Collection Actions: 4.5.3.2 Contract’s Unavailability No Excuse for Non-Production
A collector unable to produce the applicable contract cannot excuse this lapse by pointing to federal Truth in Lending Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act regulations that require creditors to retain documentation of a credit agreement and credit application for at least twenty-five months.342 These regulations do not condone destruction of the documents after twenty-five months, and they certainly do not state that a debt can be collected without proof of a contract.343