How long can landlords attempt to collect rent?

My ex and I lived together for a year. We were "equals" on the lease, names wise. A month before our lease was over I moved out and he stayed. He made a verbal agreement to the front office to pay the rent when he moved out but refuses now and changed his phone number. Now a collection agency is calling me for the rent simply because "they cannot get in touch with Mr. Martin." We/I moved out in Nov06 and our lease expired at the end of Nov06. Now it's Apr1 08 and I am still getting phone calls!

[OHlandlord]

I don't know what state you are in, but the statute of limitation on contracts (a lease) is at least 5 yrs in most states. In some states, it is 10 years! Since collection attempts have been made before the statute of limitations expired, they can continue to try to collect from you for years.

You need to check the clerk of court for the county of the rental unit and see if a judgment has been issued against you. If it has, they can continue collection efforts until the judgement runs out, then they can renew it for another term of years (and continue collection efforts). If there is no judgment on file, write a nice letter to the collection compnay and dispute the charges. State that you want them to discontinue dollection efforts until the cherges have been verified by a court judgment and by an itemized statement from the rental management. Send this to them by certified mail, return receipt requested and keep a copy. That will stop efforts temporarily.

When there are 2 names on a lease, you are each jointly and severally liable for all the terms on the lease. This means they can pursue both or either of you (whomever is easier to collect from). When you moved out, you probably did not get management to sign a release to let your out of the lease responsibilities, so you remained liable for the obligations. When he didn't pay, they looked to you to do so. Did you give them written notice of intent to vacate 30 days before the lease expired? Did you return your keys to the management office on your last day? Did they have written notice that you no longer lived in the unit? IF not, they were not notified that you were moving and you remained liable under the lease terms, even though it was now a month to month agreement.

I/We live in the state of GEORGIA. I don't know if this is important, but a collection 'agency' keeps calling me, not the complex/company itself. The company (apt complex) has my new address and information, so if they needed to send me anything they could. They simply expected him to pay, and then when he became MIA they looked up my information. I verbally told them that I was leaving/left at the time. But for me to remove my name from the lease, he would have to sign his name in agreement, in which he refused to do so.

[OHlandlord]

So you never had your name removed from the lease and were never removed from the obligations under it. You had to do this in writing. Bad choice, I'm afraid. They are owed money since he failed to pay. You were also listed on the lease so they have turned it over to collections to get the money from anyone on the lease. After a period, the rental management won't be bothered to pursue it, they allow an agency to do that for them. They will continue to attempt to collect from you and will continue to call you until you take action or pay them. Standard procedure.

Did you check to see if you had a judgement against you yet with the court? That should have been your first step as I said. If you do, there's little you can do but pay that money then find the ex and take him to small claims to get it back. If the judgement is already there, they can garnish your wages to get it. If it's not there, write the letter I detailed below and ask that they not contact you again.

Luckily, no judgements against me. One for him, but not for this situation. If i write the collection agency a letter, they'll have my address and other information. Will they mail me harrassing letters instead of calling me?

There are rules they must follow on collections. I suggest you do an internet search to find the rules under the credit reporting act. Once you dispute the charges and request that they stop collection efforts, they are supposed to stop until a court judgment is obtained and the debt is proven. You can always obtain a PO Box and mail it from there.