I terminated my lease early (June '03). In September of '03 I spoke
with a representative of VW credit who said my file was clear and
didn't owe anything further. I never heard anytihng from VW nor any
collection agency since nor was I expecting to as I had discussed my
file with the person in 9/03. On 9/9/04, I recieved a call from a
woman from the collection dept. of VW. She told me that I did in fact
owe $7,800. The amount was a result of my early termination. When I
questioned her as to why it took a year for me to get this information
she apologized and said that VW credit should have contacted me yet
she saw no notes that they had tried to contact me (via mail or
phone). VW credit handed the claim to the woman who called in early
9/04. She first contacted me on 9/9/04. My questions is, how long does
a company have (if any amount of time) to bill someone after the fact.
In this case I recieved what turns out to be false information in
9/03--that I didn't owe anything yet was contacted for the first time
about it 9/9/04. OVER A YEAR SINCE I TURNED THE CAR IN TO VW.

If you have kept a copy of your lease, you need to review it or have a
business law attorney review it to see whether or not what this
company is asking from you is legally permissible or not. If you don't
have a copy of your lease agreement, ask them to send you one.

The person you spoke to at VW who told you you didn't owe anything may
not have known what he/she was talking about since they may have not
had the agreement in front of them at the time.  Many leases
frequently call for an early termination penalty, so it is likely that
you do owe the money, but their delay in asking you for the money may
be a legal technicality/slip up on their part that just might be the
loophole you need to get out of this.  A debt collection/credit
collections attorney could also advise you about the statute of
limitations on this matter and whether it applies.  You desperately
need a third party to examine all the aspects of this situation.

4KEITH (I'm NOT a GOOGLE Researcher)
Accountant