Is it legal to send me to collections without notifying me first?
I co-signed an apt for a friend having marital problems. She decided to end the lease early, and went through all the proper channels to do so. She had to sign paperwork, pay a percentage of the amount left on the lease, etc. As far as we both knew this was all final in October. About 2 weeks ago I received a letter denying me credit due to a delinquency on my credit report. I checked my credit report and have now found out that the apt complex has sent me to collections for an unpaid balance on the apt. They claim they never received payment from my friend. She had nothing but accounting problems with this complex the entire time she lived there, balances being posted to the wrong accounts, or not posted at all etc. I am hoping she can get it resolved. So my question is, even if my friend did not pay the debt, don't they have an obligation to contact my friend and I BOTH, regarding the debt and request payment before just sending it to collections? I have perfect credit and would not have hesitated to pay it myself and figure out the mistake later, to avoid this being put on my credit report. They had my phone number, address etc. I never received a call, a piece of mail, nothing. Do I have any recourse? This is extremely upsetting