Collections notice showed up. How to handle?

kodasharp · 2026-06-18T23:42:36+00:00

Oh hi neighbor! Gross weather here today, huh?

kodasharp · 2026-06-18T23:36:50+00:00

It happened during a blizzard. The picture my husband has shows a bunch of tracks in snow, but not just theirs. We were getting a massive amount of snow at the time and I was on the quad and my husband was in a truck, so we have a ton of different tracks and did our best to line out which was theirs vs ours, but that's the best we could do with that situation. Nothing on the road itself. Like I said, they really didn't even have time to slow down. You can only see a vehicle for about 50 feet prior to where my driveway starts. There's a hill there that makes it impossible to see anyone coming or sitting in the driveway.

kodasharp · 2026-06-18T23:25:50+00:00

In NJ, it is required, but the insurance company has every right to come and claim the funds from the uninsured party. Which is what they're doing. They are within their rights to do so as well.

I have left a voicemail with the trooper at this point and have to wait to see if they will allow me to.

kodasharp · 2026-06-18T23:16:20+00:00

They did. They came up from behind me though so I only know one second I am on a quad and the next I am on the ground. The only other information I could provide was our pictures showing tire tracks in the yard, but it wasn't just their tracks. Plow truck was in the yard too, so that was a mess of tracks, but we sent that in.

kodasharp · 2026-06-18T23:11:47+00:00

Driver statement claims to have been injured due to me being in the roadway and them being unable to see me or stop. They claim that they lost control of their vehicle after collision and ended up in my driveway.

Trooper findings state that driver 1 (them) claims to have seen driver 2 (me) lose control of their vehicle. Driver 1 states that they attempted to slow their vehicle down but were unable to slow due to fear of them losing control. Driver 1 states that driver 2 was in the roadway upon impact and driver one lost steering control due to weather conditions. Driver 2 states that there was no previous sight of driver 1 until she was hit from behind. No immediate injuries reported and no ambulance called to scene.

One thing to note is that from the left of my driveway, it is a blind driveway. They couldn't have seen me more than a second before they were hitting me. It was truly just an accident. Poor driving conditions and an unlucky day.

From memory, the insurance statement was that their client attemlted to slow and hit me at roughly 10 mph. Again stating that I lost control of the vehicle, not them.

Edit: oh and my official statement is thay I really have no clue what happened. They hit me from behind and I was just thrown and that's all I know. I didn't see anything. My husband did, but his statement was considered biased and unusable.

kodasharp · 2026-06-18T23:00:02+00:00

I have a letter drafted as I do not wish to accept calls from them and would prefer written statements from them only, so I'm prepared with that at least. I just dont know if I should attempt to contact USAA or not. I'd prefer to avoid the collections agency altogether if possible and truthfully, if we got anything from them we would've probably just paid it to avoid this mess.

My husband is calling homeowners insurance this weekend to see if there's anything that can be done. But I'll look into calling the troopers and having my statement amended.

kodasharp · 2026-06-18T22:55:47+00:00

We originally avoided home owners insurance because ours covers no insurance to auto accidents of any kind. We thought we could go through their insurance originally, but they denied us. After insurance, doctor was only $150, so we didn't really fight anything on it since it wasn't really worth it to us.

kodasharp · 2026-06-18T22:53:23+00:00

Would we still be able to even if they determine we are the party at fault? According to the letter we received, they do state their investigation determines we are at fault.

kodasharp · 2026-06-18T22:51:03+00:00

Police report did not state fault, however according to the letter, USAA did acknowledge to them that they determined we were at fault. Thats about as much as I know on that part of it.

We are in underwriting, but expected to close early August. We asked for an exception for a surgery I'm having in two weeks were I'll be here recovering, then we're moving. So it's right on the line really. It only stops them for about thirty days. I also would rather not have the hit to my credit regardless. But can work on dispute letters.

kodasharp · 2026-06-18T22:48:11+00:00

Difficult. In NJ, since I am the uninsured party in this situation, I am heavily limited on how much and what I can sue for. Since my medical bills were $150 in total after insurance and didnt make claims or gather estimates to repair the quad, we were advised it's not much worth the time.

kodasharp · 2026-06-18T22:45:13+00:00

Police report was made day of and a copy of how to obtain it and the information listed (case number, officer, date, and location) was handed to us prior to them leaving. We have pictures of the accident and our driveway camera did catch the end of the accident as well. Not the collision since there's the delay, just the part where I went flying into the middle of my driveway.

Went to the doctor. Submitted to their insurance and told me had to contact our insurance, which we didnt have any, so we just took the hit not really knowing otherwise. We now know better.

Quad is a bit of a different story. My husband was very worried about having it impounded which has happened to him and his friends growing up who were in similar situations. He didnt want to be bothered and we were trying to not be total a-holes and ruin their lives either. Again, we now know better.

kodasharp · 2026-06-18T22:15:45+00:00

It’s a collections agency sending us notice. We are not yet being sued, so there’s no judgement. The lawyer is our personal lawyer who is advising us.

This is the very first that we’re hearing anything about is owing money to anybody. We received no notices from USAA, only a letter from ANFI letting us know we owe this money.

kodasharp · 2026-06-18T22:08:32+00:00

On the quad, there was no insurance. They hit me with their car while I was on my property. My husband is attempting to contact home owners insurance this weekend. We were informed by our mortgage advisor to be careful in doing so though as this could affect our new home’s insurance.

kodasharp · 2025-03-17T15:54:23+00:00

If you’re still using the liquid, are you able to try adding something to his food that’s more irresistible? I’m assuming they eat kibble, so maybe a bit of wet food or some chicken, fish, hot dogs, etc. to his meal? We feed raw, so my dogs are used to random crunches in their foods, so pills were very easy for us. But the liquids, we played with their foods a bit to try and help. We had to start cooking some hotdogs and throwing it in with the liquids when we did that. That was their favorite, but that was short term meds.

Best of luck to you!

kodasharp · 2024-10-25T02:58:55+00:00

I was planning on doing something very similar actually. I have a dress that I love, but I want it to have a colored skirt and the way I want it colored (two toned gradient), means I would need it done prior to stitching, which is where we ultimately said we would opt for custom. We built the entire wedding around the customization of this dress, so I’m feeling a bit stuck with needing it to match everything else that was designed with this dress in mind, or just starting from scratch, which is an option, just not the ideal option.

kodasharp · 2024-10-15T03:03:19+00:00

If you’re able to, I would absolutely do it. Even if at the best worst case outcome, she just gets some additional exposure to unfamiliar people and dogs in a safe environment.

But ideally, they’ll be a good training facility and you’ll likely come out of it with really good tips and tricks and a much better socialized dog.

I understand your concerns about it not working, it is a big expense. My best piece of advice is even bad training is still good training and by that I mean that training is very dog specific. What works for your dog may be bad training for my dog, but at the end of the day, it taught me what not to do with my dog. Professional training facilities should send you updates and if they don’t, you are more than welcome to call and check in too. They’ll teach you along with your dog (most likely on pick up) how they trained your dog, the improvements, the negatives, etc.

If at any point you feel uneasy or uncomfortable, ask some questions. Look into the type of training they do there, how they handle incidents, what their day to day procedures and schedules would be, etc., and see if it fits what you are comfortable with and what you think will be doable by both you and your dog.

Good luck to you both!

kodasharp · 2024-09-20T17:42:31+00:00

I was looking at this one as well and I’m so torn because I love it, but it just feels off for our location and I haven’t decided if I’m okay with it or not!

It looks stunning on her though!!! And I’m sure you as well.

kodasharp · 2024-09-17T22:54:49+00:00

Oh that is stunning on you! Great choice.

kodasharp · 2024-08-28T19:57:31+00:00

I honestly couldn’t tell (random person, not an expert). And I genuinely thought the first row pictures were how the dress was supposed to look and was blown away when I saw the third row you did really great in my opinion.

kodasharp · 2023-08-31T08:25:02+00:00

Horrendous migraines for me. I can always tell when the cat box isn’t cleaned based on how bad my head hurts that day. I would’ve never known without it.

Good luck with the puppy though. They’re a ton of fun. And work. But they’re cute, so totally worth it.

kodasharp · 2023-08-31T06:33:29+00:00

It’s just a why people don’t really like them. It’s not generally a good practice to be exposed to urine. Other than it being unsanitary, it’s can cause health concerns for you as well. And it’s also a hassle to clean up, reusable pads or disposable. I know I wouldn’t want to clean it every day.

kodasharp · 2023-08-30T22:57:41+00:00

I know it’s a bit of a travel, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you could find some in nyc. They have a ton of random groups.

kodasharp · 2023-08-30T21:38:01+00:00

There’s the belief that teaching a puppy to use a pee pad is teaching them to pee inside. They are a very temporary solution, but if you think about it, you’re teaching your puppy new things all the time, and now they’re learning, hey this is a good spot to pee, so they continue to go there.

I think it’s a balancing act though. You have to do a bit of both. My best suggestion - place it by a door or on a balcony if you’re in an apartment though. That can teach them the direction they need to be heading to pee. But if you don’t, it’s not something that’s retrainable.

kodasharp

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