Eleventh Circuit holds that foreclosure proceedings are not debt collection activities under the FDCPA

In a recent unpublished opinion by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Warren vs. Countrywide Home Loans, No. 08-16171 (11th Cir., August 14, 2009) the Court chose to follow the reasoning used by many district courts (citations omitted) that ”an enforcer of a security interest, such as a [mortgage company] foreclosing on mortgages of real property….falls outside the ambit of the FDCPA except for the provisions of section 1692f(6). The court rejected the Plaintiff’s argument that the lender violated the FDCPA by failing to respond to his request for verification of his debt before proceeding with a foreclosure sale of his home; and found that there was no violation of Section 1692g(b) of the FDCPA because foreclosing on a security interest was not a debt collection activity under 15 U.S.C.S. sec 1692a(6) and 1692f. Therefore, if a person enforcing a security interest was not a debt collector, the enforcement of the security interest through the foreclosure process was not a debt collection for the purposes of the FDCPA. ”In short, since foreclosing on a home is not debt collection for purposes of Section 1692(g), Warren did not and could not state a claim under that provision based upon Countrywide’s foreclosure sale of his home.”

Download Related Document