My mother in law called today. They own their house free and clear. However, their house is in my wife's and sis in laws name - in a trust.

In laws wanted to renew their home equity loan - on which they owed nothing, but HOL's expire. Bank told them there is a claim against my wife - something on the 'docket', in the local court system. Long story short, the 'docket' lists my wife's first name, same last name, but the middle initial and the husbands name are not the same as ours.

MIL called the courthouse to see what was up. Lady at the courthouse gave her the docket number, and said "I can tell this isn't against your daughter." (my wife) It's against a lady with the same first and last name as my wife, but a different middle name, and her husband, which has a name completely not mine. The "docket" thing is for a rental home in a town we've never lived in, nor have we ever rented from - heck, we've lived in our house for 24 years.

However, the credit report showed a case against my wife.

Question is: How do I/we go about clearing my wife's name in this situation? It's not her, it's not us. It's the credit bureau having wrong information.

I'd start by calling a title company and see if you can speak with a title attorney. Ideally one in that town.

Once you have some documentation showing it is not her and (hopefully) removed from title, then you can dispute with the bureaus.

Does it show up on every credit reporting agency (Transunion, Equifax, or Experian), or just one of them? You can contact the credit reporting agency to file a dispute for things that are inaccurate on your credit report and they have to look into it. Here is a helpful website on that front:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/how-do-i-dispute-an-error-on-my-credit-report-en-314/

When you file your dispute, you can give them the same narrative (perhaps a little more detailed obviously) that you gave us and also any supporting documentation you have. It's on them to correct the inaccuracies. If they're ishy about it, then you can go through the CFPB.

I had something similar happen once. Sending a notarized letter from the Clerck of Courts, noting this is not your wife, to all 3 Big Credit reporting agencies with a dispute letter should do it.

I had a judgement hit my credit that wasn’t me. I had to do all the footwork and it took almost 3 months to clear. It makes you furious. And in my case it was just some data input that got attached to the wrong name.

Doing some more research, the amount is for $10,350.00.

The court told my mother in law "I can see it's not your daughter......" I'll check with the clerk or whoever tomorrow - maybe Next week.

It's not ours, that much is obvious. Found out today on the trust, wife's middle initial wasn't listed. May end up having to send in a copy of my wife's birth certificate and our marriage license.

It's just a pain in the rump.

That is a pain.

If it's any consolation, I filed a dispute years ago with all three agencies for a collections that was on my account. No idea how it even got on there. It was for collections on medical bills that had nothing to do with me. In either event, they took it off after about a week or two of me filing. Hope your experience is closer to mine than OCD's.

Sorry that you have to deal with this Arch, and yes it’s a giant pain. Glad to see that a resolution is on the way. Please keep us updated. And although it won’t get that far imho, but an attorney will probably run 1-2k based on my experience.

If it gets to that, I'll be beyond ticked off. It is NOT our fault the credit bureau/s got it wrong.

But it is what it is. I don't see it affecting anything until/unless my in laws die - because the 'lien' is on their house, and my wife.

Add to that, I finally am going to a dermatologist for a spot on my face. Bad looking. I may have waited too long. Guaranteed it's cancer - just not sure what type. Stress build character, right?

Contact your county Recorder to explain the situation and gets the records corrected before hiring a Title agency or attorney. Submit clean title report to credit agency. May take some time and be a complete pain, but it's a reasonable place to start the process.

https://www.fultoncountyoh.com/274/Recorder

That's one place I'll go, but it's not the county, it's the credit bureau that's doing this.

Right, but is the credit agency dinging you (your wife) because of an error on the property records? That's why I was suggesting getting the records cleaned up and use the documentation to submit to the credit bureau.

So here's what I'm finding out: The lady and her husband had a 10,355 case filed. They filed bankruptcy, so there is no judgment, just a case.

We, wife, can't be held liable as it's not her. Somewhere, somehow, one of the credit bureaus messed up and put it towards my wife.

Gonna try credit karma app. Lady at the courthouse told me you can dispute the case on there. We'll see in the coming days/weeks if that works.

Good luck arch. Hope it's easy to clear up.