Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

• Pages: 99-103

Fair Debt Collection

Practices Act

Chapter 12

99

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) gives important

rights to a property resident facing foreclosure, as well as consum-

ers in general. One provision of the FDCPA is that a debt collector

cannot use abusive, deceptive, and unfair debt collection practices.

In 1978, Congress recognized that abusive debt collection prac-

tices were contributing to the destruction of peoples’ marriages, loss

of jobs, bankruptcy filings and personal privacy.1Abusive debt

collectors still cause the same problems today, and in addition only

aggravate the overwhelming strain on Americans in foreclosure.

These practices are illegal, and, as explained herein, a consumer

may possibly recover legal damages against a debt collector who

violates the FDCPA.

Some courts have held that a foreclosure plaintiff (the bank,

lender, or owner of the loan who brings the foreclosure action) is

not considered a debt collector under the FDCPA when the bank is

the original creditor seeking to enforce its own debt and not “regu-

larly engaged in the debt collection business.”2However, it has also

been held that the bank’s foreclosure attorneys may constitute debt

collectors under the FDCPA because they “regularly engage in debt

1. See 15 U.S.C. § 1692.

2. Jeliff Partners, LLC v. Brown, No. FST CV04-4001569 (Conn. Super.

Ct., June 1, 2005).