Florida debt collection laws give you two overlapping shields against abusive collectors: the state Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act (FCCPA) and the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The FCCPA reaches further than the federal law in one key respect — it applies to anyone collecting a consumer debt, including the original creditor, not just outside collection agencies. Together the two statutes limit how and when a collector can contact you, cap what can be taken from your paycheck or property, put a hard clock on lawsuits, and let you sue for money damages plus attorney’s fees when the rules are broken.
What Collectors Can’t Do in Florida
Florida Statute 559.72 opens with the phrase “in collecting consumer debts, no person shall,” and that opening is why the statute matters so much. Its restrictions cover original creditors, third-party collectors, debt buyers, and law firms collecting for someone else.1The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 559.72 – Prohibited Practices Generally The FDCPA only reaches “debt collectors,” a narrower category that generally excludes the company you originally owed. So if your credit card issuer’s in-house collections team threatens to call your boss, you likely have an FCCPA claim even though the FDCPA wouldn’t apply.
The most common violations fall into a handful of buckets.
Harassment and threats. A collector cannot use or threaten force, use profane or abusive language, or call so often that a reasonable person would consider it harassment. Calls outside 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in your time zone are off-limits without your consent.
Deception. A collector cannot pretend to be a police officer or government agent, send letters designed to look like court papers, or use an attorney’s letterhead when no attorney is actually involved. Claiming you owe a debt the collector knows is not legitimate — including threatening to sue on a debt the collector knows is time-barred — is also a violation.1The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 559.72 – Prohibited Practices Generally
Contact at your job. Under the FCCPA, a collector cannot contact your employer before obtaining a final judgment against you unless you’ve given written permission or acknowledged the debt in writing after it was placed for collection. The collector may tell you your employer will be contacted if a judgment is eventually entered, but that’s all. On top of that, the FDCPA requires a collector to stop calling you at work if you simply say you cannot receive personal calls there.2eCFR. Part 1006 Debt Collection Practices (Regulation F)
Talking to other people about your debt. A collector cannot disclose your debt to third parties who have no legitimate reason to know. If a collector discloses a disputed debt without noting the dispute, you can require the collector to go back to everyone who received that disclosure in the prior 90 days and correct the record.
Your Right to Debt Validation
Within five days of first contacting you, an FDCPA-covered collector must send a written validation notice listing the amount owed, the name of the creditor, and your right to dispute the debt within 30 days.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1692g – Validation of Debts Send a written dispute inside that 30-day window and the collector must stop all collection activity until it produces verification — either documentation of the underlying debt or a copy of a court judgment.
The notice must also tell you that if the current creditor differs from the original one, you can request the original creditor’s name and address. Collectors sometimes bury or omit these disclosures, and both are violations. Many collection cases collapse at the verification stage because the collector bought a batch of accounts and never received the underlying paperwork.
How Long a Creditor Has to Sue You
Florida caps how long a creditor has to file a collection lawsuit. Once the deadline passes, the expired limitations period is a complete defense.4The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 95.11 – Limitations Other Than for the Recovery of Real Property
- Written contracts, including most credit cards: five years
- Oral contracts and unwritten agreements: four years
The clock starts on the date of default, usually the date of the first payment you missed and never made up.
Two traps to know. First, an expired limitations period does not erase the debt. A collector can still send letters and make calls asking you to pay; what it cannot do is sue, and under the FCCPA it cannot threaten to sue on a debt it knows is time-barred. Second, a small partial payment or a written acknowledgment can restart the entire limitations period, handing the creditor a fresh window to file suit. If a collector calls about an old debt, get clarity on the timeline before you agree to anything or send any money.
What Florida Protects From Garnishment and Seizure
Florida has some of the strongest debtor exemptions in the country.
Wages
If you provide more than half the support for a child or other dependent, you qualify as head of household. All of your disposable earnings are exempt from garnishment when those earnings are $750 per week or less.5The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 222.11 – Exemption of Wages From Garnishment Above $750 per week, your wages still can’t be garnished unless you previously signed a specific written waiver — a separate document in at least 14-point type, attached to the credit agreement.
Head-of-household earnings that have already been deposited into a bank account stay exempt for six months after deposit, as long as they can be traced back to exempt wages. Mixing exempt wages with other money doesn’t automatically destroy the exemption, but it makes tracing harder, so keeping a separate account for wages is the practical move.
If you’re not a head of household, federal law sets the floor. A creditor can garnish the lesser of 25% of your disposable earnings or the amount by which your weekly pay exceeds 30 times the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, which works out to $217.50 per week.6U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 30 – Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act Below that threshold, nothing can be taken.
Your Home
Florida’s homestead exemption protects your primary residence from forced sale by most creditors, with no dollar cap on the home’s value. Outside a municipality, the protection covers up to 160 acres; inside a municipality, half an acre.7The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Chapter 222 – Exemptions
Three debts can still force a sale of the home:
- Property taxes and assessments on the home itself
- Purchase money mortgages, meaning the loan used to buy the property
- Contractor and mechanic’s liens for labor or materials used to repair or improve the home
Other Property
Florida also exempts several categories of personal property:
- Up to $5,000 in equity in a single motor vehicle ($10,000 if the debt is for medical services from a licensed facility)
- Up to $4,000 in personal property if you don’t claim the homestead exemption ($10,000 for medical debt)
- Professionally prescribed health aids for you or a dependent, with no dollar limit
- Any federal Earned Income Tax Credit refund, including traceable deposits in a bank account
Don’t try to convert non-exempt assets into exempt ones on the eve of a judgment. If a court finds you moved money to cheat a creditor, it can void the transaction as a fraudulent asset conversion.
What Happens After a Judgment
Once a creditor gets a judgment, interest accrues on the unpaid amount until it’s paid off. Florida does not use a fixed rate. The Chief Financial Officer resets the rate each quarter by averaging the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s discount rate over the prior 12 months and adding four percentage points.8The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 55.03 – Rate of Interest on Judgments and Decrees The rate that applies to your judgment locks in when the judgment is entered and adjusts every January 1 until paid. An unpaid judgment left alone for years can grow substantially, which is worth remembering before you dismiss a settlement offer.
Money You Can Recover if a Collector Breaks the Law
Both the FCCPA and the FDCPA let you sue a collector who violates them, and the remedies are structured so that a case is worth bringing even when your out-of-pocket loss is small.
Under Florida Statute 559.77, you can recover actual damages, up to $1,000 in statutory damages, court costs, and reasonable attorney’s fees.9The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 559.77 – Remedies Courts weigh the collector’s intent and how frequent or persistent the conduct was when setting statutory damages. The FCCPA also authorizes punitive damages and injunctive relief, which is a meaningful step up from the FDCPA. One caution: if a court finds your lawsuit was frivolous, you can be ordered to pay the collector’s attorney fees.
The FDCPA offers a parallel remedy: actual damages plus up to $1,000 in statutory damages, with attorney’s fees for a prevailing plaintiff.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692k – Civil Liability The fee award is mandatory; only the amount is discretionary. Because the two laws are independent, a single act by a third-party collector can trigger liability under both, and you can recover separate statutory damages under each. That doubled exposure is why Florida debtors often have more leverage than debtors in states without a strong state statute.
How to Push Back
If a collector is violating the rules, three moves work in combination: file complaints to create a paper trail, dispute the debt in writing, and raise the violations if you get sued.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau accepts complaints online or by phone at (855) 411-2372, forwards them to the company, and generally requires a response within 15 days.11Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Submit a Complaint The Federal Trade Commission does not resolve individual complaints but uses reports to build enforcement cases and has permanently banned some companies from the industry.12Federal Trade Commission. Debt Collection Because third-party collection agencies in Florida must register with the state Office of Financial Regulation, a complaint there can trigger a state investigation and put the collector’s license at risk.13Office of Financial Regulation. Consumer Collection Agencies
If a collector sues you, several defenses are worth raising alongside the statute of limitations.
The debt isn’t yours or has been paid. A written dispute forces the collector to stop and verify. Missing documentation ends many cases at that stage.
The collector broke the law during collection. Failure to send a validation notice, unauthorized contact with your employer, or misrepresenting the amount owed can serve as a defense to the suit and the basis for a counterclaim. A strong counterclaim often flips the settlement dynamic because the collector is suddenly the one facing liability.
Improper service or venue. A collector must sue you in the correct county and properly serve you. Suit in the wrong county, or service at the wrong address, can get the case dismissed or transferred.
Debts of a Deceased Family Member
If a collector is contacting you about a relative’s debt, the FDCPA sharply limits who they can speak with. Discussions about a deceased person’s debts are restricted to the spouse, a parent (if the deceased was a minor), the executor or personal representative of the estate, or the deceased person’s attorney.14Federal Trade Commission. Debts and Deceased Relatives A collector can contact other relatives once solely to find out who is handling the estate, but cannot share details or amounts with them.