Institutional buyers and other secondary-market investors of real estate-secured loan portfolios necessarily enter Georgia’s lending and collection landscape not as originating lenders, but as assignees. These purchasers must take care to ensure that the enforcement rights they believe they are acquiring survive the transfer intact and remain available when a borrower ultimately defaults.
With foreclosure moratoria behind us, inflation and interest rates on the rise, and the Country seemingly headed toward another recession, post-COVID debt collection activity is ramping up. Accordingly, lenders and creditors must remain vigilant to avoid inadvertent missteps that may compromise their ability to collect on their debts. This includes not only from principal debtors, but from guarantors and other sureties of those debts, as well.
In Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, 139 S. Ct. 1029, 203 L. Ed. 2d 390 (2019) the United States Supreme Court held that a business, including a law firm, engaged in the enforcement of a security interest through nonjudicial foreclosure proceedings was not a “debt collector” for nearly all purposes under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) (15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq.)
