Isn’t it funny how some days stuff just happens?
Today, for the first time ever, the post woman actually rang my doorbell. She had a special delivery for me. Now, usually, she wouldn’t bother to check if I was in but lazily dump a little note in the box in the hallway telling me to get my fat backside down to the post office to collect it. Oh, and do that within 10 business days or we will return it to sender undelivered. That’s how it normally works anyway. Today, she smiled sweetly at me and said sign here please and give me ID (actually she said it in Czech of course so that’s not ACTUALLY what she said but more or less what she said). I took that little envelope and closed the door opening it as I walked across the living room.
What was it that got such special treatment?
Well, it wasn’t good as you already suspect reading this story right? It was a notification from a real estate company that they had sold my debt to another professional debt collection agency. Except I don’t owe any real estate company any money so what the hell was this?
Apparently, after talking to my lawyer who listened patiently and then started his very long explanation with the sarcastic remark “Welcome to the Czech Republic…” despite the fact I have lived here for 7-year, the real estate company had sold a non-existent debt. Yes. A few weeks ago, I had signed a contract to rent some land and purchase a shed on that land. I then discovered that the real estate company had mislead me and that in fact, the land could be taken by the City at any moment. Understandably, I told them forget it. You lied to me and I do not wish to follow through. Despite the fact that the ‘contract’ didn’t identify me, or the property and wouldn’t stand up in a court of law anywhere and also that it is not legal to charge a penalty for not going forward with the purchase based on such a contract, the real estate agent had decided to ‘charge me’ 14,000CZK as a penalty for reneging on the deal. Having decided that, they also decided not unsurprisingly, I would refuse to pay. So rather than actually bother me with a bill or notice that they felt I owed them money, they sold the debt.
Yes – you read that right.
They made up a debt and sold it without ever actually informing me. Nice.
So now my lawyer will write and tell the debt collection company there is no debt. Most likely, they will sell it on to someone else who will then write to me…… ad nauseam. He cited a client who had been writing letters to various companies trying to collect on such a non-existent debt for 8-years already….
Welcome to the Czech Republic!
Later, when my partner opened the mailbox and recovered the rest of the mail (that the smiling post woman DIDN’T give me!), I had a letter from the Czech Social Security office. You guessed it, they want to audit me…..
Welcome to the Czech Republic….
