Advice About My Friend

I understand your frustration and no matter which way you look at it, it could go either way. I am a mortgage broker and I have seen this happen before too. Collection agencies can be very deceiving even when they are trying to get a hold of someone. She is right, public record is the main source of finding info on people. They will do and say whatever they can to get people to pay a debt, so before you get upset about it, you may want to give her the benefit of the doubt. And why don't you check on your HUD from closing and double check your steps to make sure if it is a debt owed. You also may want to contact the person that did your financing.

Hope this helps,
R.

I work in the Real Estate field as a Legal Assistant to a R.E. attorney, and also conduct closings...every aspect of a transaction from the inceptance of a contract through post closing. First, I would get your Settlement Statement out and check on page 2 to see if any monies were paid to that inspection company, believe it or not, these companies have stated in the past that they did not recieve the money but in fact, it can and has been proven that they did get paid..2nd, the title company or attorney who did the closing, should be held responsible for not collecting the fee on your Settlement Statement; we are supposed to check with all parties involved to make sure there are not any unpaid bills and notate the files..also, you are to adhear to the title commitment for any other details that need to be satisfied before closing. I am suprised that your lender did not make you pay for one through a company of their own, please see page 2 of your statement where all your lender fees are located, they usually hire a private company of their own to do this. Even though your Realtor said she would take care of this, it is not her obligation to pay for this service, she is doing you a favor by ordering it, unless a prior arrangement was made and she was to be re-imbursed, that invoice should have been given to the closing agent, the prior arrangement should have been in writing and or in your contract. Unfortunately, the responsibility lies with you. You should have checked your Settlement Statement before you closed/signed it to make sure everything was paid. You should be a little more cautious and not so trusting. People tell you things they want you to hear all the time to get you to do something, you just fell for her lines.

Honestly, I know you feel hurt and betrayed, but life is short. First, I would check your closing documents and ensure that the money for the inspection wasn't paid at the time of closing. If it's still owed, pay it and assume that your friend is telling you the truth. Maybe she got busy after her doctor's appointment. and forgot to call you. I really try to give people a lot of slack. Collection agencies are very sly, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if your friend is telling the truth and the agency got your information elsewhere. If your friend is consistently dishonest, then my reply would be different, but based on the information provided, I would give your friend the benefit of the doubt.

G.:

First of all, you said that you had her get the inspection done and that you would pay for it at closing. So, you and your husband were under the impression that it would be all taken care of at closing--rolled into your closing costs?

Now, let me tell you about an experience I had with a realtor who also became our friend. When we moved to Oshkosh, WI the realtor who helped us find our house was fantastic!!! He took us around, took us to lunch. While my husband worked, he even took my daughter, my son and me shopping. He was wonderful. We even invited him to parties. Now, 4 years later when we were selling the house, he listed the house for us. Completely different story, he had it listed in the wrong area for 3 months, didn't do open houses, gave us incorrect feedback on showings, etc. The moral of the story, don't take anything for granted with real estate. I ended up having to fire him and hire a new realtor to get our house sold--she sold it in 2 weeks!!! Now, the fact that she is not returning your phone calls should confirm the fact that she has something to hide or feel guilty about. You did say that she e-mailed you, was it about the inspection? How much money is owed for the inspection? What I would probably do is contact the inspection company directly and ask them if they feel she is responsible for the charge. If her name was on it, that could be your out. You would probably not be friends with her after that, but friends don't lie to each other. Maybe if she had told you that she had forgotten to charge you, you would have paid the charge, but it sounds like she has been getting bills for a long time on this and just chose to ignore it until the collection. After that, she simply gave the collection company your information and then lied to you about it.

Sounds to me like she skimmed some cash off the top and now she wants you to pay it again....Unfortunately it's very diffucult to make "genuine" female friends once you get past a certain age....My friend of 15 years always says "friends come along when you're older out of a need like what can you do for them"...You have to be real careful, I meet mom's alot and if they ask for something unreasonable, I know that they are only looking to use me and I either cut it off or watch my back closely. I would get rid of her if I were you and if that means you have to pay again to save your own credit, well, what can you do....It is very unfortunate but she is busted and knows it!!!! Don't be quick to trust anymore, especially women....Just focus on your family and be thankful that you at least have them, that's what I try to do...

Drop this person like a hot potato. This is just the tip of the ice berg, if you give her another chance she will definitely betray you again. Don’t worry about the friendship; she isn’t worth the time of day.

I'm certainly not trying to stick up for her in what she did. Whatever her reasons are, she's wrong in what she did. You said she has tried calling you and emailing you. So it sounds like she wants to discuss this.

I would ask her to come over and sit and have a talk. Let her share her side of the story first. It sounds like she messed up somewhere. But there are always two sides to a story. Maybe it was an honest mistake. Maybe she thought she could get it taken care of before it hurt your friendship. Who knows. If she's that good of a friend at least listen to her side. Maybe the two of you can figure this out together. It might be the end of the friendship, but at least you've worked it out and you've been able to share your feelings. Or maybe you can forgive her and the two of you can move on together.

And I would not believe everything a collection service says. My husband was in his own business and he got behind in some bills waiting on some property to sell after we sold the company. My husband knows how collections and things work after being in his own business for years and having to go after people who owed him money. So he knew a lot of what they said were outright lies. He even turned it around on them a few times because he knew they were making things up. So don't believe everything they say.

I hope it works out for all of you.