Will Bankruptcy Stop Debt Collection Harassment

Once you’ve filed for bankruptcy it automatically requires that debt collectors and creditors leave you alone and stop their harassment. Until the process of bankruptcy is completed, debt collectors and creditors will be required to stop enforcing their collection efforts on you.

If all you are interested in is getting the debt collectors to stop contacting you, there is another route you can take. There is a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act in place where you can send in a request to ensure that the debt collectors put an end to contacting you. Simply send in a request letter indicating that you want the collectors to stop all communication they have with you. This leads to the collection agency employees from being prohibited to continuing to have any contact except to inform you that they have ended their collection efforts.

When filing for bankruptcy you are awarded something known as ‘automatic stay’ where any lawsuits filed by creditors, collection agencies or entities of the government will be stopped immediately. You may be at risk of foreclosure, eviction, contempt of failing to pay towards child support, losing basic services such as unemployment benefits, welfare and even your job. All these reasons may provide you enough backup to go ahead and file for bankruptcy. The automatic stay is in effect with regard to daily emergencies.

If you have not paid your utility bills and the utility company is threatening they will disconnect the gas, water or telephone, the automatic stay will ensure that disconnection is prevented for another 20 days. If the mortgage on your home is facing foreclosure, the automatic stay will halt the proceedings temporarily. The creditor may be able to continue with the foreclosure but this gives you some breathing space. The automatic stay is powerful in the case of eviction where the court is able to buy you some time. You will probably receive a few more days or weeks of a grace period as long as the landlord does not request the court to proceed with eviction and lift the automatic stay.