Debt Collectors and the Law

[Quail]

I thought it might be useful to have some information collected here about debt collectors and what our rights are if they come knocking. I know that in the UK legally they have no right to enter your house, so you don't have to let bailiffs in... But beyond that I don't really know the law. I thought perhaps if anyone has links to relevant bits of law, we could post them here and order them by country?

[Rudolf]

In the UK atleast we should always be mindful of the difference between a bailiff and a debt collector. The latter do not have the legal powers of bailiffs and can be used purely to irritate you into paying debts. They cannot seize your belongings. A bailiff (aka enforcement officer as it appears on paperwork), however, has been given court authorisation.

The thing is though that while generally bailiffs can't enter your home without consent there are circumstances they can and they can break locks to do it and even enter other homes if it's suspected you've moved your stuff there.

Bailiffs can be used for only the following debts:



council tax and business rates
parking penalties
county court judgements (CCJs)
high court judgements
magistrates' court fines and compensation orders
child support
maintenance
income tax, national insurance and VAT
business rent.

[consuming negativity]

i've never heard of debt collectors coming to people's houses in the us

they just blow up your phone, but i think that they're legally required to remove you from their lists (like telemarketers) if you request them to stop calling.

as far as stuff like getting money from people, the government will just take it out of your paycheck if you have one. no idea what happens if you don't but have valuables. they probably just straight up take it.

[Creative Destruction]

Yeah, in the United States, they usually phone you. The only debt collectors (overwhelmingly experienced by people of color) who show up on the doorstep are repo men, and there's really nothing you can do about that. They come, take your shit and that's that.

For the ones who are blowing up your phone, there's this:

http://www.consumerfinance.gov/askcfpb/336/what-is-harassment-by-a-debt-collector.html

I don't know what the success rate of it is. If your debt is big enough, though, they may not even attempt to collect aggressively. They may just end up filing a lawsuit against you in order to collect, which would then lead to wage garnishment or having liens being put on your property. The only other recourse someone would have is to file for bankruptcy. When you do that, the court orders all debt collectors to cease contact with the petitioner. If they continue to harass you after you've filed, then you need to tell your lawyer and they'll go after the collectors with a lawsuit.

Strike Debt!, which is an off-shoot of Occupy Wall St., published a debt resistor's manual, and there might be some useful stuff there:

http://strikedebt.org/The-Debt-Resistors-Operations-Manual.pdf

[Creative Destruction]

but i think that they're legally required to remove you from their lists (like telemarketers) if you request them to stop calling.

Only if they're deemed to be abusive -- using profanties, threatening you, calling you at all hours of the night, etc., If they're calling you a lot and "being nice" then there's not much you can do about it, except change your number.


as far as stuff like getting money from people, the government will just take it out of your paycheck if you have one. no idea what happens if you don't but have valuables. they probably just straight up take it.

This isn't completely true. If you owe back-taxes to the IRS, you can set up a payment plan in lieu of paying it all at once or having them garnish your wages. They'll also take your tax return. I just got finished with a multi-year IRS debt (due to a fuck-up at the payroll office of my old job, and I was left holding the bag), and it was frustrating at times, but the payment plan was generally good. If you don't have a job or steady income and tell them how much you're actually able to pay (30 or 40 a month or whatever) and then when you have a steady income again, you call them and raise it again, or stay on the same plan.

Wage garnishment is a last resort kind of deal, because they have to file with the court and it usually takes about 2 months to get a hearing on it. They also have to give you a set amount of time to deal with the debt before they even start to talk about filing... I think it's something like 6 months. So, you have effectively 8 months to deal with it, either to get on a payment plan or something. If you don't have a job from which they can garnish wages from (or if you only make something like less than 950 a month), then they simply won't take anything. Either they'll look at filing a lien against whatever assets you have or you'll be sent through a hardship program. It'll be a debt hanging over you until you're able to pay it back. And if your debt is solely to the government, you can't discharge it in bankruptcy (just like with student loans.)

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Debt collectors are the absolute scum of the Earth.

Yes, here in the States they mostly just harass you via phone, but there have definitely been cases where they've gone farther than that. Ultimately, intimidation is the weapon they use, and their are several reported incidences where they've used far more morally reprehensible means to get you to pay up.