Colorado’s UCCC Administrator has proposed amendments to the rules implementing the Colorado Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (CFDCPA).  The Administrator also announced that a Zoom stakeholder meeting will be held on August 25 to discuss the proposed amendments and to solicit topics for rulemaking.

The proposed amendments include the following:

• The provision regarding the sale of the right to collect accounts would be revised to provide that “[a] licensee who does not own the debt may not sell the right to collect client accounts to another licensee, but only the right for the first licensee to refer the client to the second licensee.”
• The provision regarding collection costs currently states that a licensee cannot “advise, suggest, or request that a client add collection costs to any existing debt unless such costs are specifically authorized by statute.”  The amendment would expand the exception to include when collection costs are specifically authorized “by the contract, agreement, note, or other instrument creating the debt and that are not otherwise prohibited by law.”
• A requirement would be added for collection agencies to retain call recordings for two years in an accessible format upon request by the Administrator.

Other proposed amendments would:

• Increase the time period for a collection agency to provide an account statement to a consumer upon receipt of the consumer’s written request from 10 to 14 calendar days
• Increase the amount a collection agency can charge a consumer for an additional account statement requested during any 12-month period from $5 to $10 per statement
• Increase the time period for a collection agency to provide a written statement to a consumer that a debt has been paid or settled in full from 10 business days after the consumer’s request to 14 calendar days
• Increase the time period for a licensee to refund a payment when a consumer denies or disputes an oral payment authorization from 5 business days of receipt of good funds to 7 calendar days
• Increase the time period for a licensee to return a payment to a consumer if it cannot identify the client account on whose behalf the payment was made from 30 calendar days after the end of the month in which the payment was received to 35 calendar days