“They offered to forgive 70% of a debt”

The more debts the defaulter has, the more often he moves to a raised tone and insults to the debt collector, the National Association of professional Collection Agencies (SRO “NAPCA”) commented to the news portal Banki.ru. According to the Association’s calculations, if a debtor with one debt is only 25% of cases prone to aggression, then with two or more debts – already in 70%. Every 70 out of 100 dialogues of a debt collector and a debtor end with an insult and humiliation of the dignity of the Agency’s employee. This statistics is confirmed by audio recordings, which debt collectors are obliged to keep, indicated in NAPCA. However, only 5% of cases requiring intervention, where debt collector suffered from actions of debtors, reach the court.

“If you look at the statistics of citizens’ complaints against debt collection agencies, members of NAPCA, you will see that the number of them is very little, and each of complaint immediately becomes the subject for review by the control Committee of the Association, — noted Elman Mekhtiev, the President of SRO “NAPCA”. – Contrary to the opinion that professional debt collectors cause harm and damage to debtors, in practice we see a completely different situation.”

Recently, a case was recorded when the collector sued the debtor for moral insult and won the process. So, the inhabitant of Pskov took on credit equipment, she didn’t pay her debt, evading of the payments intentionally. The Bank assigned this debt to the company “First Collection Bureau” (FCB). The debtor was promised in the pre-trial mode to forgive 70% of the debt and offered to pay the remaining amount in a convenient and feasible schedule for her. However, she was constantly rude, foul-mouthed. The collector filed a lawsuit against her for the protection of honor and dignity, the court sided with him and awarded the payment of moral compensation.

“I want to give one more recent case in the Yaroslavl region, — said Pavel Mikhmel, the General Director of FCB. — Our employee came to the debtor with a proposal to write off 70% of the debt, while over 5 enforcement proceedings were opened against the debtor, including for the implementation of fraudulent actions against children with disabilities. He was attacked, his car was burned. Naturally, we appealed to the law enforcement agencies, the investigation is underway.”

“Overstepping all bounds”

In other large collection companies also indicate that working with debtors is not an easy process. “The media space is filled with stories how debt collectors damage debtors, belittle their dignity and offend. But almost nowhere there is a word that debtors behave in the same way — said Fedor Vahata, the CEO of M.B.A. Finance. — We have not yet filed a lawsuit against debtors for incorrect communication, realizing that often they are guided by emotions, perhaps a difficult life situation, the hostages of which they were.”

Debt collectors periodically face cases when debtors abuse their rights and report false information to the Supervisory authorities, said Dmitry Teplitsky, the General Director of ActiveBusinessConsult. For example, a debtor sends to various state authorities – the Federal Service of Bailiffs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Roskomnadzor and so on – a number of similar complaints, which misleads the regulatory authorities about the methods of debt recovery. “Sometimes a debtor indicates that an employee of the Agency came to him and had a psychological impact. However, during the check it appears that communication with the debtor was carried out only by means of telephone negotiations and strictly within a legal field, and there wasn’t any visit, — he explains. — As the Agency keeps all history of interaction with a debtor, it is possible to reveal the actual situation, having listened to history of telephone conversations. According to the accumulated statistics, we see that such situations arise, as a rule, with “professional debtors” who have several credit obligations in a number of financial institutions at the same time.”

According to Pavel Mikhmel, in the summer of 2019, the FCB created its own service of legal support and personnel security for employees. According to the statistics of this service (it is available to the Bank.ru), in July, there were 17 complaints from employees: five about attacks and 12 about threats. In eight cases, these statements were sent to the police, prosecutors and lawsuits to the court. In September, 23 appeals were registered, 18 of which are due to verbal threats and five in connection with attacks, 11 applications have already been submitted to law enforcement agencies and the court.

“Some debtors overstep all bounds — summed Fedor Vahat from M.B.A. Finance. — We are more than confident that in the near future we and other debt collection companies will often sue debtors on this issue. A debt collector is an employee of a company who performs his duties in the workplace. By the way, debt collectors have a code of ethics and rules of communication with debtors, which they strictly observe. Why do not apply the same rules to debtors?”

“The law has to protect the interests of all parties”

Currently, a draft law “On activities for the return of overdue debts of individuals” is being prepared, which is supposed to eliminate the imbalance in the relationship between debt collectors and debtors and regulate the actions of both parties. Recently, SRO “NAPCA” published its offers to this document: to forbid debtors for lie to debt collectors, to humiliate their honor and advantage, to use initially the e-mail address specified in correspondence. If the claimant suffers losses due to violations of a debtor, he will have to compensate them.

“Responsibility – it should be, and it does not matter who is harmed, a debtor or a debt collection company, – said Ekaterina Avdeeva, the Chairman of the Committee for the development of legal services and examination of draft laws of “Business Russia” . — Moreover, the regulation of a particular activity should not interfere with the activity itself, I mean the current law FZ-230. Therefore, if the restrictions make it impossible to actually do the activity itself, then, of course, it requires revision.” At the same time, she added that life and health are the highest values and the new law will necessarily take this into account.

Avdeeva noted that today debt collectors can protect themselves from hooligan or criminal actions of debtors, if such occur, within the framework of civil, criminal and administrative legislation. But it is also important to write in the new law. “People read the laws and perceive them as if they can do everything, they should do everything, – she says indignantly. — They say, “You have to follow all the rules, and I will complain about you, and complain as much as possible.” That’s a wrong approach.”

According to her, debt collectors should spend more time negotiating with debtors to find a consensus, offer generally acceptable procedures, debt collectors have much more options for settlement agreements, unlike credit institutions. But there are among debtors those with whom it is useless to negotiate, – fraudsters. “I do not want the new law to incorporate the shortcomings that exist in the current one, which is now very often used by unscrupulous citizens, actually terrorizing service providers and demanding the execution of unreasonable demands, — said Ekaterina Avdeeva. — There are fears that in the future there may be a similar situation in working with debtors. Here we need to be very careful, because the law must protect the interests of all parties.”

The new law could be adopted as early as 2020, said Avdeeva, who is the member of the working group of the new bill. The initial version of the document should be prepared before the end of this year, and in March, after discussion and amendments, it can be submitted to the government.

“This bill will entail changes in other legal acts and laws, — she drew attention. – After all, not only debt collectors are engaged in debt collection but microfinance organizations, banks, and management companies. Therefore, our working group will approach comprehensively, offering solutions for the regulation of the entire sphere of debt recovery, taking into account the risk-oriented approach and the balance of interests.”