A-9 - Collecting Agents Act

Replaced on 1 July 1981

This document has official status.

chapter A-9

Collecting Agents Act

Chapter A-9 is replaced by the Act respecting the collection of certain debts (chapter R-2.2). (1979, c. 70, s. 64).

1979, c. 70, s. 64.

1. In this act, unless the context indicates a different meaning:

(1)  The words “collecting agent” mean a person whose business is the collecting, either by himself or through a representative, of debts owing to other persons;

(2)  The word “person” includes a partnership or a corporation.

R. S. 1964, c. 43, s. 1.

2. Any person desirous of acting as a collecting agent in Québec must, before acting as such, give security in the sum of five thousand dollars to the prothonotary of the Superior Court of the district where such person has his domicile, guaranteeing to the mandator of such collecting agent the handing over of any sum collected by the latter for his mandator.

R. S. 1964, c. 43, s. 2.

3. Such security must be furnished by means of a guarantee policy issued by a company authorized to act as surety in Québec, and such policy must contain a renunciation, by the surety, of the benefit of discussion.

R. S. 1964, c. 43, s. 3.

4. No surety may terminate the suretyship before the last day of April following the date of issue of the guarantee policy, and the collecting agent must cease to act as such as soon as the suretyship ceases.

However, upon proof established to the satisfaction of the prothonotary of the Superior Court, who received the said security, that the collecting agent is no longer acting as such and has satisfied all his obligations to his mandators, the said prothonotary may shorten the period thereof determined by this section.

R. S. 1964, c. 43, s. 4.

5. No person whose place of business is outside of Québec may act as a collecting agent within Québec without having previously complied with the provisions of the above sections 2 and 3.

R. S. 1964, c. 43, s. 5.

6. Whenever a collecting agent refuses or neglects to hand over to his mandator the sums collected for the latter, after deducting the costs of collection, such mandator may require the surety to fulfil his obligations, and, if he fails to do so, may institute proceedings against the surety, under the guarantee policy.

R. S. 1964, c. 43, s. 6.

7. No collecting agent shall, directly or indirectly:

(a)  undertake to bear the costs to be incurred in the collection of a claim;

(b)  sell, give or otherwise supply to any person form letters, either detached or bound together in booklets, capable of being sent, in the name of a collecting agent or any other third party, by a creditor to his debtor, and containing a notice or putting in default to pay.

R. S. 1964, c. 43, s. 7.

8. Every person who contravenes any provision of this act may, in addition to any penalty enacted by law, be condemned by way of summary proceeding to a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars, and costs, and, in default of payment of such fine and costs, to imprisonment for not more than three months.

R. S. 1964, c. 43, s. 8.

9. This act shall not apply to members of the Barreau du Québec, nor to notaries nor to persons employed exclusively by a business establishment, nor to banks, insurance companies or trust companies, nor to bailiffs, administrators of estates, public service companies, municipal or school corporations, nor to their employees in the performance of their duties.

R. S. 1964, c. 43, s. 9; 1977, c. 5, s. 229.

This act shall be replaced and repealed on the coming into force of section 51 of chapter 73 of the statutes of 1974, on the date to be fixed by proclamation of the Government.