Address Updates for Company that no longer exists

[turtle19]

We received a notice from the court that we have an undeliverable address on our creditor list. Okay, no big deal. These things happen, usually the result of expired forwarding orders.

In our case, we have a creditor that is no longer in business. The Feds shut them down for fraudulent activity (taking ACH payments without proper permission). The forwarding order on the last address I had has expired. The new address listed (to where mail used to go) is now a different company that has no connection. There is a company that took on some of the deposit and loan accounts and they told me they do not have our account and couldn't offer me any more information. Thing is, it's still sitting on our credit report, with the old undeliverable address. There has been no activity on that entry since 2010. The feds officially shut them down in 2012, I think.

I'm pretty sure I can just dispute the entry it it will fall off our credit report. Nobody seems to be able reach anyone to verify the debt, and the trust that took over it's accounts has no record of me. I suspect that our account was part of the fraudulent accounts.... as we were impacted by their activity. But, that's a different story. We did take out the loan and we did owe the money.

I'm thinking we should update the address to that of the liquidating trust and leave it at that even though they told me they don't have a record of us.

Any other words of direction?

[turtle19]

Okay, as an update to that... we got a second letter today from the court. An amended one listing the creditor mentioned... but this one has an additional creditor, only this is a collection agency that no longer exists. The original creditor they were acting on behalf of is properly listed on the petition, so we have it covered. I looked them up and it seems the state revoked their license (now there's a shocker) for illegal collection activity. So, really... they're irrelevant.

I can't update the address to a new one. So... I'm thinking just leave it alone and just notate that they're out of business?

[AngelinaCat]

I would list the original creditor and the address, then append a note saying that you have posted the last information that you have available. Add to that, the notice that you have that the Creditor is Out of Business.

That should do it.

[turtle19]

That's what I was thinking, too. The original creditor was listed, and they are already aware of our filing. For this second address, that what I intend to do.

The first one... well, the original creditor is out of business, so that makes it more difficult. We've decided to just update the address to the liquidating trust handling the original creditor and let them deal with it. We may also notify the federal court that put them out of business, too, for information purposes. I can tell you that they don't have a record of our account, though, nor does the liquidating trust. I have it...so all I can do is just notify them and let it go. It's not my fault they can't find me...as long as we make a good faith effort, I think we've done our part.

On a side note, we may end up hiring an attorney prior to our 341 hearing anyway. After talking to several attorneys in consult, all of them have suggested we try to have student loans discharged because our situation meets the requirements and our local court is usually quite amendable to it, provided the debtors show good cause. I'm not sure I feel comfortable bringing an adversary proceeding for that pro se, though.... if we choose to do it. It can't hurt to try, of course, and I'm 99% sure at least some of them could be discharged because of disability and other factors. We've been told it's likely all of them would go. That sure would be nice.

[turtle19]

A small update here just for future reference if anyone has this happen... we've had a few others returned. Every single one of the ones returned are for collection agencies/assignees that are no longer in business or have changed names or moved to another state. Two of them (including the one I mentioned above) are entities that were shut down by the government for illegal collection practices. In each case the original creditor is also listed in our filing and is already aware of our filing -- so the debt is definitely listed and claimed. Additionally, since we are a no asset case there is no real concern in any of them coming back to cause problems since the debts will be discharged and it's done.

Under advisement of an attorney firend who has given been giving me some basic procedural information regarding local rules (he is not representing us or giving us advice.. just a heads up regarding procedural things), we are simply going to be filing (for these agencies out of business) a notice of address unavailability for each one we cannot locate, and briefly explain why it cannot be located. It will also contain an acknowledgment that no further notices shall be mailed to said creditor by the court. Now, this is only for those that we have confirmed out of business and 100% non-deliverable. Also, given our situation, as long as we can show we made an effort to locate them, then we're good to go since they wouldn't be receiving anything anyway and they are (or were) third-parties to the original creditor anyway.