Signature Service Cease and Desist Letter Made Easy

Signature service cease and desist letter

hey guys welcome to our video we're going to talk about another Fair Debt Collection Practices Act violation and the one that we'll look at today is when you send a cease-and-desist letter and we'll talk about what that means because there's two ways to do it what happens when you send that but the debt collector ignores it so that's what we'll talk about the part of the law that we're looking at is 1692 C and then subpart C so what I have on the screen here is what you as the consumer do and on the next screen we'll have what the debt collector is allowed to do even after getting a cease-and-desist letter so if a consumer notifies the debt collector in writing I want stop right there it has to be in writing there are times when consumers believe it does ought to be in writing when lawyers believe it does not have to be in writing and there are a lot of things you can do verbally you may be getting blown up with the Robo dialers to yourself well a lot of times you can revoke consent verbally you can tell like a debt collector that you dispute the debt verbally and that triggers obligations for the debt collector but if you want the protection of this section it has to be in writing so what do we say in that well there's two things we can say and you'll notice in here there's no magic language you don't have to use some formulaic recitation of words you just have to tell the debt collector that you refuse to pay the debt if you do that that is a cease communication letter or you can say the consumer wishes the debt collector to cease further communication with the consumer so let's go through some examples if you just say I refuse to pay this debt that qualifies if you say I'll never pay this debt to you that would qualify if you say cease and desist communication that would qualify if you say I don't ever want to hear from you again that would qualify never contact me again that would quote so you don't have to use some magic language like cease and desist you just let the debt collector know either I'm never gonna pay this debt so there's no point of you contacting me or whether I'm going to pay it or not I don't ever want you to contact me again if you do one of those then that tells the debt collector that you have demanded that they cease communication and then notice what's in green the word shall this is not a suggestion it's not hey debt collectors we would really like you to do this you know this is a guideline this is a best practice no this is absolute 100 percent debt collectors shall not communicate further with the consumer with respect to such debt except on the next screen will look at the three exceptions now what I have in the brackets down here at the bottom is actually beneath the exceptions if you read the statute it makes more sense here it's just saying look if you Mel this to the debt collector it's only effective or quote complete upon receipt so well how else would I get it - well yeah if it was a local debt collector you could drop it by you know hand delivery - but the point is however you get it to them they must receive it for it to be effective if they do not receive it it's no good so there are some things in the law like take for example section 1692 G which is what's called the validation notice that's the one that says you have 30 days to dispute if you dispute in writing will verify the dead will get you the name of the creditor that sort of stuff that is an obligation the debt collector has to send you that's the key to send you they must mail it to you it does not have to get to you they just have to Mel here if you want them to cease communication they have to actually know that that's what you mean so it makes sense they have to receive it so send it certified send it overnight don't just put a stamp on it a melech because if you're dealing with the debt collector who will break the law well they'll just lie and say they never got it so we'll talk about this a little bit more in the conclusions but the point is you send it in writing they get it you say I'm not gonna pay this debt or you say cease communication stop calling me don't ever contact me again then they cannot communicate with you except here are the three exceptions now as you look at this I've highlighted in yellow the the thread through these three things it's to advise you to notify you so look at number what advise the consumer debt collectors further efforts are being terminated that's kind of interesting you say don't ever contact me again so they write to you to say we're not going to contact you again okay now we might go well that's kind of silly but hey at least you know your letter work they're not going to contact you again or number two to notify the consumer that the debt collector creditor may invoke specified remedies so they would explain what those are also put a lien on your property whatever it might be which are ordinarily invoked by such a debt collector creditor so here's a way I look at that if you've got a debt collector and they say alright we got your C since this letter but be advised that we may see you and they have never filed a lawsuit in the entire hundred year existence of their company then I think they violated this law because it's things that they ordinarily invoke now number two this second exception is not saying we are going to do all these things it says we may do these things now number three slightly different we're applicable to notify the consumer that the debt collector creditor intends to invoke a specified remedy so that so part two might be hey we may see you we may put a lien on your property we may do this we may do that but number three is to say oh yeah we are going to sue you okay so again it have to be something that they have the legal right to do or else that would violate section E and some other sections or that they intend to so they have to have the legal right whatever they're threatening you with and they have to have the intention to actually do it if under subsection 3 they're saying hey we intend to do this so take a step back you send them in writing I refuse pay the debt stop communicating with me they cannot communicate with you except to tell you we're not going to bother you anymore or number two we may use these following remedies that we have that we ordinarily use and then number three they can say we are going to do this maybe file a lawsuit so what are some conclusions you got to send the cease and desist or refusal to pay in writing so it has to be in writing and somebody says well what if I tell them and it's being recorded isn't that good enough that's not in writing it has to be in writing number two you have to be able to prove that they got the letter so send a certified mail if this is important enough to do it's worth spending seven or eight bucks on certified mail and certified mills where they sign the green card you get the green card back that's your proof that they received it it's so vital to have that now you can do FedEx or UPS and so when I say certified mail I really mean anything where you can prove that they actually received it somebody say what about a fax what if I get the fax confirmation well maybe that's good enough but you know your fax machine says it was delivered or eFax says it was delivered and they said we never got it well now you're you're fighting over this just send it in writing a hardcopy certified FedEx UPS then number three if the debt collector communicates with you other than those exceptions then I would look to sue so this will be a review if you've seen our other videos but just real quick because I have consumers come to me I have lawyers kind of may say John I got this great case I want to send you it's a fantastic case and they're telling me about it and then we realize this is not consumer debt or we're not dealing with the debt collector the FDCPA doesn't apply so for the FDCPA to apply you have to be a consumer has to be consumer debt we're not talking about business debt we have to be dealing with the debt collector so not Capital One their original creditor okay we're talking about a debt collector here that meets the definition of a debt collector and then we have to have a violation of the FDCPA so it has to be something harassing or they lied to you or they're being unfair to you and then if you do sue remember you can get actual or compensatory damages those are to compensate you to bring you back to where you were right before this debt collector injured you or damaged you then you get statutory damage even if you have no actual damage even if it didn't bother you in the least you can still get a thousand dollars up to a thousand dollars for them violating the law and that's to encourage you to bring suit because the federal government does not have the time or the resources to go after all the abuse of debt collectors so what they do is they say alright consumers if a debt collector violates the law against you even if it didn't hurt you we want you to see them and we'll pay you up to a thousand dollars and we'll pay your lawyers and we'll cover your cost of litigation we'll make the the debt collector that abused you we'll make them pay for all that because that will police the bad abusive dishonorable law breaking debt collectors and it'll make the whole industry better so the government wants you to bring these lawsuits and then if you have a state law for example invasion of privacy is one we all must always use when we're suing under the FDCPA that may allow you to get punitive damages you may have a state version of the fdcpa that may or may not allow punitive damages but for the last punitive damages definitely take advantage of that punitive damages are to punish the debt collector for doing something recklessly or intentionally and it's to deter that debt collector and all other debt collectors from ever doing that again you want to make it so painful that they say we'll never make that choice again by breaking the law so appreciate you watching this video if you have comments feel free to put those below if you have something specific you want to ask about a particular debt collector or maybe a possible case you have then I'd suggest you know get with us sort of privately on that you can call us or fill out a contact form on Alabama consumer comm and I'll get right back with you and if you have any suggestions for other violations that you would like me to cover in this sort of style where instead just telling you what it is we're instead of looking at a case which will do all of those but this one I wanted to be able to say here's the violation here's a specific section or as in the last video you know we had to sort of bounce back and forth between a number of sections to sort of get the whole picture so if if you like this definitely let me know what other ones you want me to cover and subscribe to our channel that way you'll be notified when we release them so thanks a lot guys and you have a great day talk to you soon bye bye