Requiring Validation – A Consumer’s “Secret Weapon”

In my opinion, requiring that a debt collector validate or verify your debt when they first contact you is underused as a weapon. It’s easy and free for you to do (and isn’t hard for them to answer, either), but surprisingly often it can lead to the debt collector walking away and leaving you alone.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) gives someone being harassed by debt collectors several useful tools. One of the best of these tools is requiring verification.

A “Secret”(?) Weapon

There’s nothing secret about requiring verification, but in my opinion consumers don’t use this one often enough. It costs nothing to use, takes very little time, and often, all by itself, is enough to convince them to leave you alone and look somewhere else for their victims.

The Right to Verification

Under the FDCPA, the first written communication from a debt collector must inform the consumer of his right to require verification of the debt (if the request is made within 30 days). Verification, or validation requires the collection company to go back to its source, the original creditor, and make sure that the consumer being contacted is the correct person and the debt is valid. Until the debt is validated, the collector may not take any further action on collecting the debt, and at least all the cases I’ve seen have included within that restriction any reporting of the debt to the credit reporting agencies. If the debt collector proceeds without verifying the debt first, you have a right to sue it.

The Requirement Is Absurdly Easy to Fulfill

The obligation is not very significant-a phone call will do, perhaps even as little as a checking of the computer tape or digital record. And yet even this minor obstacle will make the collection company go away surprisingly often. Perhaps the debt collectors view the early assertion of consumer rights as a warning of trouble to come.

Forming Good Habits Early On

And for the consumer, forming the habit of asserting legal rights seems to be an important step in bringing the whole debt situation under control. Out of this small acorn can grow a strong tree of financial security.

How to Require Validation

The way to require verification is very simple. When you receive a debt collection letter you simply write back to the debt collector and tell it you dispute the debt and request immediate verification. No special wording is required–nor is any special delivery (like registered mail), but I always suggest that you in fact send the request by registered mail, return receipt requested, so you will be able to prove that you wrote the letter, sent it, and that it was received by the debt collector. It is also a good idea to keep a copy of the actual letter that you send, too.

What If They’re Just Calling You?

But what happens if you’re just being telephoned by the debt collector? Under the FDCPA, a phone collector is required, within five days of the first contact, to send you, in writing, a notice of your right to dispute the debt and request verification. Failure to do so is a violation of the FDCPA that gives you the right to sue the company. And note that every communication from the debt collector should also have what we call the “mini-Miranda” disclosure, that “this communication is from a debt collector and any information you give may be used to collect a debt.”

Require Verification from EVERY Debt Collector

Every debt collector is different, and each one is required by law to provide you the right to dispute the debt and require verification. But by “debt collector” I mean the company that is harassing you, not the individual who happens to be calling you for that company.

Get in the habit of standing up for your rights, starting with the right to seek verification. Debt collectors are looking for the easiest way to make their profit, and standing up for your rights lets them know you won’t be easy.

What to Do Now

You will find information on many issues that come up in debt litigation and materials you can use to defend yourself here at our site. But for much more help, you should consider joining us.

 

Cease Communication Letters under the FDCPA

Hey there! This content is available to MEMBERS only! Consider registering for an account.

Three Things the FDCPA Makes Illegal

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is a source of many protections against “unfair” debt collection practices. It enumerates many of these practices but leaves room for more general use of the law, too. This article discusses three specific violations as examples of what the law can do.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is a source of many protections from ruthless debt collectors for people who owe money. As I often point out, what makes the Act so powerful is that, in addition to making certain specific actions illegal, the FDCPA also more generally makes <i>any unfair, oppressive or deceptive collection practice illegal.</i> At the focus of this article, however, are three specific forms of communication designed to embarrass debtors

Debt Collectors Must Identify Themselves to You

Debt Collectors have particular rules when trying to find you to bug you for money.

Under 15 U.S.C. Section 1692b,  a debt collector looking for a debtor must identify himself  by name but not mention his employer unless specifically requested. He cannot state that the consumer owes any debt, and he cannot communicate more than once with any person unless requested to do so or unless the debt collector reasonably believes that the earlier response of that person was erroneous or incomplete, and the person now has correct or complete location information.

This portion of the law was obviously intended to end the practice of collectors harassing and annoying the people around the debtor for purposes of damaging relationships and creating social pressure on the debtor.

Debt Collectors Cannot Communicate at Unreasonable Hours

Collectors are not allowed to communicate with consumers <i>“at any unusual time or place”</i> or at a time or place known to be inconvenient to the consumer. Unless the debt collector actually knows that the consumer has unusual hours, he cannot call before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m., local time of the consumer. 15 U.S.C. Sec. 1692c(a).

If you are being contacted at work, therefore, you should tell the collector that this is “an inconvenient time and place” for communications. It is also specifically illegal for a collector to call at place of work if he knows or has reason to know that the employer prohibits the consumer from receiving personal communications. If you work on a late shift, you should tell the debt collector what hours are inconvenient to you. It obviously makes sense to communicate with the debt collector in writing,  although the law doesn’t require it, and to make records of any communication that comes outside of the specified hours.

Debt Collectors Cannot Communicate with Third Parties Except under Limited Circumstances

Collectors are not allowed to talk to other people in connection with their collection efforts other than as specifically allowed (regarding finding you) unless you give your prior consent, or unless a court gives that permission. However, they are permitted to talk to your attorney, a consumer reporting agency, and the creditor and its attorney. The big exception involves “post-judgment judicial remedies.” If the debt collector obtains a judgment, it may seek garnishment of wages or bank accounts, and it is permitted efforts that are “reasonably necessary” to obtain these remedies. 15 U.S.C. Sec. 1692c(b).

I believe this section prevents debt collectors from harassing people who refuse to give them information about your whereabouts or to cooperate in other ways. Again, the prohibition exists to prevent the wanton damage of a consumer’s relationships with other people.

Your Right to Sue Under the FDCPA

If debt collectors are engaging in any of the above-mentioned prohibited acts, they are violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and you can either sue them for it or, if they have filed suit against you, make a counterclaim against them.

 

Identity Theft Affidavits – Debt Collector Dirty Trick, Part 2

Hey there! This content is available to MEMBERS only! Consider registering for an account.

Debt Collector not Original Creditor

Hey there! This content is available to MEMBERS only! Consider registering for an account.

The Importance of Filing a Counterclaim when Sued for Debt

Read more

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act – the FDCPA

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is the centerpiece of legal protections for debtors against debt collectors. The law was passed in its essential form in 1977, and its goal was to protect debtors against the abuses of debt collectors. This article discusses what makes this law great, and some of its limitations.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)  was enacted to put an end to some of the worst practices of the debt collection industry. It’s been a very good law, but the debt collectors are still doing many of the things the law was designed to present. You may be able to sue them or prevent them from suing you..

The Debt Collection Industry

Before the act, the debt collection industry was routinely engaging in the most abusive sorts of behavior imaginable, from calling debtors at all hours of the day or night and subjecting them to streams of cursing and name-calling, to discussing their debt with children, neighbors, and employers. Debt collectors frequently misrepresented themselves as attorneys and often threatened legal action which they were powerless to initiate. And they often attempted to, and did, collect debts that either never existed or were long unenforceable because of statutes of limitation or bankruptcy.

Whatever the staid spokespeople of the debt collection industry may say, this is the background of their industry. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. Section 1692, et seq., was enacted to put a stop to these extreme behaviors in 1977. Because the people intended to be protected by the act are underrepresented by lawyers, and because of the explosion of debt litigation over the past decade, many of the old abuses still continue, and as people increasingly defend themselves from the debt collectors, they develop new tricks all the time.

The FDCPA: A Pretty Good Law

Nevertheless, the FDCPA is in many ways a model piece of legislation. What makes the law so powerful is that, in addition to making certain enumerated acts illegal, the Act also more generally makes acts that are “oppressive,” “false or misleading representations,” or “unfair practices” illegal. This means that, whereas in most laws, the would-be wrongdoer is free to craft his actions around the specific language of the law and find “loopholes,” under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, at least, the consumer may argue that these actions are still unfair or oppressive. The Supreme Court has ruled that an “unfair” act can be shown by demonstrating that it is “at least within the penumbra” of some common law, statutory “or other established concept” of unfairness.

That’s pretty broad. The price for this flexibility, however, is that the remedies—what you get if you prove the case—are less powerful. And this may be why the practices are still occurring today.

As mentioned above, there are specific actions enumerated in the FDCPA, and these include most notably, suing on expired debts, filing suit in distant jurisdictions, publishing certain types of information regarding the debtor, calling outside of specified hours. And the list goes on. If the debt collector is acting in some highly offensive way, chances are he’s within the specific provisions of the Act. These can be found at 15 U.S.C. 1692c, d, e and f. You can find the specifics by Googling the Act or provision and determining whether the specific action you’re concerned about is within one of these provisions.