Asking for proof of debt is actually a valid tactic.
When I killed my land line and went cellular, oh, 30 years ago, I paid my last phone bill and cancelled.
5 years later I got a call from collections saying I owed for the final bill.
I apologized to them for Qwest wasting their time, told them what was up and asked for proof of debt for which I knew there was none.
Never heard from them again.
I was owed 30 cents or something by a TelCo about 20 years ago. So they sent me an invoice stating the debt every month. I asked them if they can just cut me a cheque or something and they said they wouldn’t for such a small amount.
So I received a -30c payable invoice monthly for years until the company went out of business.
Not sure what you mean? I tried and they said they wouldn’t issue a cheque for such a small amount. They weren’t going to send me 30c in the post.
When our “final balance” from the landlord (late fee + “repairs”) went to collections I asked for it, got all the documents, and forwarded it to my attorney along with everything else.
Long story short they settled out of court, then didn’t fulfill the settlement contract (namely the bit about removing the erroneous reports against my credit), then wound up getting fined 50 grand by my local government.
Fortunately my boss at the time was a lawyer, so he gave me alot of great advice throughout the entire ordeal.
Unfortunately he didn’t do landlord/tenant disputes, his area is class action and credit related.
So we waited until the landlord sent it off to the agencies, and he took the case on contingency.
Unfortunately that fine was a fine and not an award / damages. I would have liked that cash influx lol.
It doesn’t work as well with cars.
Typically, the car title will show if there was a loan used to buy it, so it is already documented with the state as part of showing ownership. At that point, the owner of the car loan doesn’t have to talk to the owner of the car to repossess the car, they just need to talk to the state to transfer ownership.
