantime. They tell me the rule of discovery applies and I would still be able to sue them for much more than fees.
My question here is: property has offered to refund the fees I spent applying and getting rejected because of their gross negligence. I asked for compensation to damages to my credit. They have violated FDCPA. Property said they think it's fair to refund just the fees and are sending a release with the fees to sign.
I am not particularly litigious and I'm honest when I say this. I don't have time for a long drawn out lawsuit, even if it's done on contingency (I've had different degrees of offers).
Yes, this has hurt my credit and I feel they are really awful for not wanting to compensate for emotional duress and defamation via credit reporting, etc. Credit is recovering after having a false public judgment, etc.
Should I take their "shut up" offer and move on or seek to have a huge battle in court? Chances of taking them to the cleaners?
I was also thinking of reporting the attorney to the ARDC because this is partially his fault. He filed against me and then failed to clean it up properly.
thoughts?
IL
Important: Though this all happened in July 2014, I did not find out about any of this until Sept 2016.
Moved into property in July 2014. Signed, paid, got keys. Went to apartment. Was told to pay rent at the online portal. No checks accepted at property. New user. Portal would not recognize me. Played that song and dance for 13 days with documented calls to the property and their parent corp. Have evidence of all of this. In retrospect, company agrees they are completely at fault.
Property manager tells me they'll take a check. Write a check. Live a feckless existence there for 12 months. Move out in July 2015. Receive pristine rental record. No lates. Receive full deposit. No missed.
FF to September 2016. Two years later. Eviction filing with judgment of 1467 sits on the rental bureau reports and credit record and has been there for nearly 3 years. I can't get an apartment anywhere. Luckily, the place I was staying at already knew me and I had been a model tenant. They ignored the judgment and let me stay.
I blew up the phone at all rental property. Lawyer moves. Property manager (old one long gone) moves on this. Assure me it's their fault. Look at their books. Still their fault. Calls to corporate. Still their fault. Apologies from everywhere immediately to get it removed at the courts.
All parties weep that it was an automated eviction because they told me to skip the online portal but did not update my status as paid. They caught it later which is WHY I CONTINUED TO LIVE THERE.
in December of 2016, Lawyers "downgraded" the "judgment" to satisfied. I had asked for deletion and they assured me of deletion (motion to seal). Apparently, they did not do this, despite admitting this was their error.
This popped up again just the other day. New rental company says too bad, so sad; you seem nice, make good money, etc., but rule is, no J's, satisfied or not.
Went back to them. This time, I talked to the attorney of the property. He understood in under 2 seconds that they were at fault and cleaned it up immediately with a motion to seal. Apologies again.
Here's the rub:
I tell the company I would like the fees that I wasted in applying for apartments reimbursed. It was their fault, after all. They admit that. Attorney tells me to write up a ledger.
I'm busy. I talk to a couple of attorneys in the meantime. They tell me the rule of discovery applies and I would still be able to sue them for much more than fees.
My question here is: property has offered to refund the fees I spent applying and getting rejected because of their gross negligence. I asked for compensation to damages to my credit. They have violated FDCPA. Property said they think it's fair to refund just the fees and are sending a release with the fees to sign.
I am not particularly litigious and I'm honest when I say this. I don't have time for a long drawn out lawsuit, even if it's done on contingency (I've had different degrees of offers).
Yes, this has hurt my credit and I feel they are really awful for not wanting to compensate for emotional duress and defamation via credit reporting, etc. Credit is recovering after having a false public judgment, etc.
Should I take their "shut up" offer and move on or seek to have a huge battle in court? Chances of taking them to the cleaners?
I was also thinking of reporting the attorney to the ARDC because this is partially his fault. He filed against me and then failed to clean it up properly.
thoughts?
