SENATE FILE 2094

BY  DANIELSON

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to disclosure of information relating to a debt to the spouse of the debtor.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 537.7103, subsection 3, paragraph a, subparagraph (8), Code 2011, is amended to read as follows:
   (8)  Communicating with the debtor’s spouse with the consent of the debtor, or responding to inquiry from the debtor’s spouse.
EXPLANATION
   This bill relates to the disclosure of information relating to a debt to the spouse of the debtor.
   The consumer credit code contained in Code chapter 537 specifies prohibited practices in connection with the dissemination of information relating to a debt or a debtor. One of the prohibited practices concerns communicating or threatening to communicate or implying that a debt exists to a person other than the debtor or a person who might reasonably be expected to be liable for the debt, except with the written permission of the debtor given after default. There are several exceptions to this prohibition, however, including communications with the debtor’s spouse with the consent of the debtor, or responding to an inquiry from the debtor’s spouse. This spousal exception does not currently authorize or extend to communicating with the debtor’s spouse without the consent of the debtor where the communication is not pursuant to an inquiry from the debtor’s spouse. 
   This bill removes the provision that the communication with the debtor’s spouse is authorized only with the consent of the debtor in a nonspousal inquiry situation. Accordingly, a debt collector would be permitted to disclose information relating to a debt to the spouse of the debtor without the requirement that the debtor consent to the communication.