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Collections Law/Statute of limitations on debt collections

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Expert: Creditwrench - 7/19/2009


Question
My father passed away in 1994.  He was medically retired from the Air Force and he and my mother were living on a VA pension.  My mother did not work at the time except as his caregiver.  Her income dropped to $700 per month from social security.  My mother is now 72 and lives in Oregon.  

I just found out that in late 2006, 12 years after my father's death, she was contacted by a scavenger debt collector for one of my father's credit card debts at the time of his death.  For whatever reason, she agreed to pay them $20 per month.  She received a total of 4 monthly statements from them, the last in March of 2007, yet continues to send them $20 monthly.

Having just learned this, I told her to stop immediately, send them a certified letter indicating the statute of limitation for any debts of my deceased father has long passed, and to drop the matter.  Oregon ORS 12.080 lists the limitation at 6 years.

Is this the correct manner to proceed?  Are there any debt collection laws to protect the elderly from this type of unfair practice?

Thank you.

Answer

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She may have reset the statute of limitations under Oregon law by making those payments. I'm not an attorney and so I can't give you a legal opinion on that and it may even take a judge to make that final determination. I'm just saying that might be a possibility. Regardless of what Oregon law says, making payments to a 3rd party debt collector would not reset the statute of limitations under federal law. Even if that were not true they cannot legally garnish her pension money under federal law. The point is that $700 a month is hardly enough to live on and making those payments must hurt. She could well use that money for something else. Furthermore she had no obligation to ever make any payments on her husband's debts if she had not signed for the debt such as being a cosigner on a credit card or some kind of note or other. I'd have her simply stop making those payments and let her come after her legally if that is what they choose to do at some future date. Yes, they will most likely hound her by phone and letter for a while but that is easily taken care of. If they sue her she can respond without having to hire an attorney and she can plead a statute of limitations defense and will probably win on that grounds. Even if she were to lose in local court they still can't take her pension or force her to pay. The worst they could do would be to put a lien on her home and in the event they went that far she could sue them in federal court and would not even have to pay a filing fee to do that. She would win in a walk and make them pay her for their illegal actions. If they call her she could simply say that she refuses to pay and hang up on them.  

Creditwrench

Expertise

Debt Collections law, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), federal law, how to properly answer court summons for collection cases, how to prepare federal cases against debt collectors, how to deal with debt collection phone calls.

Experience

I've been an active consumer advocate for more than 40 years and have helped hundreds of people win cases against debt collectors as well as helping them defeat demands for summary judgment lodged against them by banks, debt collectors and defeat mortgage foreclosures and keep their homes.

Education/Credentials
Paralegal courses for the most part.
I have been teaching people how to deal with judgments, mortgage foreclosures and other such problems both on and off the internet for many, many years. I am a Richard Cornforth information provider ever since 2000 and worked with many other organizations and causes since 1980. I was Oklahoma State Chairman for the nationwide drive to defeat the Constitutional Convention which was proposed by various factions within our federal government such as the Council of State Governments and the National Organization of State Governors who were working hard to organize a Constitutional Convention to be held in 1995 for the purpose of rewriting our American Constitution to be more acceptable to the United Nations. I worked with Senator Charles Duke of Colorado and Senator Don Rogers of California and many others across the nation to keep them from getting the number of delegate states required to lawfully hold a Con-Con and we were successful. I have worked with many other legislative issues in Oklahoma and have always been very successful.

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