Legal Expert, Paralegal
Dena Standley, BA

Dena Standley is a seasoned paralegal with more than 20 years of experience in legal research and writing, having received a certification as a Legal Assistant/Paralegal from Southern Technical College.

Edited by Hannah Locklear

Editor at SoloSuit
Hannah Locklear, BA

Hannah Locklear is SoloSuit’s Marketing and Impact Manager. With an educational background in Linguistics, Spanish, and International Development from Brigham Young University, Hannah has also worked as a legal support specialist for several years.

When you beat Innovative Recovery in court ^^

Summary: Innovative Recovery is a debt collection agency that is known to use sketchy tactics to get people to pay. If you have been sued by Innovative Recovery, you have up to 35 days to respond before you lose by default. Use SoloSuit to draft and file your Answer in just 15 minutes.

When Innovative Recovery contacts you, it's an attempt to collect a debt you might owe to another party. Innovative Recovery is a third-party debt collector for several creditors, but its main focus is helping property managers to collect late rent, fees, or penalties.

Worse than annoying calls and texts, Innovative Recovery collectors may take you to court if they think you're refusing to pay your debts. If you have received debt collection calls or are facing a lawsuit from Innovative Recovery, here is what you need to know (and do).

Is Innovative Recovery legitimate? How does it operate?

Based in Dallas, Innovative Recovery is a legitimate debt collection agency that has been in business for over 14 years. Innovative Recovery was previously known as ResidentCollect, Inc. Innovative Recovery’s phone number is 844-419-0102, and its address is 5310 Harvest Hill Road, Dallas.

As is the case with most debt collectors, Innovative Recovery's staff resort to persistent calls to get you to pay past-due accounts. The law also allows them to contact you on social media.

As mentioned earlier, Innovative Recovery primarily works for the property management industry. So, if the court ordered you to pay fines for cleaning or repairs at a former residence and you don't pay in time, your former landlord may hire Innovative Recovery to collect the money.

Innovative Recovery can contact you in error. Sometimes it's a case of incompetence on their part. Whatever the case, you can stand your ground against Innovative Recovery and win.

Why are so many consumers complaining about Innovative Recovery?

Innovative Recovery's claim to treat their contacts "ethically and professionally" has not stopped them from receiving multiple complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

As of September 2022, Innovative Recovery had received 62 complaints on BBB in the most recent three-year period. Even worse, the CFPB has reported 77 complaints against Innovative Recovery. With a low F rating on its BBB profile, and an average one out of five stars review, it’s clear that Innovate Recovery has a pretty questionable reputation.

In these complaints, consumers report Innovative Recovery violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) in several ways, including:

Harassment (including spam calls, robocalls, calling at odd hours, etc.).
Accounts are reported to the credit bureaus without following the procedure.
Wrongful lawsuits.
They are overstepping other FDCPA guidelines, etc.

Below is a real complaint from Innovative Recovery’s BBB profile:

"Innovate Recovery has been trying to collect a debt from a previous apartment complex. This debt was first dismissed by a justice of the peace judge on 2/12/2019. After countless attempts of letting them know this, they are still trying to collect on the debt. Even with the information they are sending, the amount is not the correct amount that they are showing from the apartment complex."

Knowing your rights can help you when dealing with Innovative Recovery. The FDCPA is a federal law that prevents debt collectors like Innovative Recovery from using abusive methods to collect.

You have rights under the FDCPA

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) was enacted in 1977 with the purpose of protecting consumers, like you, from unfair debt collection tactics. Debt collectors are known for harassing, threatening, and pestering consumers until they pay up. The FDCPA gives you rights that will help you put debt collectors in their place.

Under the FDCPA, debt collectors are forbidden from:

Contacting you after 9 p.m. or before 8 a.m.
Attempting to collect a debt that does not belong to you
Threatening legal action and arrest
Calling after you request them to stop
Lying and pretending to be lawyers
Contacting your family, friends, or coworkers about your debt

Informing Innovative Recovery that you know your rights and that you will report them when they violate any rule will prompt them to use the proper channels to collect the debt. Report any abuse to the FTC online platform or call 877-382-4357, submit a complaint on the CFPB website, or call 855-411-2372.

A Debt Validation Letter can save you time and trouble

When Innovative Recovery first contacts you, the Debt Validation Letter (sometimes called the debt dispute letter) should be your go-to first line of defense.

The letter demands that Innovative Recovery prove that the account belongs to you and that the details are accurate and opens the door for you to dispute their claim. The company must provide proof once they receive the Debt Validation Letter, including amounts, dates, repayment history, and how and when they acquired the account.

You should send the Debt Validation Letter within thirty days of their initial contact, so you need to act fast. SoloSuit helps you generate the letter in minutes. All you have to do is print and send it to Innovative Recovery.

Let’s take a look at an example.

Example: Jenna lives in an apartment where she was never on the lease. She left the apartment after a few months. The person on the lease stayed for the entirety of the lease, and allegedly, damages exceeding the damage deposit were done to the apartment. Jenna starts receiving phone calls from Innovative Recovery stating that she owes the entire $1,600 for alleged damages. Jenna creates a Debt Validation Letter using Solosuit and sends it immediately after being contacted. Innovative Recovery does not respond because they have no legal cause for attempting to collect the debt from Jenna. When Innovative Recovery continues to contact Jenna, she tells them that she will file suit if they continue to harass her for a debt that is not hers. That is the last time she hears from the debt collection agency.

Send a Debt Validation Letter to Innovative Recovery.

To learn more about how a Debt Validation Letter can help you, check out this video:

Respond to an Innovative Recovery lawsuit

You don't need an attorney to respond to a debt collection lawsuit. Aside from the fact that you can successfully defend yourself, hiring an attorney costs lots of money and takes a lot of time, which you may not have.

When you get sued by Innovative Recovery, you should receive a court Summons and Complaint in the mail or in person. These are the legal documents that initiate a lawsuit. The Summons notifies you of the case, while the Complaint lists the specific claims against you.

You must respond to the Summons and Complaint before your state’s deadline, or you will automatically lose the case with a default judgment. A default judgment gives Innovative Recovery the right to garnish your wages and seize your property.

You can prevent a default judgment by responding to the lawsuit with a written Answer. Here’s how.

Follow these three steps to respond to a debt collection lawsuit against Innovative Recovery:

Answer every Complaint.
Assert your affirmative defenses.
File the Answer in court and with Innovative Recovery’s attorney.

Below, we explain each step in detail. Don’t like reading? Watch this video instead:

1. Answer every Complaint

The Complaint document is essentially a list of reasons why you’re being sued. In your Answer document, you should reply to each one. Choose one of these responses to answer each claim from the Complaint:

Admit. This is like saying, “This is true.”
Deny. This is like saying, “Prove it.”
Deny due to lack of knowledge. This is like saying, “I don’t know.”

Deny all the claims you dispute. It's okay to deny everything. You are refusing to admit liability. You are telling Innovative Recovery to prove it. You can also deny a claim due to a lack of knowledge. It may be your best option if you don't understand any of the claims. If you agree with a claim, you can admit it. Admitting all complaints means you are guilty, and the court will likely issue a judgment against you.

2. Assert your affirmative defenses

After you’ve responded to the claims against you, you’re ready to assert your affirmative defenses. An affirmative defense is any legal reason that Innovative Recovery shouldn’t win the case.

According to the US Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 8(c) states:

“(c) Affirmative Defenses.

(1) In General. In responding to a pleading, a party must affirmatively state any avoidance or affirmative defense, including:

accord and satisfaction;
arbitration and award;
assumption of risk;
contributory negligence;
duress;
estoppel;
failure of consideration;
fraud;
illegality;
injury by a fellow servant;
laches;
license;
payment;
release;
res judicata;
statute of frauds;
statute of limitations; and
waiver.”

In other words, you must assert your affirmative responses in your Answer document, because you won’t be able ot bring them up later in the case. This list uses the fancy, legal terms used for affirmative defenses. SoloSuit simplifies it by asking you some questions and translating your answer into the legal language needed in an Answer.

For example, here are some common affirmative defenses used in debt collection lawsuits:

The debt is not yours. It's the result of identity theft which you have already reported to the FTC.
The amount stated in the Complaint is not accurate.
Innovative Recovery does not own the debt for which they are suing you.
It's too late for a lawsuit because the statute of limitations on the debt has passed (this one is very common).

The list of affirmative defenses is extensive, and you can use whichever ones are true for your case.

Make the right affirmative defense the right way with SoloSuit.

3. File the Answer in court and with Innovative Recovery’s attorney

After responding to each complaint and asserting your affirmative defenses, you’re ready for the most important part: filing.

Surprisingly, this is usually the most complicated step. Remember, you must file your Answer before the deadline, which is 14-35 days, depending on your state of residence.

To file your Answer in court, follow these steps:

Print the Answer, and two copies.
File the Answer into the case at the courthouse or mail it in.
Mail a copy to Innovative Recovery’s attorneys.
Keep a copy for your own records.

The opposing attorney’s address should be listed on the Summons and Complaint. The courthouse address isn’t always as easy to find. It’s usually easiest to send your Answer to the court via USPS-certified mail with a return receipt requested. But some courts require electronic filing or have other special filing rules.

Luckily, SoloSuit does all the filing research for you so you don’t have to.

Let SoloSuit file your Answer for you in all 50 states.

SoloSuit can help you

Like we said, finding an attorney is expensive and stressful. Luckily, you can represent yourself with SoloSuit’s help and beat debt collectors like Innovative Recovery in court.

SoloSuit helps with:

Drafting a Debt Validation Letter online.
Generating an Answer to the lawsuit.
Filing your Answer with the court.
Creating an offer to settle.

It's possible to beat Innovative Recovery if you have the right strategy.

Create your Answer in minutes with SoloSuit.

What is SoloSuit?

SoloSuit makes it easy to fight debt collectors.

You can use SoloSuit to respond to a debt lawsuit, to send letters to collectors, and even to settle a debt.

SoloSuit's Answer service is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your Answer. Upon completion, we'll have an attorney review your document and we'll file it for you.

Respond with SoloSuit

"First time getting sued by a debt collector and I was searching all over YouTube and ran across SoloSuit, so I decided to buy their services with their attorney reviewed documentation which cost extra but it was well worth it! SoloSuit sent the documentation to the parties and to the court which saved me time from having to go to court and in a few weeks the case got dismissed!" – James

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>>Read the FastCompany article: Debt Lawsuits Are Complicated: This Website Makes Them Simpler To Navigate