debt collector

[wayne-o]

What is the name of your state?TN If a person routinely signs liens and lawsuits can they be considered a debt collector under the FDCPA. For example I had a lien filed on my home. I sent a validation to the person who signed the lien, not the attorney who mailed it. Have I messed up? The reason I asked is because the person who signed lien did not respond, stop collection or forward letter to attorney. In fact, they sued after they had validation letter. I do have my certified receipt.

 

[Debt Guy]

Suing after you sent the demand for the validation demand is not a violation of FDCPA since bringing the lawsuit is not considered collection activity.

Validation is moot at this point anyway since you have the right to conduct discovery which will produce all the answers (and more) that you would have wanted in validation.

You need to respond to the lawsuit. It you don't, you will lose by default.

 

[wayne-o]

Im not sure I understand, Suing a person for an amount they said you owe is not collection activity? what is it then?. Also, the fdcpa says that if debt is disputed they are supposed to cease collection activity. Thanks for your response.

 

[Debt Guy]

I'm just telling you how the courts and the law looks at the situation. I never said it would make sense to you.

The FDCPA does not define legal action as a collection activity.

The purpose for a request for validation is to say "prove to me that I owe you anything and what I owe".

But that is all made moot by the lawsuit. Now, you can file responses and requests for documents, etc., as part of the discovery that will satisfy your "prove to me what I owe or that I owe anything." Logically, you can get what you wanted from the validation. Right?

You can try to convince the judge that filing the lawsuit is a collection activity -- but don't expect to get far with that argument. This would be persuasive to a judge only if you had a precedent in that district -- maybe there is one but I've never seen it.

If this debt is a matter of dispute over facts, then you have the perfect opportunity to demand the plantiff prove their case and to present your case for how you've been wronged. That is what court is all about.

If, however, you just don't want to pay the debt and are looking for the FDCPA to "whoosh it away", expect a lot of disappointment.

If you don't file a response to the summons you will lose by default. There is nothing you can do to defeat a judgment except file bankruptcy.

 

[wayne-o]

debt collection

Thanks for your responses debtguy. Actually I have already paid the lawsuit because I did owe the money. My dilemma was there was a portion of the amount that I was not sure about. I wrote the company on two different occasions. The first time I got no response, but a lien was placed on my house. The second time I requested the information in the form of a certified letter, and got no response, but a lawsuit was filed. Like I said I owed the money, however, I think that they have a legal responsibility to respond. I was looking for avenues to make them understand they should've responded. So far they just say "sorry".