Terms Used In Tennessee Code 6-54-513

  • Credit bureau: An agency that collects individual credit information and sells it for a fee to creditors so they can make a decision on granting loans. Typical clients include banks, mortgage lenders, credit card companies, and other financing companies. (Also commonly referred to as consumer-reporting agency or credit-reporting agency.) Source: OCC
  • Municipality: means and includes any city or town organized and operating under the general or special laws of the state. See Tennessee Code 6-54-501
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105

A municipality shall have no authority to forward to a collection agency unpaid parking tickets for collection without notifying the owner of record of the motor vehicle for which the parking ticket was issued. The notification shall be sent by postal mail to the owner of record of such motor vehicle that such action will occur unless the owner pays the unpaid tickets within thirty (30) days from the date the letter is mailed to the owner. The municipality shall also include in the notification a statement that, if the ticket is forwarded to a collection agency for collection, the agency may notify the credit bureau or credit agency of such fact, which could affect the owner’s credit rating.