Collection of Loans by Collector Agencies

Debt collection is a relatively new direction of activity in Russia, which has existed only since 2004, earlier such activities were carried out within the framework of banking structures.

Collector agencies specialize in recovering problem and overdue accounts receivable, representing the interests of the lender for a certain fee, depending on the amount of recovered debt. The impetus for the development of work with collection agencies was the emergence of consumer lending - loans began to be issued in large quantities, often without proper verification of the solvency of customers.

Such agencies can act as intermediaries between creditors and their debtors, and as creditors - in the event that the debt was sold. The activities of collection agencies are carried out on a contractual basis: an agency agreement or a cession agreement may be entered into with the client.

The main purpose of the agency's work is to recover bad debts - for this, collectors use a variety of methods of influence:

- Phone calls to the debtor

- letters informing about the amount of debt, ways of its repayment and possible consequences for the debtor in case of non-compliance with agency requirements.

- SMS Dispatch to mobile phones with a demand to pay the debt.

-Personal conversation - departure of a specialist to the debtor

In Russia, there is no legislation that regulates the activities carried out by collection agencies, so there are now many disputes about the legality of such activities. In the framework of the Russian legislation, the activities of agencies are limited to Art. 382 of the Civil Code, which refers to the legality of the assignment of claims without the consent of the debtor - but subject to the obligatory written notification of the debtor:

1. "The right (claim) belonging to the creditor on the basis of the obligation may be transferred to another person under the transaction (assignment of the claim) or transferred to another person on the basis of the law. The rules on the transfer of creditor's rights to another person do not apply to recourse requirements.
2. For the transfer to another person of the rights of the creditor, the consent of the debtor is not required, unless otherwise provided by law or by the contract.
3. If the debtor has not been notified in writing about the transfer of the creditor's rights to another person, the new creditor bears the risk of adverse consequences for him. In this case, the performance of the obligation to the initial creditor is recognized as performance by the proper creditor. "

But, it is also necessary to take into account that, within the framework of the Administrative Code operating in the territory of the Russian Federation, collection agencies can be responsible for calls at night, for threats coming to the debtor's address and other illegal actions.