2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TEN - Commerce (§§ 1 — 4196) › Subtitle 1 - Regulation of Business Generally (§§ 1 — 998q) › Chapter 45 - Collecting Agencies (§§ 981 — 981s) › § 981p - Prohibited practices

No collection agency shall:
(1) Carry out actions for collection in relation to accounts, bills or debts for which it has not been previously authorized in writing by the client.
(2) Institute judicial proceedings against a debtor in the name of the client without having been previously authorized in writing therefor.
(3) Refuse to, or fail to remit the portion of the money collected corresponding to the client at request of the latter within thirty (30) days from the day on which same has been collected.
(4) Refuse to, or fail to return to the client, at the latter’s request, all documents or papers kept with an account, when such account is returned to the client, when the collection has been performed or when the client desists to continue action for collection.
(5) Operate under the name or in such a manner as to imply that such agency is a branch of or is associated with any department of the federal, commonwealth or municipal government, or to use any seal, insignia, envelope or other format which simulates that of any government department or agency.
(6) Withhold an amount of money in excess of the quota previously agreed upon between the parties as fees for the service rendered.
(7) Use or threaten to use physical violence to collect an account.
(8) Publish or threaten to publish a list of debtors or diffuse information with respect to the debt, as well as the use of the telegraph for collection purposes.
(9) Require from the debtor the signing of a promissory note for an amount in excess of the debt.
(10) Collect or require from the debtor the payment of additional charges on the indebted amount as well as the expenses incurred by the collection agency in its normal action of collection or any other expenses including counsel fees not agreed upon, except when it may be so authorized by a final judgment.
(11) Intimidate the debtors by using documents which simulate in their form and appearance judicial documents.
(12) Mix the money belonging to clients with the operation funds of the agency or use part of same to defray expenses of the agency unless so authorized by the client.
(13) File judicial action for collection of money without previously having required from the debtor in writing the payment of the debt by certified mail with acknowledgment of receipt. No court may assume jurisdiction in an action for recovery of money instituted by a collection agency without compliance with this requirement having been alleged and proven.
(14) Contact a debtor in the process of collecting a debt, whether by telephone, in person, or through any other means of communication, to collect a debt during working hours at the place of work or employment of the debtor, if the collection agency knows or should know that the employer prohibits such communication. Excepted from this prohibition are those cases in which the express consent or a court order to such effect is involved.
History —June 27, 1968, No. 143, p. 409, § 17; Sept. 3, 1996, No. 179, § 5.