California Civil Code 1812.638 – (a) A lessor shall not engage in any unfair, unlawful, or …
(a) A lessor shall not engage in any unfair, unlawful, or deceptive conduct, or make any untrue or misleading statement in connection with the collection of any payment owed by a consumer or the repossession of any property or attempt to collect or collect any payment in a manner that would be unlawful to collect a debt pursuant to Title 1.6C (commencing with Section 1788).
(b) All of the following apply to any communication by a lessor with any person other than the consumer for the purpose of acquiring information about the location of a consumer or of any rental property:
Terms Used In California Civil Code 1812.638
- Consumer: means a natural person or persons who rent or lease personal property from a lessor pursuant to a rental-purchase agreement or to whom a lessor offers personal property for use pursuant to a rental-purchase agreement. See California Civil Code 1812.622
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Lessor: means any person or entity that provides or offers to provide personal property for use by consumers pursuant to a rental-purchase agreement. See California Civil Code 1812.622
- property: includes property real and personal. See California Civil Code 14
- Rental-purchase agreement: except as otherwise provided in this subdivision, means an agreement between a lessor and a consumer pursuant to which the lessor rents or leases, for valuable consideration, personal property for use by a consumer for personal, family, or household purposes for an initial term not exceeding four months that may be renewed or otherwise extended, if under the terms of the agreement the consumer acquires an option or other legally enforceable right to become owner of the property. See California Civil Code 1812.622
(1) The lessor shall identify itself and state that the lessor is confirming or correcting location information concerning the consumer.
(2) The lessor shall not communicate with any person more than once unless requested to do so by the person or unless the lessor reasonably believes that the earlier response is erroneous or incomplete and that the person now has correct or complete location information.
(3) The lessor shall not communicate by postcard.
(4) The lessor shall not use any language or symbol on any envelope or in the contents of any communication that indicates that the communication relates to the collection of any payment or the recovery or repossession of rental property.
(5) The lessor shall not communicate with any person other than the consumer’s attorney, after the lessor knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with regard to the rental-purchase agreement and has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, the attorney’s name and address, unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to communication from the lessor or unless the attorney consents to direct communication with the consumer.
(c) Without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the lessor or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, a lessor shall not communicate with a consumer in connection with the collection of any payment or the recovery or repossession of rental property at any of the following:
(1) The consumer’s place of employment.
(2) Any unusual time or place or a time or place known or that should be known to be inconvenient to the consumer. In the absence of knowledge of circumstances to the contrary, a lessor shall assume that the convenient time for communicating with a consumer is after 8 a.m. and before 9 p.m., local time at the consumer’s location.
(d) A lessor shall not communicate, in connection with the rental-purchase agreement, with any person other than the consumer, the consumer’s attorney, or the lessor’s attorney, except to the extent the communication is any of the following:
(1) Reasonably necessary to acquire location information concerning the consumer or the rental property, as provided in subdivision (b).
(2) Upon the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the lessor.
(3) Upon the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction.
(4) Reasonably necessary to effectuate a postjudgment judicial remedy.
(e) If a consumer notifies the lessor in writing that the consumer wishes the lessor to cease further communication with the consumer, the lessor shall not communicate further with the consumer with respect to the rental-purchase agreement, except for any of the following:
(1) To advise the consumer that the lessor’s further efforts are being terminated.
(2) To notify the consumer that the lessor may invoke specified remedies allowable by law which are ordinarily invoked by the lessor.
(3) Where necessary to effectuate any postjudgment remedy.
(f) A lessor shall not harass, oppress, or abuse any person in connection with a rental-purchase agreement, including engaging in any of the following conduct:
(1) Using or threatening the use of violence or any criminal means to harm the physical person, reputation, or property of any person.
(2) Using obscene, profane, or abusive language.
(3) Causing a telephone to ring, or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person.
(4) Placing telephone calls without disclosure of the caller’s identity.
(Added by Stats. 1994, Ch. 1026, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 1995.)