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CFPB argues eviction disclosure rule does not require false speech
On May 11, the CFPB urged the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee to deny a request for a temporary injunction of a CFPB rule that would require all landlords to disclose to tenants federal protections put in place as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, arguing that the rule does not require false speech and is justified by the First Amendment. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the plaintiffs, including members of the National Association of Residential Property Managers, sued the CFPB asserting the Bureau’s recently issued interim final rule (IFR) violates their First Amendment rights. The IFR amended Regulation F to require debt collectors to provide tenants clear and conspicuous written notice alerting them of their rights under the CDC’s moratorium on evictions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic (covered by InfoBytes here). The plaintiffs alleged that the IFR violates the First Amendment because it “mandates untrue speech and encourages plainly misleading speech” by requiring disclosures about a moratorium that has been challenged or invalidated by several federal courts, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The CFPB asked the court not to grant the plaintiffs’ request for the temporary injunction, pointing out that the “plaintiffs fail to demonstrate that they are entitled to the extraordinary relief they seek.” The brief also notes that “requiring debt collectors to provide routine, factual notification of rights or legal protections that consumers ‘may’ have, in jurisdictions where the CDC Order applies, does not compel false speech and plainly passes First Amendment muster.”
District Court allows FDCPA debt dispute to proceed
On April 26, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama partially granted a defendant debt collector’s motion for summary judgment concerning alleged FCRA and FDCPA violations. According to the opinion, the defendant sent a dunning letter to the plaintiff’s son seeking to recover unpaid debt. The plaintiff disputed the amount of debt owed and asked that the debt not be reported to the CRAs. However, two years later the son noticed the debt was included on his credit report and wrote to a CRA to dispute the debt. The defendant conducted an investigation to verify the debt and asserted that it told the CRAs that the son continued to dispute the debt. The credit reports the son obtained after the investigation, however, did not include a notation on his credit report showing the debt as disputed. The plaintiff brought suit on behalf of his son alleging the defendant violated the FCRA by failing to investigate the disputed debt, and the FDCPA by failing to communicate with the CRAs and misrepresenting the amount of the debt. The court granted summary judgment on the FCRA claim, finding that the dispute as to the debt owed was based on a legal defense not a factual inaccuracy, and that “the FCRA makes a furnisher liable for failing to report a dispute only if the dispute is meritorious.” The court, however, permitted the FDCPA claim predicated on the alleged failure to communicate with the CRA to proceed to trial because there is no analogous requirement that the dispute be meritorious to state a claim. The court dismissed the FDCPA claim predicated on the dunning letter for lack of standing.
CFPB, FTC remind landlords of tenant pandemic protections
On May 3, the CFPB acting Director Dave Uejio and FTC acting Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter released a joint notification letter to the nation’s largest apartment landlords that together own over 2 million units. The letter serves as a reminder of federal protections put in place to keep tenants in their homes throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, including an eviction moratorium recently extended by the CDC to June 30, and an interim final rule issued by CFPB last month (covered by InfoBytes here), effective May 3, that established new notice requirements under the FDCPA. The letter also encourages the landlords to “notify debt collectors working on your behalf, which may include attorneys, of the CDC Moratorium, applicable state or local moratoria, and those parties’ obligations under the FTC Act and the FDCPA, including under the CFPB’s interim final rule.” Furthermore, the letter asks landlords to examine their practices in light of the CDC moratorium to ensure that they “comply with the FTC Act and the [FDCPA]” and “remediate any harm to consumers stemming from any law violations.” As previously covered in InfoBytes, in March, the CFPB and FTC issued a joint statement indicating staff at both agencies will be monitoring and investigating eviction practices to ensure that they comply with the law.
CFPB sued over Covid-19 FDCPA eviction rule
On May 3, plaintiffs, including members of the National Association of Residential Property Managers, sued the CFPB asserting the Bureau’s recently issued interim final rule (IFR) violates their First Amendment rights. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the IFR amended Regulation F to require debt collectors to provide tenants clear and conspicuous written notice alerting them of their rights under the CDC’s moratorium on evictions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the IFR, failure to provide notice is considered a violation of the FDCPA. The plaintiffs argue that the moratorium, however, has been challenged and invalidated by several federal courts, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. As such, the plaintiffs contend that the IFR compels “false speech” and “requir[es p]laintiffs to lie about the lawfulness and availability” of consumers’ rights under the moratorium. The complaint asks the court to “enjoin this CFPB policy, declare it unlawful, and set it aside.”
District Court: Identity theft alone is not enough to remove allegedly fraudulent debt from credit report
On April 20, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California granted a defendant debt collector’s motion for summary judgment, ruling that claiming to be a victim of identity theft alone is not enough to have a collection item removed from a credit report, or to give rise to an FDCPA violation. In 2014, the plaintiff purportedly obtained a payday loan from a lender who ultimately assigned the loan to the defendant for collection. In 2019, the plaintiff called the defendant to verbally dispute the debt as fraudulent after seeing the loan on her credit report. The defendant continued to report the loan to the consumer reporting agencies (CRAs), but marked the account as disputed, and informed the plaintiff of measures she needed to take to have the item removed from her credit report, including instructions for filing an identity theft affidavit. After an attorney representing the plaintiff submitted a formal written dispute of the debt, the defendant responded with the required verification and continued reporting the debt until the account was recalled by the lender. At this point the loan record was deleted and the defendant stopped reporting the loan account to the CRAs. The plaintiff filed suit alleging the defendant violated FDCPA Sections 1692e and 1692f and various state laws by continuing to report the debt after it was notified of the potential fraud. The court disagreed, stating, “there was nothing about [the defendant’s] statements that would confuse or mislead even the least sophisticated debtor’s attempt to remove the fraudulent account from their credit report,” the court wrote, adding that none of the defendant’s communications were false, deceptive, or misleading, nor did they undermine the plaintiff’s “ability to intelligently choose her action concerning the loan account.”
CFPB, NY AG sue debt collector to seize transferred property
On April 22, the CFPB and the New York attorney general filed a complaint against the owner of a now-defunct debt-collection firm for allegedly transferring ownership of his $1.6 million home to his wife and daughter for $1 shortly after he received a civil investigative demand and learned that the Bureau and the AG were conducting an investigation into his debt-collection activities. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the Bureau and the AG reached settlements in 2019 with the debt collection operation to resolve allegations that the defendants established and operated a network of companies that harassed and/or deceived consumers into paying inflated debts or amounts they may not have owed. The terms of the settlements imposed civil money penalties and consumer redress and permanently banned the defendants from acting as debt collectors. According to the complaint, the owner defendant has paid nothing toward satisfying the 2019 settlement, nor has he cooperated with the Bureau and the AG’s efforts to obtain relevant financial information. The complaint further claims that the transfer of the property was a fraudulent transfer under the Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act and made with the intent to defraud (a violation of the New York Debtor and Creditor Law), and alleges that the owner defendant “removed and concealed assets in an effort to render the Judgment obtained by the Government Plaintiffs uncollectable.” Moreover, because the property was allegedly “transferred with intent to hinder, delay, or defraud a creditor,” the complaint contends that the owner defendant is “not entitled to claim any homestead exemption.” The complaint asks the court to void the property transfer and to allow seizure of the property. Additionally, the Bureau and the AG request that the house be sold with all proceeds going towards the owner defendant’s 2019 settlement, and seek a monetary judgment against the owner defendant’s wife and daughter for the value of the property as transferees of the fraudulent conveyance of the property.
CFPB updates debt collection small entity compliance guide
On April 16, the CFPB updated its small entity compliance guide to incorporate amendments in the December 2020 debt collection rule (covered by InfoBytes here). Updates to the guide, originally issued in January (covered by InfoBytes here), include: (i) a new section discussing the prohibition against legal action and threats of legal action to collect time-barred debt; (ii) a new section discussing the prohibition on passive collection; (iii) the incorporation of requirements and guidance on providing validation information; (iv) an updated discussion of the prohibition against overshadowing consumer rights to incorporate reference to the safe harbor; (v) an updated discussion of requests for original-creditor information to include reference to applicable requirements if the current creditor and the original creditor are the same; and (vi) a new annotated version of the model validation notice in Appendix B of the December 2020 Rule. Miscellaneous administrative changes have been made throughout the guide as well.
CFPB: Debt collectors must provide written notice for evictions
On April 19, the CFPB issued an interim final rule (IFR) to amend Regulation F, which implements the FDCPA, that will require debt collectors to provide tenants written notice alerting them of their rights under the CDC’s moratorium on evictions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Failure to provide notice will be considered a violation of the FDCPA, which may result in a private right of action as well as actual damages, statutory damages, and attorney’s fees. The Bureau noted in its press release that the IFR does not preempt more protective state laws. Additionally, debt collectors are prohibited from misrepresenting renters’ eligibility for temporary protection under the CDC’s moratorium. Sample disclosure language and a summary of the IFR have been provided by the Bureau as well.
The IFR will take effect May 3. Comments are due 15 days after publication in the Federal Register.
3rd Circuit says collector itemizing zero-balance interest and fees did not mislead
On April 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed dismissal of an FDCPA action, concluding that itemized breakdowns in collection letters that include zero balances for interest and other fees would not confuse or mislead the reasonable “unsophisticated consumer” to believe that future interest or other charges would be incurred if the debt is not settled. The defendant management company sent a letter to the plaintiff claiming he owed amount $1,088.34 and offered to “resolve this debt in full” with a payment of $761.84. The plaintiff filed a putative class action against the defendant alleging that by itemizing interest and collection fees for his “static debt,” and by assigning “$0.00” interest, the letter falsely implied—in violation of § 1692e and § 1692f of the FDCPA—that “interest and fees could accrue and thereby increase the amount of his debt over time.” The defendants moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim. The district court dismissed the complaint with prejudice, declining “to require assurances by debt collectors that itemized amounts ‘will not change in the future,’ reasoning that doing so would lead to ‘complex and verbose debt collection letters’ that would confuse consumers.”
On appeal, the 3rd Circuit agreed with the district court. Specifically, the appellate court concluded that the “complaint fails to state a claim, whether our court’s ‘least sophisticated debtor’ standard is functionally the same as the ‘unsophisticated debtor’ standard applied by other Circuits or is instead an independent and less demanding framework.” Moreover, the appellate court noted even the least sophisticated debtor understands that “collection letters—as reflected by their fonts, formatting, content, and fields—often derive from templates and may contain information not relevant to his or her particular situation.” According to the 3rd Circuit, “FDCPA case law does not support attributing to the least sophisticated debtor simultaneous naïveté and heightened discernment. Were we for some reason constrained to consider only the law of Circuits that employ the word “least” in their FDCPA standards, we would still affirm.”
CFPB settles with California-based company for debt collection violations
On April 6, the CFPB announced a consent order against a California-based debt collector and its former owner for allegedly harassing consumers and threatening to take legal action if they did not pay their debts. According to the CFPB, the respondents violated the FDCPA and the CFPA’s prohibition against deceptive acts or practices by mailing letters to consumers printed with “Litigation Notice” that threatened recipients with legal action if they did not repay their debts. However, the Bureau stated that the respondents did not file lawsuits against the consumers, nor did they hire law firms or lawyers to obtain any judgments or collect on any such judgments. Under the terms of the consent order, the respondents are permanently banned from the debt collection industry and are ordered to pay $860,000 in redress to its victims, which has been suspended due to an inability to pay, as well as a $2,200 civil money penalty. This is the CFPB’s latest action taken against debt collectors that have used false threats to collect debts. As previously covered in InfoBytes, in 2019 the CFPB and New York attorney general announced proposed settlements with a network of New York-based debt collectors to resolve allegations that the defendants engaged in improper debt collection tactics in violation of the CFPA, the FDCPA, and various New York laws. Also, in 2018, the CFPB announced a settlement with a Kansas-based company and its former CEO and part-owner that allegedly engaged in improper debt collection tactics in violation of the CFPB’s prohibitions on engaging in unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (covered by InfoBytes here).