Is there a spot on this board that provides sample letters for the dispute process? I am particularly looking for a letter to send to the collection agency when they did not respond in the 30 day time period allowed to validate the debt. Any one have any suggestions on how I am to proceed? I mailed the letters on 3/19/07 so they are well over the 30 day time limit. Thank you in advance for your help all!!!
There is no 30 day time period to validate a debt. What there is, is a period that the consumer should request validation if they want to obtain the maximum protections provided under FDCPA. See: http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/fdcpact.htm#809 The requirement under FDCPA for debt validation is that if the consumer requested validation from a debt collector within 30 days of receiving their initial collection letter, then the debt collector must suspend all collection activities until such validation is provided. It may never be provided, in which case the debt collector cannot continue collection activities. There may be some differences due to state law, for example, in Texas. If you sent your validation in a timely fashion (within 30 days), and you have confirmed that they received it, then after allowing a few days to ensure that they cannot claim it had not been processed into their system, you would want to dispute the TL they are reporting thru the CRA. You must dispute thru the CRA to make the CA liable under FCRA for their erroneous reporting if they fail to correct or remove, or liable under FDCPA if they "verify" a TL when they failed to validate to you, or if they fail to mark the TL as "disputed". In all cases, you would want to dispute in writing, sent CRRR, to ensure you can prove either CA or CRA received your dispute, and when they received it. If it is worth disputing, and you might have to go to court, you want to be able to prove what you sent and when they got it. As for letters, you are probably better off writing your own letter, simply disputing a debt and requesting validation, addressing any particular issues involved, than using canned letters asking for everything including the "kitchen sink".
