The Village at Lindsay Park Filed fraudulent charges with Experian, Experian sides with them Mesa Arizona

Something is very odd in this "Ripoff".  Why would someone who apparently thinks they know all of the laws as to what a company must do(ie the credit reporting agencies), but then ignore one of the biggest things that might have been to their advantage.  The law in Arizonia that states a landlord has 14 days to return a deposit or give them the reasons why.

As you did not give them a fowarding address, which gives them an out to any claim you make that says they didn't contact you in the given time.   But not only that, it may have taken them eight months to track you down, but in those 8 months you never once tried to contact them about your deposit.  Because you see if you had tried to contact them, you could have sued them in small claims court not only for your deposit but additional damages.  Yet NOTHING...umm.

So if someone was to look at your actions they may think that you knew you had damages and figured it was a "wash" with the deposit.

But now they contacted you and what did you do...you IGNORED it?  You are then somehow shocked when you got another letter from a collection agency.  I guess you figured it would just go away, right?  So what was this list of "preposterous" demands they were sending you?

Then we get to this credit report.  Per the Fair Credit Reporting Act(FCRA) you have the right to dispute any item on your credit report.  However, this is only a debt verification and nothing more.  Experian(or any Credit Reporting Agency) is not Judge and Jury in determining if the item is valid.  They will take your dispute and ask the company that is reporting it if it is valid, if the company states it is and shows them anything..the item will most likely stay.  However, if the CRA considers the request frivolous they have much more lienient guidelines they have to follow and may not even respond.

As for them posting this item on your report 5 months before they contacted you.  You FAILED to tell them where you were, so yes that is 100% legitimate.  If all it took was for someone to not tell them where they were to avoid having a negative credit item listed, you would have so many fake addresses floating around it would be meaningless.

If you truly want to go after the listing on your credit report since this is a Collection Agency you can use the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act(FDCPA) which requires the company to "validate" the debt.  That is provide more proof that the debt is valid or they must remove it from the report.  However, just based on what you posted here it is likely that they have enough for that.  So if you truly want this taken care of you are going to have to file a claim in small claims court.  But fair warning just like they seem to "remember" you once you filed the dispute.  They may decide to just go ahead and file a counter-suit for the amount they claim you owe.  The good news in that..at leat you will have it decided and don't have to worry about draggin on.   The bad news..if you loose you better come up with the money you owe them.