Can I remove a business debt off of my credit report?

Three years ago, I co-signed a lease on behalf of a California corporation, of which I was a director. A few months later, my co-director and co-signer had passed away, and soon afterwards, the business was forced to walk away early from the lease. We left on very cordial terms with the landlord.

In a strange twist of events, the landlord also passed away a few months later. We never heard another word from the new landlord or the parent company. However, I recently pulled my credit report and found that a collection agency has reported a derogatory account for $17,740 on behalf of our former lease holder. This is a huge black mark on my credit report!

I'm afraid if I contact the collection agency, they will resume collection activity. Is there anything else I can do to get it this item removed from my report?

Oh jeez......

GG, as a "professional" collection agent you know better!!!! If a debt is sold to another collection agency they can not post it again for another 7 year...that is called "re-aging" and is illegal! Are you just so used to lying to people that you can't help it, or did that teach you that in collection school?

Anyway...there are only two ways to get an item removed from your credit report.

1) The creditor must delete it.
2) The creditor fails to respond to a dispute investigation from the credit bureau.

Therefore, there is really no way to get this off without the creditor knowing about it.

Being a business related debt complicates things, as the FCRA laws are more geared toward consumers. You may need to get some advice from a good civil defense attorney that specialized in FDCA cases. There are a lot of them popping up who work on contingency basis, they may be able to advise you in specific terms what to do.

contact them if you eel it necessary.i used to work for a collection agency and towards te end of your 7 years, the colelction agency forwards your debt to anoter agency anyway and tehn your 7 years start all over

Actually, something you might try is to contest the debt with the credit REPORTING agency. They have to send a note to the landlord who has to respond. If the landlord does not respond, the reporting agency has to remove the report. Two things to keep in mind:

1. You have to do this with all three reporting agencies.
2. If the landlord responds, DO IT AGAIN! You can protest the same item multiple times. If the landlord gets tired of answering or misses the cutoff period, it has to come off your report.