The 60-day window for submitting comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding its Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would require additional disclosures when collecting on time-barred debts starts today, with the publication of the SNPRM in the Federal Register.
Unless extended, the comment period will remain open until May 4. There are three ways for comments to be filed:
- Through the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
- Email: 2020-NPRM-DebtCollection@cfpb.gov. Include Docket No. CFPB-2020-0010 or RIN 3170-AA41 in the subject line of the email.
- Mail/Hand Delivery/Courier: Comment Intake, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, 1700 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20552.
The SNPRM would not affect the lengths of statutes of limitations set by each state, but would establish a national standard for how collectors must attempt to collect on debts where the statutes have expired. Individuals are not allowed to be sued for unpaid debts once the statute of limitations has expired, but collectors can still attempt to collect. In many cases, the courts have decided what a collector can or can not say when attempting to collect on a time-barred debt, and that has created a patchwork set of de facto regulations to which the industry must adhere.
The CFPB is seeking comment on the SNPRM in a number of areas:
- The merits of using a “know or should know” standard versus a “strict liability” standard for determining when debt collectors must provide time-barred debt and revival disclosures.
- The merits of using, as an alternative, a “strict liability” standard with a safe harbor for debt collectors who provide the disclosures when they neither knew nor should have known the debt was time- barred.
- Whether knowing if a debt is time barred affects or is likely to affect a consumer’s conduct relating to the debt
- The frequency with which debt collectors should be required to provide required disclosures, including the basis for requiring more or less frequent disclosures
- Whether additional guidance is needed to address situations in which a validation notice might be re-issued voluntarily because, for example, the consumer requests a copy or a translation
- Debt collectors’ current practices with respect to disclosing whether a debt is time barred and the circumstances, if any, in which revival can occur
- Debt collectors’ current practices with respect to revival, including whether and how frequently they sue to collect debts when the right to do so has been revived
