Chapter 3.30 USE OF COLLECTION AGENCIES

Chapter 3.30
USE OF COLLECTION AGENCIES

Sections:

3.30.010 Definitions.

3.30.020 Collection agency use procedure.

3.30.010 Definitions.

A. “Person” includes individual, firm, partnership, trust, joint venture, association, or corporation.

B. “Collection agency” means and includes:

1. Any person directly or indirectly engaged in soliciting claims for collection, or collecting or attempting to collect claims owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another person;

2. Any person who directly or indirectly furnishes or attempts to furnish, sells, or offers to sell forms represented to be a collection system or scheme intended or calculated to be used to collect claims even though the forms direct the debtor to make payment to the creditor and even though the forms may be or are actually used by the creditor himself in his own name;

3. Any person who in attempting to collect or in collecting his own claim uses a fictitious name or any name other than his own which would indicate to the debtor that a third person is collecting or attempting to collect such claim.

C. “Collection agency” does not mean and does not include:

1. Any individual engaged in soliciting claims for collection, or collecting or attempting to collect claims on behalf of a licensee under Chapter 19.16 RCW, if said individual is an employee of the licensee;

2. Any individual collecting or attempting to collect claims for not more than one employer, if all the collection efforts are carried on in the name of the employer and if the individual is an employee of the employer;

3. Any person whose collection activities are carried on in his or its true name and are confined and are directly related to the operation of a business other than that of a collection agency, such as but not limited to trust companies, savings and loan associations, building and loan associations, abstract companies doing an escrow business, real estate brokers, public officers acting in their official capacities, persons acting under court order, lawyers, insurance companies, credit unions, loan or finance companies, mortgage banks, and banks;

4. Any person who on behalf of another person prepares or mails monthly or periodic statements of accounts due if all payments are made to that other person and no other collection efforts are made by the person preparing the statements of account; or

5. An “out of state collection agency” as defined in this chapter.

D. “Out-of-state collection agency” means a person whose activities within this state are limited to collecting debts from debtors located in this state by means of interstate communications, including telephone, mail, or facsimile transmission, from the person’s location in another state on behalf of clients located outside of this state.

E. “Debt” shall include fines and other debts including any restitution that is being collected on behalf of a crime victim and the fee required under AMC 3.30.020(A). (Ord. 5063 § 1, 1998.)

3.30.020 Collection agency use procedure.

A. In addition to all other remedies for collecting amounts owed to the city, the city may retain, by written contract, the services of a licensed collection agency to collect public debts owed by any person pursuant to the procedures set forth in this chapter. If the city retains a collection agency to collect public debts owed to the city, a fee, payable by the debtor, shall be added to the outstanding debt for the collection agency fee incurred.

The collection fee shall be 30 percent of the amount owed to the city before the addition of the collection fee.

B. Before assigning a debt to a collection agency, the city must have evidence that the city sent the debtor a written bill for the debt amount.

C. If a debt amount owed to the city is not paid within 60 days of the date on which the amount becomes due, the director of finance may send a written notice, by regular or certified mail, to the debtor’s last known address according to the city’s records. The written notice shall state the amount owed to the city, the amount of any applicable interest and penalties, that the city may assign the debt to a collection agency for collection if the amount owed, together with any applicable interest and penalties, is not paid in full within 30 days of the date of the written notice. The written notice shall also state that if the city assigns the debt to a collection agency, the city shall charge the debtor a fee to be added to the outstanding debt for the collection agency fee incurred or to be incurred as provided in this chapter.

D. If the amount owed to the city, together with applicable interest and penalties, is not paid in full within 30 days of the date of the written notice as provided in subsection (C) of this section, the city may assign the debt to a collection agency to collect the outstanding debt, together with any applicable interest, penalties and the collection agency service fee.

E. Collection agencies assigned debts under this chapter shall have only those remedies and powers which would be available to them as assignees of private creditors. (Ord. 5063 § 1, 1998.)