California lures scores of people every year. After all, the Golden State has plenty going for it, including lovely weather and an overall good quality of life. But you’re going to pay a pretty penny to live there. That’s just a fact. Add to that an inflationary economy that’s still reeling from the pandemic, and many residents are in trouble.
The good news is that there are legal protections in place that govern how debt collectors can try to get you to pay up. Keep reading for debtors rights in California.
The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA)
The FDCPA is a federal law under which debt collectors must conduct themselves in a certain way while attempting to collect on a debt you purportedly owe.
The law covers agencies that are collecting debts for another person or entity, and sometimes debt buyers.
Among other things, the Act:
* Requires collectors to cease contacting you if you ask them in writing not to. Note that this doesn’t absolve you of the debt, however.
* Regulates the time of a day a collector can contact you.
* Prohibits debt collectors from using unfair and deceptive tactics to get you to pay. It also bars them from using abusive, profane, intimidating, or threatening language in their business dealings with you.
The Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
Californians are also protected by the Rosenthal FDCPA, which pertains to even more kinds of collectors and provides extra protections. If you live in California and a collector breaches the Rosenthal Act, your options include filing a complaint, suing the collector, or using their transgressions as leverage in debt settlement.
The difference between the federal debt collection law and California’s law is that the former doesn’t apply to original creditors – just collectors and debt buyers. By contrast, the California law does cover original creditors. This is important as residents increasingly seek debt consolidation in California to deal with mounting financial woes. It’s simply a fact that, these days, debt consolidation companies in California are plenty busy.
Specifically, the term “debt collector” under the Rosenthal Act includes:
* Collectors
* Original creditors
* Those who collect consumer debts for a living
* Those who produce and sell letters, forms, and other materials to be used for debt collection
Note that collection lawyers in the state must comply with the Rosenthal Act as well as some planks of the federal law. Also under the Rosenthal law, a debt collector must tell you if the statute of limitations has passed for a certain debt.
What Collectors Cannot Do Under Rosenthal
In California, a collector may not:
* Threaten to garnish your wages, seize assets, or threaten to arrest you. In most situations, a collector must first file suit against you garner a judgment.
* Wrongly threaten to forward the debt to another person and inform you that you have no recourse.
* Make derogatory statements about your indebtedness to other people or threaten to do so.
* Attempt to intimidate you by telling you that not paying your debt means you’re a criminal.
* Use or threaten to use criminal tactics or physicality to hurt you, your assets, or your reputation.
Ultimately, debtors rights in California shield you from a plethora of activities when it comes to debt collection. If you’re not in that situation yet but are close to it, you may need debt settlement, a strategy that may allow you to pay your creditors less than what you owe. We recommend enlisting the help of Freedom Debt Relief.
