N.Y.C. Admin. Code § L.L. 2003/070: L.L. 2003/070

Enactment date: 11/26/2003

Proposed Int. No. 409-A

By the Speaker (Council Member Miller) and Council Members Boyland, Gioia, Baez, Brewer, Clarke, Comrie, Gerson, Jackson, Katz, Koppell, Liu, Martinez, Nelson, Perkins, Quinn, Recchia, Reed, Sears, Serrano, Stewart, Vann, Weprin, Yassky, DeBlasio, Espada, Lopez, Reyna, Avella, Rivera and Barron

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the practices of debt collection agencies that collect child support payments.

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Legislative findings and intent. Existing federal, state and local consumer protection laws do not generally regulate private child support collection agencies. Furthermore, current industry practices, as reflected in consumer complaints and litigation, raise significant questions about the implications of the lack of such regulation. Specifically, the Council finds that alleged practices, including, but not limited to, charging exorbitant and excessive fees, threats and abusive telephone calls directed at both custodial and non-custodial parents, signing custodial parents to contracts with unclear terms, collecting fees for payments of child support collected primarily by a government agency, and utilizing unclear accounting practices that lead to the designation of current payments of child support as arrears in order to prevent parents from ever satisfying their obligations to such agencies, necessitate the creation of basic consumer protections for consumer-parents interacting with these agencies. The Council also finds that current, timely and/or on-going payments of orders of child support are part of a family's income needed to meet basic needs. Therefore, the Council finds that private child support collection agencies should be regulated by New York City's consumer protection laws, and that the fees collected by such agencies should be reasonably related to the work and services provided.

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[Consolidated provisions are not included in this Appendix A]

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§ 7. Effect of invalidity; severability. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase or other portion of this local law is, for any reason, declared unconstitutional or invalid, in whole or in part, by any court of competent jurisdiction, such portion shall be deemed severable, and such unconstitutionality or invalidity shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this local law, which remaining portions shall continue in full force and effect.

§ 8. Effective date. This local law shall take effect ninety days after its enactment into law, and shall apply to contracts entered into on or after such date.