{"id":391,"date":"2014-08-07T23:29:33","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T23:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerinbensonlawyers.com.au\/resources\/?p=391"},"modified":"2014-08-07T23:29:33","modified_gmt":"2014-08-07T23:29:33","slug":"new-debt-collection-guidelines-are-you-following-the-appropriate-procedure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerinbensonlawyers.com.au\/resources\/new-debt-collection-guidelines-are-you-following-the-appropriate-procedure\/","title":{"rendered":"New Debt Collection Guidelines: Are you following the appropriate procedure?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\tIn July 2014, Australian Security Investments Commission (<strong>ASIC<\/strong>) and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (<strong>ACCC<\/strong>) jointly released a publication entitled \u201cDebt Collection Guideline: for collectors and creditors\u201d (<strong>the Guideline<\/strong>). The Guideline is a timely reminder to Owners Corporations that certain practices must be observed when chasing a recalcitrant debtor for non-payment of levies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Respect thy debtor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Owners Corporations should ensure any communications with the debtor regarding unpaid levies are made in an appropriate manner and with the debtor only. Owners Corporations should:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ensure contact addresses (e.g. postal address, email address) are current prior to revealing details of the debt by that medium<\/li>\n<li>Avoid contacting the debtor at the workplace where possible<\/li>\n<li>Not broadcast details of the debt to tenants, co-workers, family or friends of the debtor<\/li>\n<li>Respect the debtor and avoid using discriminatory, aggressive or threatening language and\/or behaviour towards the debtor<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Failure to respect the privacy of the debtor can constitute a breach of the <em>Privacy Act <\/em>and end up causing more problems for the Owners Corporation. Similarly, aggressive language or unnecessarily frequent contact may be perceived as harassment or coercion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Documentation is key<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Owners Corporations should maintain accurate records in respect of their correspondence and\/or attempted communication with the debtor. Records should include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The date, time and location of any discussion, including the names of people present<\/li>\n<li>The exact terms of any payment proposal or settlement discussion<\/li>\n<li>The date(s) and method(s) by which instalment payments are made to reduce the debt<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Honesty is the best policy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Misleading a debtor as to the creditor\u2019s intentions or misrepresenting the potential consequences of non-payment of a debt can constitute misleading conduct and breach Commonwealth consumer protection laws. If a lot owner disputes the debt, Owners Corporations should obtain legal advice.<\/p>\n<p>For assistance with recovering unpaid levies or for more information on debt recovery services, please contact Kerin Benson Lawyers.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"301\"><strong>Newcastle<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"301\"><strong>Sydney<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"301\">\u00a0Ph: (02) 4032 7990<\/td>\n<td width=\"301\">\u00a0Ph: 02 8706 7060<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"301\">E: <a href=\"mailto:nicola@kerinbensonlawyers.com.au\">enquiries@kerinbensonlawyers.com.au<\/a><\/td>\n<td width=\"301\">E: <a href=\"mailto:nicola@kerinbensonlawyers.com.au\">enquiries@kerinbensonlawyers.com.au<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"301\"><\/td>\n<td width=\"301\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"301\"><strong>Canberra<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"301\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"301\">\u00a0Ph: (02) 6140 7061<\/td>\n<td width=\"301\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"301\">E: <a href=\"mailto:nicola@kerinbensonlawyers.com.au\">enquiries@kerinbensonlawyers.com.au<\/a><\/td>\n<td width=\"301\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"301\"><\/td>\n<td width=\"301\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In July 2014, Australian Security Investments Commission (ASIC) and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) jointly released a publication entitled \u201cDebt Collection Guideline: for collectors and creditors\u201d (the Guideline). The Guideline is a timely reminder to Owners Corporations that certain practices must be observed when chasing a recalcitrant debtor for non-payment of levies. Respect thy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[53,25,83,155,34],"tags":[173,174,82,84,30,26,27,90],"class_list":["post-391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-act","category-legal-alert","category-levies-nsw","category-levies-act","category-nsw","tag-debt-collection","tag-debt-collection-guidelines","tag-debt-recovery","tag-levies","tag-strata-lawyer-canberra","tag-strata-lawyer-newcastle","tag-strata-lawyer-sydney","tag-strata-levies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerinbensonlawyers.com.au\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerinbensonlawyers.com.au\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerinbensonlawyers.com.au\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerinbensonlawyers.com.au\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerinbensonlawyers.com.au\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kerinbensonlawyers.com.au\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerinbensonlawyers.com.au\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerinbensonlawyers.com.au\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerinbensonlawyers.com.au\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}