Hi there, I'm new, so please go easy on me if there are any redundancies in this post.

A collection agency has contacted me for damages to an apartment I lived in almost 2 years ago. The contract I had with my landlord, which I can't locate so far, was for the lease of an apartment. I don't see how you can have a collections agency pursue damages to property. Wouldn't that be a matter for small claims?

If I do find the lease and it does say something like: "tenant has to return property to the state it was in". Is it then a matter for collections?

Additionally, I'm disputing there was any damage at all

Thanks a lot for the help and this is an absolutely amazing website. One suggestion: informative sticky posts would be nice, there is a lot to wade through on this site