Colorado § 5-16-123 - Duties of collection agencies.

§ 5-16-123. Duties of collection agencies.

(1) A licensee shall:

(a) Maintain, at all times, liquid assets in the form of deposit accounts in the total sum of not less than two thousand five hundred dollars more than all sums due and owing to all of its clients;

(b) (I) (A) Maintain, at all times, an office within this state that is open to the public during normal business hours, is staffed by at least one full-time employee, keeps a record of all money collected and remitted by the agency for residents of Colorado, and accepts payments physically made at the office for any debt the agency is attempting to collect.

(B) Notify, in each written communication, the consumer from whom the agency is attempting to collect a debt of the address and telephone number of the local office required by this subsection (1)(b)(I).

(II) Maintain, at all times, a toll-free telephone number that shall be available to any consumer who needs to make a toll call to reach the licensee in connection with a debt.

(c) Maintain, at all times, a trust account for the benefit of its clients that contains, at all times, sufficient funds to pay all sums due or owing to all of its clients. The licensee shall maintain the trust account in a commercial bank or savings and loan association account in this state or accessible in a branch in this state until disbursed to the creditor. The account must be clearly designated as a trust account and shall be used only for such purposes and not as an operating account. A deposit of all funds received to a trust account followed by a transfer of the agency share of the collection to an operating account is not a violation of this section.

(d) Within thirty days after the last day of the month in which any collections are made for a client, account to the client for all collections made during that month and remit to the client all money owed to the client pursuant to the agreement between the client and the collection agency;

(e) Upon written demand of the administrator, within five days of receipt of the demand, produce a complete set of all form notices or form letters used by the licensee in the collection of accounts;

(f) Be responsible, pursuant to this article 16, for violations of this article 16 caused by its collections manager, debt collectors, or solicitors.

(2) (a) No collection agency shall employ any collections manager, debt collector, or solicitor who has been convicted of or who has entered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere to any crime specified in part 4 of article 4, in part 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, or 9 of article 5, or in article 5.5 of title 18, or any similar crime under the jurisdiction of any federal court or court of another state.

(b) No collection agency shall be owned or operated by the following persons who have been convicted of or who have entered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere to any crime specified in part 4 of article 4, in part 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, or 9 of article 5, or in article 5.5 of title 18, or any similar crime under the jurisdiction of any federal court or court of another state:

(I) The owner of a sole proprietorship;

(II) A partner of a partnership;

(III) A member of a limited liability company; or

(IV) An officer or director of a corporation.

(3) Subsections (1)(a), (1)(c), and (1)(d) of this section do not apply to a person collecting or attempting to collect a debt owned by the person collecting or attempting to collect the debt.

Source: L. 2017: Entire article added with relocations, (HB 17-1238), ch. 260, p. 1097, § 1, effective August 9.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 12-14-123 as it existed prior to 2017.