Landlord wants money from a month they didnt collect from.

[Dylan Lersch]

Hello, First post here and it's a personal one from a place I was renting from. I moved out early from my lease because I bought a house and I paid the lease break fee and was prepared to pay the 2 months notice I was suppose to give prior to moving out. I moved out prior to the two months and told the management company and I left the rental house in very good condition ( better than when I moved in ). Recently they gave me my deposit back in full but a day later they stated they did not take the last months rent out of my bank account and they want me to pay back one month of rent even tho I was completely out of the house and they forgot to take it out of my bank ( I was enrolled in automatic deposit ). They are threatening me with going to collections and I don't want that hit on my credit as I'm trying to get into real estate investing once I save enough for a down payment. Can they legally send me to collections even though they did not take the money out and they gave me back my deposit and deleted my renting account with their firm. 

Thank you. And I'm not trying to screw over the Management company either. 

[Bill B.]

If you owed it and they forgot, yes. I couldn’t really determine if you were saying they owed money you didn’t think you owed or just they forgot to collect the money. 

Imagine you have a plumber out and he forgets to bill you for a few months and then suddenly sends you a bill. You owe that money. Or you have autopay in the utilities and then you move and change bank accounts. You still owe that money even if they can’t auto withdraw it. 

If you don’t think you owe it, fight it, if you agree you owed it and they made a mistake definitely pay it, you’ll wreck your credit and then pay it anyway with penalties and fees.