Helped Ex And Their Father Get An Apartment, Now In Debt Because They Won't Pay Rent

Location: Indiana

Hello friends! As the title says, I helped my ex and their father get an apartment because they both have low credit, as well as an extensive history of debt. So of course, the best idea at the time was to attach my name to an apartment that they would be responsible for paying for.

So I put my name down for this apartment, as did my ex and we got it together. I would not be living there, it was solely so my ex and their father could live there and they would be paying the rent. As such, my ex's father was not on the lease so he is pretty much scott free.

It started off well, but several tardy and missed payments later, here we are with an outstanding balance of just over $3000. They moved out in October, so about 6 or 7 months ago at this point. I called the apartment office a few months ago to see about the debt and the leasing office employees informed me that the balance was passed off to collections, but I had no idea how to contact them.

I've recently been getting calls from a credit company so I'm assuming that they've been calling about the debt. I dont communicate with my ex anymore and I'm not really relying on her ability to be of much help in this scenario. So I'm just wondering if there is anything I can do to not eat another $3000+ loss on account of this person? Can I work something out with the credit company or am I pretty much cooked?

Thanks! Comment if you have further questions and I'll do my best to answer them.