The Oregon legislature has passed a bill that seeks to amend the state’s new debt buying license and debt collection law by clarifying which types of organizations are required to provide individuals with certain types of information within 30 days of receiving a request.
There were many concerns within the ARM industry when the new law went into effect in January because it provided no safe harbor language for what would happen to a collection agency or debt buyer if those documents were not able to be obtained within the 30-day window.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed the new bill into law earlier this week. Among the changes that were made as a result of the new bill were to remove this section:
Section (2) A debt collector engages in an unlawful collection practice if the debt collector, while collecting or attempting to collect a debt, does any of the following:
(t) Collects or attempts to collect a debt before providing to a debtor, within 30 days after the date of the debtor’s request, all of the documents listed in subsection (4)(b) of this section.
and replace it with:
Section (2) A debt collector engages in an unlawful collection practice if the debt collector, while collecting or attempting to collect a debt, does any of the following:
(t) Collects or attempts to collect a debt if the debt collector is a debt buyer, or is acting on a debt buyer’s behalf, and collects or attempts to collect purchased debt before providing to a debtor, within 30 days after the date of the debtor’s request, all of the documents listed in subsection (4)(b) of this section.
ACA International has provided this context to help the industry understand the changes that have been made:
The revised language clarifies that only debt buyers and debt collectors working on the debt buyer’s behalf are subject to the provision requiring a debt collector to provide certain information at the consumer’s request. The requirement does not apply to third-party debt collectors collecting on non-purchased debts.
