Bad faith collection practices here? What to do?

[Larry Bowers]

TLDR: Creditor made zero true effort to contact me to settle a debt I couldn't have reasonably known about. I want the information off my credit report. Need advice on fighting it. 

Hey BP, I need advice on how to remove past due information off my credit report based on what I'll call "lack of reasonable effort & diligence on part of creditor". That creditor is Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE).

I expect the answer is ''just file a dispute", but need to know what to put in that letter to make it most effective, and any other relevant advice. Like what to say or not say when I call the collection agency.

It has to do with rental property that has a "automatic change" to the owner when a tenant moves out and closes their account. During a tenant turnover, the bill went back into my name, and a bill was created. This was back in January 2021. Fine, happy to pay it, but I have to know about it. It's worth mentioning the house is managed by a property management company and is over 1000 miles away. 

BGE has my phone number and email address, but the bills were being sent in paper form to the rental house. Well, BGE never made contact with me by phone or email, even though they claim they did. The tenants in the house probably got the bills in the mail and just ignored them. I'd do the same if it were me, and the tenants don't know me, they just deal with the property management company.

After 8 months of "trying to contact me" hahahaha, BGE sent the bill to a collection agency. The collection agency never called, texted, or emailed me about the debt either; it seems they've had the account for a month or so. But they did report it to Equifax. I just found on out now when I applied for financing and got my scores in the mail. Now my credit score fell to 665 at Equifax where my other bureau scores are over 800. I haven't called them yet, just learned about this today and putting together a strategy.

Obviously, I am irritated that I never got a fair shake to settle the debt. Seems the dirty little trick and lazy method of debt collection is to report the credit bureau straightaway...I mean why not handle more accounts and collect on more accounts instead of wasting time picking up the phone, emailing, or otherwise tracking me down?

If I word it in the dispute letter that no effort was made to contact me by BGE or the collection agency, seems like that's the same as appearing in court and telling the judge that I didn't do the crime. Sure, that's what they all say. Based on other credit history, I have some credibility in that I'd probably pay it, beyond that, I have nothing. 

I figure just make a deal with the collection agency that if I pay they removed it from report. Is this how it goes? 

Any advice, magic bullets? Thanks!