Collection Agency Failed to Provide Debt Validation

[Anonymous]

I'd love a little advice,  I have a collections from Hunter Warfield in which they tacked on some fees.  When HW first contacted me in August of 2014 (by the way, they also called and left messages with my mother and my brother and told them it was to collect a debt), I asked for debt validation which they didn't provide.  I sent them a Do Not Call letter and a request for debt validation.  They stopped calling but failed to provide debt validation and tacked on another $190 in fees.  In June, I sent another request for debt validation which they received on Jun 19, 2015.  Again,  no debt validation.  Late July, I sent copies of my documentation and return recepts to the credit reporting agencies asking them to remove the collection since Hunter Warfield cannot prove I owe this amount of money.  They all received their copies (again recept mail) in early August.  Today, August 28, 2015, I called all three agencies and they told me that HW "verfified" the debt.  I said well, I could "verify" any debt I wanted to and could "verify" my neighbor owes me $5,000 but without proof, this collection is invalid.  All three agencies said they would take another 30 days to investigate but I couldn't get them to tell me what this meant, i.e., are they just going to call HW and be told "Yes, she owes us?" or will they demand proof?  None of the people I spoke with could tell me.  At this point, I'm actively considering hiring an attorney to file charges against the CRA and the collection agency. What are the CRA's supposed to do?

Lastly,  I'm at wit's end about getting Capital One and Merrick Bank to remove some late payments.  Like so many others, I was unemployed briefly and was 60 days late on Capital One and 90 for Merrick.  I have been begging and begging for a Good Will adjustment and wrote the Merrick Bank president all to no avail. I'm getting the standard response of "We don't have the ability to do that. You need to get the CRA to remove it."

Does anyone have a sympathetic person's email at either of these places?  And, just for the people who are going to respond, "Well, I'm against anyone trying to get a legiitimate item removed." Go post somewhere else, I'm not in the mood for any self-righteous pronouncements.

[RobertEG]

A request for debt validation does not impose any requirment upon a debt collector to validate the debt or to reply within any period of time.

The intent of the DV process, as stated in the legislative history of FDCPA 809, is to provide a reprieve to consumers of active collection activities until the consumer is first provided validation of the debt.  It thus mposes a cease collection bar on the debt collector provided the DV request is sent within 30 days of any prior dunning notice, and the cease collection bar remains in effect until such time as the debt collector chooses to provide verification of the debt.

With no requirment ot have responded, there is no violation of the DV process under FDCPA 809(b).

Additionally, the CRAs are not a party in any manner to the DV process.  It is a debt collection practices matter between the consumer and the debt collector.

A dispute to the CRA based on lack of receipt of verification in response to a DV request can thus be dismissed by a CRA as lacking any showing of any inaccuracy in reporting.

[Anonymous]

Definitely contact an attorney. If they call someone seeking information about you and mention it's a debt, that's a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. You can sue for statutory damages of $1000 per call (so that's at least $2000) plus attorney's fees. If they offer to settle, which they probably will, you can get them to stop reporting the debt as part of the settlement. Going after the credit reporting agencies would probably not be fruitful, though.

[Anonymous]

I agree with RobertEG that there's no violation of the DV process

Additionally, there may be an FDCPA violation in a sense that the CA communicated with a third partywho is not your attorney in reference to your alleged debt.

See link below

§ 805.  Communication in connection with debt collection   [15 USC 1692c]  Section B

(b) COMMUNICATION WITH THIRD PARTIES.  Except as provided in section 804, without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector, or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, or as reasonably necessary to effectuate a postjudgment judicial remedy, a debt collector may not communicate, in connection with the collection of any debt, with any person other than a consumer, his attorney, a consumer reporting agency if otherwise permitted by law, the creditor, the attorney of the creditor, or the attorney of the debt collector

https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/fair-debt-collection-...

I would contact an FDCPA attorney to see if a claim can be filed

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
You can sue for statutory damages of $1000 per call (so that's at least $2000) plus attorney's fees. 

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Do you know if anyone has been successful in collecting damages on a per call basis? I was under the impression that statutory damages were $1k max per FDCPA claim,, but may be I'm wrong?

[RobertEG]

Do you actually have no knowledge of the asserted debt, and thus willing to put that assertion into a sworn statement before a law enfocement agency that you never authorized any such account/transactions, and thus that any credit reporting must be the result of identity theft?

If so, then you can use the identitiy theft process of FCRA 605B to get the collection blocked from your credit report.

Howver, if you have actual knowledge of the asserted debt, then the DV process under the FDCPA is not a procedure for requiting credit report deletion.

[Anonymous]

If they indeed contacted your family members in an attempt to collect a debt, they violated the FDCPA. Also, you can request the method of verification that the credit bureaus used as well.  I would re-dispute with the CRA's and also open a dispute with the CFPB as well. If you asked for debt validation within the 1st 30 days of receiving notice of the collection attempt, that collection agency cannot legally report the collection until they have validated the debt per the FDCPA.

Here are some links to help:

https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/fair-debt-collection-...

http://www.creditreporting.com/fair-credit-reporting-act/#summary

Best of luck. Hope you give that collection agency all they can handle and make them remove their tradeline from your report.