Joining a growing consensus of appellate courts that have addressed this issue in recent years, the Alaska Supreme Court held last week that foreclosure counts as "debt collection" and therefore firms in the business of foreclosing on homeowners are "debt collectors" subject to the restrictions of the FDCPA. As the court explained, "foreclosing on property, selling it, and applying the proceeds to the underlying indebtedness constitute one way of collecting a debt." This is an important victory for consumers; a contrary interpretation would leave a gap in the FDCPA's coverage. (The case was litigated by the firm of our blog's own Deepak Gupta.)
You can read the decision here.
