7 posts shown.
redhawk76 said:Am I legally obligated to settle these alleged debts/invoices owed to ZG-Holding (for utility fees and water management fees) for which I have received a pre-foreclosure notice, given that the supposed arrears date back to 2001, 2004, 2005, 2010, and 2011?
I am receiving this exact same notice for the same debt for the second time now. When the first notice arrived (roughly a year ago), I responded by refusing payment, citing the following:
Consumer Protection Act - II
- Part II - Sale of goods and provision of services,
- Chapter IV – Public services provided to consumers,
- Article 24,
- point 9, which explicitly states:
- Claims for compensation for public services, as well as all household expenses paid at regular intervals, expire after one year.
The total amount is relatively minor ($117 everything, including interest), yet I find myself entirely disinclined to pay off debts that are 12, 10, or 8 years old. (It isn't as if I have any practical way to verify whether these charges are even legitimate, or...) If possible, I would much rather lean on the statute that grants me the right to simply ignore such a demand.
Should I send them another "refusal" while once again citing that specific legal provision...?
Am I in the right here, or am I mistaken? 🤷
This happened to me too, honestly. I ended up asking the same question, and now I see I'm definitely not alone in this. I filed an objection to my pre-foreclosure notice, but they basically told me that I can only raise those objections once the forced collection process actually begins. Now I'm a little worried that—just like they did to me before—they might fail to post the notice on the court's bulletin board, causing me to miss that 8-day window to object. If that happens, the seizure order becomes final and I'll be stuck, even though I know for a fact it's all past the statute of limitations. They told me they have a contract with New York City and aren't authorized to write off the debt; they can only collect it, and they aren't backing down from the claim. Now I'm thinking maybe I should send a formal grievance regarding the notice directly to the City? By the way, I think the statute of limitations for local utility fees is three years. It wasn't listed under the San Diego Zoo regulations. Maybe I'm wrong, though—if there's a lawyer here, you'd certainly know better... and if anyone has some advice, I would be so grateful because I'm really not sure what my next move should be. 🤷
Hi everyone! I was wondering if anyone might be able to lend me some advice here—I just received a pre-foreclosure notice regarding utility fees from Berkshire Hathaway. Most of these charges seem to be way past the statute of limitations. I went ahead and filed a formal objection with them, but their response was essentially that they don't have the authority to write off the debt themselves; they claimed I can only invoke the statute of limitations during a forced collection proceeding. This actually happened to me once before where my wages were garnished without any warning because they didn't even bother mailing me anything—they just posted the notice on the court's bulletin board. I’m honestly terrified it’ll happen again, leaving me with zero chance to even bring up the statute of limitations. It feels like they know perfectly well the debt is expired, yet when I submit my objection, they just brush me off saying they aren't authorized to cancel it and that I should wait until the actual collection phase to argue it... is this just them playing games with me? Should I be sending my grievance directly to New York City instead? Their reply claims the city is responsible for the utility fees, while they are supposedly just handling the collections per their contract.
Thanks 🙂
John Clark6 said:I assume what you're really wondering is: if you filed an appeal and it was actually granted—meaning they voided the order—would you want to settle up before they issue a new enforcement order just to dodge those extra legal costs $67? Probably not, right? Anyway, even if there's a typo in your last name—or even if the name is completely wrong—that probably isn't enough grounds for an appeal. Since your Social Security Number is definitely listed on the enforcement order, that confirms your identity as the debtor beyond a doubt. The only thing you might realistically appeal would be if you missed the deadline because the creditor's error prevented you from receiving the notice on time. To make a long story short, I suspect a second-instance court wouldn't grant an appeal based solely on a misspelled name. (Actually, I recently received a second-instance ruling where instead of Jelic, it said Jeka, and the court just pointed out the error without voiding my ruling—they just denied the appeal. Well... it's a known fact that every judge likes to interpret the law a little differently, I guess 🙂). As for the statute of limitations on the claim, it's three years from the date each individual bill becomes due
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John Clark6 I’m going to ask for your opinion one more time. I started drafting an objection, but before I could finish, I went back to look at the law and study the actual enforcement order more closely since I hadn't had a chance until now. Specifically, we’re looking at a debt owed to the local Water Department dating back to 2009 and 2010. The JB order was issued in January 2011. Based on Section 232 of the Consumer Protection Act - II, shouldn't there be a one-year statute of limitations? Does that mean the statute of limitations for the 2009 bills has already passed, potentially allowing me to object to that portion? Also, we received both the proposed enforcement and the final enforcement order all on one document. What's confusing me is whether we should have received the proposal first so we could have objected to the statute of limitations (but we couldn't pick it up because of the error in our last name). And does the fact that the final order has already been issued mean that the statute of limitations was officially interrupted on that date? I hope I haven't made this too complicated... I'm just feeling quite conflicted about whether I should lead with the statute of limitations argument, or if that clock was somehow reset because of the Water Department's mistake regarding our name, which prevented us from filing our objection on time.
Thanks!
John Clark6 said:I assume what you're really wondering is: if you filed an appeal and it was actually granted—meaning they voided the order—would you want to settle up before they issue a new enforcement order just to dodge those extra legal costs $67? Probably not, right? Anyway, even if there's a typo in your last name—or even if the name is completely wrong—that probably isn't enough grounds for an appeal. Since your Social Security Number is definitely listed on the enforcement order, that confirms your identity as the debtor beyond a doubt. The only thing you might realistically appeal would be if you missed the deadline because the creditor's error prevented you from receiving the notice on time. To make a long story short, I suspect a second-instance court wouldn't grant an appeal based solely on a misspelled name. (Actually, I recently received a second-instance ruling where instead of Jelic, it said Jeka, and the court just pointed out the error without voiding my ruling—they just denied the appeal. Well... it's a known fact that every judge likes to interpret the law a little differently, I guess 🙂). As for the statute of limitations on the claim, it's three years from the date each individual bill becomes due
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First of all, thank you so much for the response! Actually, looking closely, the Social Security number isn't listed anywhere—not on the enforcement order or the underlying correction it's based on. I checked that myself first thing, which is why I was planning to base my appeal on that specific point. But now that you've mentioned this, I'm starting to wonder if that approach even makes sense? I had always thought the statute of limitations for utilities was only one year after the due date, so I had no idea it was actually three years😕. Regardless, the time hasn't run out yet. I think I'll go ahead and send in a formal objection and see what happens! What do you think? Well, who knows how the court will choose to interpret things!
Charles Taylor3 said:Thanks so much! I guess that’s what I was thinking too, but even if they do try to restart the process, it should eventually hit the statute of limitations... and honestly, she was only off by a few days on this one anyway. 😉
Greeting!
I suppose I’m just going to quote myself here. 🙄 I suppose I have one more question, provided there’s someone kind enough here who might know—and honestly, I think I may have misspoken in my previous post. My understanding is that filing an objection actually interrupts the statute of limitations, which means the clock starts ticking all over again, right? So, if the creditor decides to move forward with a collection action using the correct name within that one-year window (though I guess I'm wondering exactly when that new countdown period officially begins?), would they be able to successfully collect? Also, would it be possible for me to negotiate an installment plan or some sort of payment arrangement before things escalate? My goal is to settle the debt, but I was really hoping to avoid those extra interest charges piling up over the next two or three years while everything drags on. I wouldn't say I'm completely lost when it comes to these legal terms, but as we all know, what's written in the law and how things actually play out in practice don't always align perfectly. That's why I figured it might be better to just ask if anyone here has dealt with this before and wouldn't mind sharing their experience! Thanks so much! 😁
ruggedmaker2 said:You absolutely have to file an objection. If you don't, the court is just going to toss the enforcement order right out the window.
The only thing that'll happen is the creditor will probably just turn around and file the whole damn thing all over again.
Thanks so much! I guess that’s what I was thinking too, but even if they do try to restart the process, it should eventually hit the statute of limitations... and honestly, she was only off by a few days on this one anyway. 😉
Greeting!
Greeting everyone! I was wondering if anyone might be able to lend a hand here—we recently received a judgment regarding a garnishment for some utility fees. The whole situation is a bit of a mess, really. They sent several notices through the mail, but they kept misspelling our last name every single time. It was only off by one letter, but still technically incorrect (and honestly, you see typos like that all the time here in the States, so it's not entirely unexpected...). The first time, my husband didn't even realize what happened; he went down to the local post office, but they wouldn't release the mail because the name on the envelope didn't match his ID. Eventually, they sent another one where they listed both versions of the name on the envelope—putting the wrong one first followed by ours in parentheses—so we were finally able to pick it up. However, the actual judgment, the payment slip, and the correction notice used to justify this entire garnishment all list the incorrect spelling. I know that the person subject to a garnishment has to be clearly and accurately identified, so I can't help but wonder if I could file an objection based on this discrepancy? I’m not quite sure what the standard procedure is or how a Municipal Court typically handles these kinds of clerical errors. Does it actually make sense to move forward with an objection over something like this? If anyone happens to have any insight, I would truly appreciate it!