Code of Massachusetts Regulations › 940 CMR - OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL › Title 940 CMR 35.00 - Unfair and Deceptive Debt Collection Practices During the State of Emergency Caused by COVID-19 › Section 35.02 - Definitions

Current through Register 1525, July 5, 2024
Collect
,
Collection
, or
Collecting
.
				Refers to any means, communication, or attempt to obtain payment on a debt or
				other past due balance owed or alleged to be owed.
Collection Lawsuit
. Any legal
				proceeding, including but not limited to civil actions, statements of small
				claims and supplementary process actions, commenced in any court for the
				purpose of collecting any debt or other past due balance owed or alleged to be
				owed.
Communication
or
Communicating
. As used in 940 CMR 35.00 shall share
				the same meaning as defined in
				940 CMR 7.03:
Definitions
.
Creditor
. As used in 940 CMR 35.00
				shall share the same meaning as defined in
				940 CMR 7.03:
Definitions
. For the avoidance of doubt,
Creditor
shall include
Debt
				Collectors
as defined in 940 CMR 35.02.
Debt
. As used in 940 CMR 35.00 shall
				share the same meaning as defined in
				940 CMR 7.03:
Definitions
.
Debtor
. As used in 940 CMR 35.00 shall
				share the same meaning as defined in
				940 CMR 7.03:
Definitions
.
Debt Collector
. Any person or business
				whose principal purpose is the collection of a debt, or who regularly collects
				or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, a debt owed or due or asserted
				to be owed or due another.
Debt Collector
shall also
				include any person who buys or acquires debt that is in default at the time of
				purchase or acquisition and who seeks to collect such debt.
Debt
				Collector
shall include a creditor who, in the process of
				collecting his or her own debt, uses any name other than his or her own which
				would indicate that a third person is collecting or attempting to collect the
				debt.
Debt Collector
shall also include a person in a
				business the principal purpose of which is the enforcement of security
				interests.
Debt Collector
shall not include:
(a) an officer or employee of a creditor that
				is not itself a debt collector, while, in the name of such creditor, collecting
				debts for such creditor;
(b) a
				person while acting as a debt collector for another person, both of whom are
				related by common ownership or affiliated by corporate control, if the person
				acting as a debt collector does so only for a person to whom it is so related
				or affiliated and if the principal business of the person is not the collection
				of a debt;
(c) an officer or
				employee of the United States or a state of the United States to the extent
				that collecting or attempting to collect a debt is in the performance of his or
				her official duty;
(d) a person
				while serving or attempting to serve legal process on another person in
				connection with the judicial enforcement of a debt;
(e) a nonprofit organization which, at the
				request of a consumer, performs
bona fide
consumer credit
				counseling and assists the consumer in the liquidation of debts by receiving
				payments from the consumer and distributing the amounts to creditors; and
(f) a person collecting or
				attempting to collect a debt owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another
				to the extent the activity:
1. is incidental
				to a
bona fide
fiduciary obligation or a
bona
				fide
escrow arrangement;
2. concerns a debt which was originated by
				the person;
3. concerns a debt
				which was not in default at the time it was obtained by the person; or
4. concerns a debt obtained by the
				person as a secured party in a commercial credit
				transaction.