New York Fair Debt Consumer Guide
Learn about your legal rights when facing Debt Collector Problems. Research the applicable laws that could help protect you when a debt collector is attempting to seize your assets, garnish your wages or continue collection of a debt that is outside New York's Statutes Of Limitations. New York phone recording laws could assist you in gathering proof of the debt collector's illegal tactics; find out whether recording your debt collector's phone conversation is permitted in your state.
The New York Fair Debt Collection Consumer Practices Guide summarizes New York's laws on wage garnishment, property and asset seizures and state statutes of limitations on debt collection and could provide the ammunition you need to stop or limit creditors and collectors from harassing you, garnishing your wages or bank accounts, and from seizing your property through liens, thus limiting your overall financial exposure.
This Guide does not include information concerning the FTC's Credit Practices Rule, state consumer protection laws or information regarding exemption provisions found in laws other than the state's general exemption laws and is not intended to substitute for the advice of an attorney.
New York Consumer Debt Exemption Laws
If a debt collector threatens to seize your property or your assets, you could be protected under New York’s Consumer Debt Exemption Laws. Read the summarized information below to learn how to protect what you own and what you cannot protect from seizure. You could significantly strengthen your bargaining position with debt collectors by knowing your rights under New York Debt Exemption Law!
New York Statutes
The State of New York has opted out of federal bankruptcy exemptions.
New York Debt. & Credit Law § 282.
Wages: New York Civil Practice Laws & Rules §§ 5205(d), (e), 5252, and 5241; New York Social Services Law § 137-0.
Homestead: New York Civil Practice Laws & Rules § 5206.
Tangible personal property: New York Civil Practice Laws & Rules § 5205; New York Debt. & Credit Law §§ 282 and 283(1).
Benefits, retirement plans, insurance, judgments, and other intangibles:
New York Civil Practice Laws & Rules § 5205; New York Debt. & Credit Law §§ 282 and 283(1).
New York Debt Statutes of Limitation
Your debt may have expired under New York’s Statutes of Limitations, and may be considered uncollectible. Read the summary below to see the length of time certain types of debt can continue to be collected under the New York Debt Statutes of Limitations, don’t let a collector threaten to take you to court over an expired debt.
New York Debt Statutes of Limitation
N. Y. Civil Practice Law and Rules: Chapter Eight of the Consolidated Laws, Article 2 - Limitations of Time:
211. Actions to be commenced within twenty years. (a) On a bond. (b) On a money judgment. (c) By state for real property. (d) By grantee of state for real property. (e) For support, alimony or maintenance.
212. Actions to be commenced within ten years. (a) Possession necessary to recover real property. (b) Annulment of letters patent. (c) To redeem from a mortgage.
213. Actions to be commenced within six years: where not otherwise provided for; on contract; on sealed instrument; on bond or note, and mortgage upon real property; by state based on misappropriation of public property; based on mistake; by corporation against director, officer or stockholder; based on fraud.
213-a. Actions to be commenced within four years; residential rent overcharge.
213-b. Action by a victim of a criminal offense.
214. Actions to be commenced within three years: for non- payment of money collected on execution; for penalty created by statute; to recover chattel; for injury to property; for personal injury; for malpractice other than medical or dental malpractice; to annul a marriage on the ground of fraud.
UCC, Section 2--725. Statute of Limitations in Contracts for Sale. (1) An action for breach of any contract for sale must be commenced within four years after the cause of action has accrued. By the original agreement the parties may reduce the period of limitation to not less than one year but may not extend it. (2) A cause of action accrues when the breach occurs, regardless of the aggrieved party`s lack of knowledge of the breach. Contract for lease of goods: 4 years (N. Y. U.C.C. 2-A-506(1).
S 203. Method of computing periods of limitation generally. (a) Accrual of cause of action and interposition of claim. The time within which an action must be commenced, except as otherwise expressly prescribed, shall be computed from the time the cause of action accrued to the time the claim is interposed.
New York Wage Garnishment Procedural Requirements
Wage garnishment doesn’t mean a debt collector or creditor is entitled to take all your money. Under New York’s Wage Garnishment Laws, there are limits and protections on just how much can be taken from your paycheck.
Read the summary below to learn your garnishment rights under New York law.
New York Wage Garnishment Procedural Requirements
At any time before a judgment is satisfied or vacated, the judgment creditor may compel disclosure of all matter relevant to the satisfaction of the judgment, by serving upon any person a subpoena, which shall specify all of the parties to the action, the date of the judgment, the court in which it was entered, the amount of the judgment and the amount then due thereon, and shall Statutee that false swearing or failure to comply with the subpoena is punishable as a contempt of court. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5223.
Service of an information subpoena shall be accompanied by a copy and original of written questions and a prepaid, addressed return envelope. Service may be made by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested. Answers shall be made in writing under oath by an officer, director, agent or employee having the information. Answers shall be returned together with the original of the questions within seven days after receipt. Any person served with an information subpoena shall not be entitled to any fee. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5224.
A restraining notice may be issued by the clerk of the court or the attorney for the judgment creditor as officer of the court. It may be served upon any persons, except the employer of a judgment debtor where the property sought to be restrained consists of wages or salary due or to become due to the judgment debtor . It shall be served personally in the same manner as a summons or by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested. It shall specify all of the parties to the action, the date that the judgment or order was entered, the court in which it was entered, the amount of the judgment or order and the amount then due thereon, the names of all parties in whose favor and against whom the judgment or order was entered, it shall set forth subdivision (b) and shall Statutee that disobedience is punishable as a contempt of court, and it shall contain an original signature or copy of the original signature of the clerk of the court or attorney which issued it. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5222(a).
A restraining notice served upon a person other than the judgment debtor is effective only if, at the time of service, he or she owes a debt to the judgment debtor or he or she is in the possession or custody of property in which he or she knows or has reason to believe the judgment debtor has an interest, or if the judgment creditor has Statuteed in the notice that a specified debt is owed by the person served to the judgment debtor or that the judgment debtor has an interest in specified property in the possession or custody of the person served. All property in which the judgment debtor is known or believed to have an interest then in and thereafter coming into the possession or custody of such a person, including any specified in the notice, and all debts of such a person, including any specified in the notice, then due and thereafter coming due to the judgment debtor , shall be subject to the notice. Such a person is forbidden to make or suffer any sale, assignment or transfer of, or any interference with, any such property, or pay over or otherwise dispose of any such debt, to any person other than the sheriff, except upon direction of the sheriff or pursuant to an order of the court, until the expiration of one year after the notice is served upon him or her, or until the judgment or order is satisfied or vacated. If a garnishee served with a restraining notice withholds the payment of money belonging or owed to the judgment debtor in an amount equal to twice the amount due on the judgment or order, the restraining notice is not effective as to other property or money. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5222(b).
If a notice in the form prescribed in subdivision (e) has not been given to the judgment debtor within a year before service of a restraining notice, a copy of the restraining notice together with the notice to judgment debtor shall be mailed by first class mail or personally delivered to each judgment debtor who is a natural person within four days of the service of the restraining notice. Such notice shall be mailed to the defendant at his or her residence address; or in the event such mailing is returned an undeliverable by the post office, or if the residences address of the defendant is unknown, then to the defendant in care of the place of employment of the defendant if known, in an envelope bearing the legend “personal and confidential” and not indicating on the outside thereof, by the return address or otherwise, that the communication is from an attorney or concerns a judgment or order; or if neither the residence address nor the place of employment of the defendant is known then to the defendant at any other known address. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R.5222(d). Note: Where such person consents thereto in writing, a restraining notice in the form of magnetic tape may be served upon a person other than the judgment debtor. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5222(g).
Interest Rate at which Judgments Accrue Every money judgment shall bear interest from the date of its entry. Every order directing the payment of money which has been docketed as a judgment shall bear interest from the date of that docketing. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5003. Interest shall be at the rate of nine per cent per annum, except where otherwise provided by Statuteute. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5004.
New York (Debt Collector) Call Recording Law
Under New York State and Federal Call Recording Laws, you could record the actual phone conversation with a debt collector in your efforts to stop debt collectors from calling! New York is a one party consent state, meaning only the permission of one person on the call is necessary to record. YOU ALONE can be considered the one party to give consent, thus you do not need a debt collectors permission to record the phone conversation in the state of New York.
Research and find additional information about Federal Call Recording Laws and learn what call recording procedures are legal in other states.
