Salom et al. v. Nationstar Mortgage LLC
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is a federal consumer financial protection law that aims to protect consumers from a host of harmful debt-collection practices. As relevant here, the Act prohibits debt collectors from collecting any amount unless the amount is expressly authorized by the agreement that created the debt or permitted by law.
The CFPB filed an Amicus Brief in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in support of a group of plaintiffs who sued Nationstar Mortgage LLC. One of the plaintiffs alleged that Nationstar violated the FDCPA, 15 U.S.C. § 1692f(1), by collecting fees that were neither expressly authorized by the underlying mortgage agreements nor permitted by law. The CFPB’s amicus brief explains why a contractual provision requiring notice and an opportunity to cure cannot be applied to the FDCPA claim, and why Nationstar violated the FDCPA by collecting payoff statement fees that were neither expressly authorized by the agreement creating the debt nor permitted by law.