Why Are Collectors/Creditors Still Harassing Me After The Debts Were Discharged in Bankruptcy?
Why Are Collectors/Creditors Still Harassing Me After The Debts Were Discharged in Bankruptcy?
You made the decision to file bankruptcy and then he received your discharge order which means you are no longer liable for the debts that were discharged in bankruptcy.
This is your moment to get a fresh start.
But….
Creditors and collection agencies are still harassing you about the discharge debts.
Two questions come to mind.
First, why am I still being harassed over these debts when I legally discharge them and my chapter 7 bankruptcy?
Second, what do I need to do to stop these creditors and collectors from harassing me?
Creditors and debt collectors will continue, and various ways, to try to collect discharged debts because it is more profitable for them to break the law than to follow the law.
It is true that when you receive a discharge order that the creditors and debt collectors for any discharge debt must never bother you again about the debt.
But it is also true that for every hundred people with a discharge debt that creditors and debt collectors illegally harass, maybe one will actually take any direct action against these companies.
Perhaps two or three will tell the debt collector or the creditor to stop bothering them or they will take action.
But the vast majority will end up paying the discharge debt.
So it is simply a numbers game where creditors and debt collectors know that it is extremely unlikely they will be sued and if they are sued, then they figure that they can pay a small amount of money and blame it on a mistake in their procedures or a new employee or some other lie that they will tell to the court.
When you compare the small amount of money that they will pay the one person that actually sues them with all the money that they illegally collect from almost everybody else, you can see how this is simply a business decision that it makes these companies more money to intentionally violate the law than it does to follow the law.
This is unfair for consumers who have to deal with this.
This is also unfair to the honorable creditors and debt collectors to have made a corporate decision to follow the law.
It is not fair when one business gets to cheat and succeed in the marketplace at the expense of other businesses that follow the law.
We understand this when we see a football team put 13 players on the field. T
hat’s cheating and there must be a penalty.
There must be punishment so that the team does not do that in the future.
So this is happened to you by a dishonorable debt collector creditor, what should you do?
At the appropriate time, suit the abusive debt collector or creditor for violating federal law, including the bankruptcy discharge order.
Sometimes it makes sense to give the debt collector or the creditor a warning to see if they will stop collecting against you. Sometimes this is not necessary.
When you give them a warning, often the creditor or the debt collector will tell you that you have to prove to it that you file bankruptcy, received a discharge, and that you notified the creditor or the collector.
This is not the law.
This is not your requirement.
If you put the creditor or the collector on notice of your bankruptcy, then really all you have to do is tell the creditor or collector that you filed bankruptcy and they need to leave you alone.
There are various ways to do this and we can talk about those in another article.
Once the creditor collectors on notice that you file bankruptcy, then they need to check their own records to make sure.
They should be doing this anyway and that they continue to collect after you’ve put them on notice, then this makes their conduct even worse.
So what are some ways that these dishonorable companies violate the discharge order?
One classic ways is they “park” an account on your credit report showing that you owe balance when it’s impossible to owe balance on the discharge debt.
Another way is a simply call you and tell you that you have to pay.
Another way is they write a collection letter to you telling you that you have to pay.
Generally when a collector or creditor violates a discharge order, they are also violating additional federal laws.
This can include the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), as well as other laws.
The best way to stop these abusive debt collectors and dishonorable creditors is to sue them in federal court.
Sue them for violating all the federal laws that they have intentionally decided to break.
When they have to pay you money damages, and pay your attorneys fees, and at the pay their own lawyers, this starts to get their attention.
It starts to change the analysis that the corporate suits use to decide whether or not it is profitable to intentionally violate federal law.
Every time that you sue them, you helped change the equation to make it a little more likely that the company that you suit will decide it is cheaper to start obeying the law rather than violating the law.
I hope that this is helpful to you if you found yourself in the position of having a debt collector or creditor violate the discharge order.
If you live in Alabama and would like to speak directly to us, you can call my office at 1-205-879-2447 or you can fill out our contact form and that will notify us by email and we can either email or call you back, whichever you prefer.
If you have any comments feel free to leave those below and we also appreciate when you share this article or any other article through any type of social media.
Thanks!
I was hoping you could provide me with name of an attorney licensed to practice law in DuPage County, IL where I reside and Chapter 7 Bankruptcy petition was filed on 2/18/2010 and was duly discharged on 6/15/2010. Debt collector failed to dismiss me as a Defendant in this matter and chose to violate automatic stay and the discharge order and repeatedly acted to collect $147,090.00 plus costs debt that I do not owe. On 7/11/2012 Lake County Circuit Court approved the sale of my invention: patent, trademark & mold for debt I do not owe, and debt collection agencies under different names are harassing us. Thank you for your time.
I’m sorry I don’t know of an attorney there — often you can find one under http://www.NACA.net and use the find an attorney button.
Best wishes and hope you can get this resolved successfully!
John Watts
I am being harassed daily even multiple calls daily even at work. I have asked not to be called at work repeatedly. I do not owe the debt it is an identity theft issue. I would love some advice.
Bridgette,
Key is to document the calls coming in.
Who is calling?
When are they calling?
Take pictures of caller id, keep a phone log, etc.
Especially if identity theft you do not need to be dealing with this. Often the best way to stop this is to file a proper federal court lawsuit under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).
Have you pulled your credit reports? I suggest you pull them at http://www.AnnualCreditReport.com to see if the debt is listed on your credit reports.
If you are in Alabama give us a call at 205-879-2447 and we’ll be glad to help you.
We wish you the best…..
John Watts
I’ve been discharged from chapter 13 bankruptcy since june 6 2016 it was a mortgage debt i filed on february 25 2011 started making chapter 13 bankruptcy payments march 25 2011 also had 2 other debts auto loan an a personal loan that were included in the bankruptcy but their were paid in full while in bankruptcy i checked my credit report an didn’t see the mortgage debt on their but i seen the 2 debts that were included in the bankruptcy which were paid in full in closed with $0 balance so what happens 2 the mortgage debt i thought after being discharged from chapter 13 bankruptcy that i would resume making payments but i haven’t received anything requiring a payment in the mail so i called them they said the account was charged off a month before filing for chapter 13 bankruptcy i called the lawyer on my case in july 22 2016 a month in a half after being discharged from bankruptcy she checked the status of the account on an said that it hasn’t updated on the creditor system then ask me how long have i been discharged from bankruptcy i told her since june 6 2016 she said that it usually take 6-8wks them several times since being discharged from bankruptcy to update in the creditor system she said if i don’t get anything in the mail by august 6 2016 to call back so i called her on august 8 2016 she checked the status of the account again it still haven’t been updated on the creditor system then she gave me the phone number to call them in their bankruptcy department so i called them numerous times i spoke with about 8-10 different representatives during a 3wk period i explained that i had been discharged from bankruptcy every time i called the representatives would put me on hold then i’ll get transferred to someone else then after giving my social security number to verify the account each time each representative that i talked was a different one each time to locate it they said can’t find the account in their system then i’ll get a different phone number to call which was a total of 6 different phone numbers but 3 more times i got the same number thn about speaking to the 10th representative she helped me out alot especially after i told her that how many times i’ve called in all the different representatives i’ve spoke with she said she’s get me the right help that she was very sorry so she got a member of management on with me management personnel apologize that she’s gonna find out what’s going on since i’ve been getting the run around an no help but she did inform me that the account was charged off to a mortgage services company gave me another number to call which was supposed to be with the mortgage services company so after i called the number i realize it was a different phone number to the same company again which is by the way us bank but apparently it was with their charge off department by this time its september 26 2016 she said that she was sending an email to the lady with the mortgage services so she could send me a statement that i should receive it in 8-10 days so i could start back making payments so i waited another 2 weeks so i was seeing a phone number on my caller id that lefted a message to collect a debt from usi solution company on my voice mail so i called them back an lefted a message to call me back in the evenings but every time they called it was while i was at work so i kept calling them leaving messages to me back in the evening after 3 weeks i finally got thru to them but that debt collection agency was for someone in my family that used my phone number for what ever they purchase by this time october 19 2016 after those 3 weeks i call the phone number i had to us bank bankruptcy department then they transferred me to their charge off department i told the lady that i still haven’t received anything requiring a payment since being discharged from chapter 13 bankruptcy so i was thinking that they charged off the mortgage debt after i was discharged from bankruptcy but that wasnt the case the lady i spoke with in charge off department said that it was charged off before chapter 13 bankruptcy was filed i told her that i had talked to management personnel in their bankruptcy department but she didn’t tell me that because i told her i haven’t received a billing statement to resume making payments an the lady in charge off department said that once it’s charged off that they don’t send statements she told me to call her back so what happens now then because they haven’t called me back yet the representative said upper management was reviewing it in their charge off department so do i still owe them money since it was charged off before chapter 13 bankruptcy discharged
Christopher,
Sorry you are going through all of this.
Here are some general thoughts for you:
1. You need to get with a consumer protection lawyer in your state — too many issues going on and you need someone who can sort through these knowing the laws of your state. (If you are in Alabama call us at 205-879-2447).
2. If you are out of bankruptcy and want to keep your home, you can always send in the payments. You should have a decent idea of the amount of payments. Do check with a lawyer first but rather than wait and get more behind, you might want to proactively pay on the mortgage.
So definitely get with a lawyer in your state and I think you’ll be able to get this mess straightened out.
Best wishes!!
John Watts
205-879-2447