What happens if CA never responds?

[Anonymous]

My husband received a dunning notice in the mail in the beginning of February from a collection agency. I mailed out a letter one week after receiving it saying that He disputed it and wanted full verification of the debt. The next week they added to his credit report and they never responded to the letter. I've read that they don't have to respond if you send it after the 30 days but what about if you send it within the 30 days?

[RobertEG]

DV reqeusts are covered under FDCPA 809(b).

If you send your DV within the 30-day period set in the dunning notice, it imposes a cease collection bar on the debt collector, which remains in effect until the debt collector provides the requeted debt validation.  They have no period to or requirment for sending validation.  They can choose never to send validation, and are not in violation provided they do not continue any active collection on the debt.

The purpose of the federal DV statute was to relieve consumers of debt collector activities until they were provided validation, and not to mandate validation.

However, the times they are 'a changin.  States are now enacting their own debt collection practices statutes that do mandate some type of response.

Those now include Texas, California, and New York.  Thus, if you live in a state that has mandated response periods, you should send a separate request to the debt collector citing your state regulation or statute.