For reference, I'm in Ontario, and my loan is an Ontario Student Loan from about 2001 or 2002. It's been more or less inactive since about 2003 when I fell into a bad situation (homelessness and everything), and they were asking for monthly payments that were so ridiculously out of reach at the time that I more or less threw up my hands. Dumb, I know.
The loan is for about $4500. Truth me told, I was saving up a lump sum to pay it off at once. I had talked to the CRA once in the last... year or so? and I decided that it would be more expedient for me just to do that. I knew they wouldn't like this, but even now their minimum monthly they wanted was a bit much. I have about 2/3rds of the money available at this time.
I came home on Friday to find a door hanger near the buzzers for my secure apartment building that had no company name, simply said "We have a delivery for you, signature required", with my name and a phone number to call handwritten on it. I am not expecting a delivery and did some research on the net, and everything that came up said either "scam" or "marketing" on it, so I threw it away.
On Sunday, I came home to another door tag - this time on my actual door - at about 11am. A few hours later there was some loud knocking. When I looked out the peephole, it was three VERY young people in their early twenties - would not have been surprised if at least one of them was still in high school even. They were wearing streetclothes - the boy in a baseball cap, and one of the girls in sweatpants and one of those sparkly LOVE PINK sweatshirts. We do get the odd aggressive magazine salespeople sneaking in, so I ignored them and didn't answer the door, even though the one girl smiled like a scary jackal when she saw someone look through the peephole.
Queue them coming back repeatedly about four times over the next few hours, knocking loudly and even calling my name through the door. At one point I watched them pile into an unmarked white pickup parked across the street and drive off, only to return later.
Eventually at about 6pm following their last "visit", I left my apartment to go somewhere, only to find that they had been lurking in the hallway just to the right of the door. They asked me if I was [my name], which I refused to confirm or deny, asking them who they were and why they were there. One of them had a manila envelope that looked like it had seen better days in her hand. She said "Your landlord told us this was you. [I don't think landlords can legally give this information??] Whatever, if you're lying, it'll look bad in court." They left without trying to give me the envelope and sat there in the truck.
By this point I'm well freaked out, and being well aware that it IS a possibility that the CRA are trying to get a hold of me, I go out to their truck. I take a photo of their license plate and let them know I will be calling the cops to verify their identity, and not to come back. The girl said "Go ahead and call the cops. We work for the cops!" Um, no. I dated a cop for five years; a cop must show identification, and generally does not wear a LOVE PINK sweatshirt at work.
I did call the police non-emerg number and spoke with an officer. He took their plate number and called me back shortly, saying "They are civil servants, they say you are being sued for a Canada student loan and I will leave it to you to call them; I'm not getting involved."
Fair enough. I called the number the next day (had to go to work in the meantime) from a payphone - like heck I'm going to call from my cell phone, these people who hide outside my door! No one answered. I left a message saying that I had called and would call again, but did not leave a callback number.
I do understand that if I'm being served, I will have the opportunity to file back and basically make arrangements to pay ("settle out of court" basically), and that if I am served but don't do anything, they will likely garnish. But I'm not sure that I was served, and I'm furthermore not sure that these people are directly representing the government. It sounds like an agency has bought my debt - though I've never received anything from anyone other than the CRA - however the dreaded ARC IS located very near where I live and these lovely little creatures seemed much more like they represented them than a government agency.
So, have I been served? I never confirmed my identity, I refused because THEY wouldn't identify themselves. And since I don't know who they represent, I can't call them directly.
I would like the opportunity to work this out, and I do realise I brought this all on myself. However any clarification or shared experience from you all would be appreciated. Should I continue to call/chase these guys down/pursue that manila envelope, or just wait and see?
I'm being sued... by someone
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