In Pennsylvania, only judicial or in court foreclosures are allowed. To move forward with an in court foreclosure, the bank must file a lawsuit in order to receive a court order to foreclose. When the court finds in favor of the bank, the property will then be scheduled for a sheriff’s sale.

The bank must send a notice of intent to foreclose to the home owner. This letter must be sent first class mail to the last known address of the homeowner. If this address is different then the home which the bank is preparing to sell to get its money, then the letter must be sent to that address in addition to the last known address. General practice is that this notice of intent to foreclose is not sent until the homeowner is 60 days behind on their house payment.

This notice of intent to foreclose must inform the homeowner that it is the intention of the bank to accelerate the mortgage payment, if the loan is not brought current in the next thirty days,. This means that if all past and current payments are not made up, plus late fees and interest. The total amount will become immediately due and the bank will be moving ahead with the sheriff’s sale on the home.

In Pennsylvania, a home owner has the right to come up with the whole amount owed on the home plus attorney’s fees etc… all the way up until one hour before the sale of the home is conducted. Doing this will, of course keep the home in their name, and save a foreclosure from appearing on their credit history.

Finding a way to come up with all that money is another matter all together. If the sheriff’s sale does not generate enough money to satisfy the bank on the amount of the loan, Pennsylvania provides the lender, the right to continue to pursue the former home owner for additional money. The bank only has six months following the sale to exercise this option. This however, does not occur very often, because of the obvious reason, that most people, who have lost their home to foreclosure, do not have any other resources the bank would want to pursue.

Pennsylvania is one of four states that do not allow wage attachment (typically called a garnishment) for simple debt owed to a creditor. (North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas are the others).

In Pennsylvania, wage attachment can only occur in very limited circumstances. Among those are
1) judgments for child or spousal support;
2) obligations relating to a final divorce distribution;
3) back rent on a residential lease;
4) as restitution for criminal matters;
5) for certain types of taxes.

As you can see, there are very limited circumstances under which PA allows wage garnishment to occur, and credit card debt is not one of them.

The reason that I get this question so much is because many debt collectors use wage attachment as a threat. I would imagine that it is a very powerful threat, the thought of having my wages garnished is very troubling. To a person who is not educated in the law, the threat must be even more troublesome.

Let’s talk about wage garnishment a bit to see exactly what it is and why debt collectors make such a threat. A garnishment is an act whereby money or property that is owed to the Debtor (the defendant in the credit card lawsuit) or that is being held by someone (the Garnishee) for the Debtor, is taken to pay a Judgment. Therefore, wage garnishment would be where the judgment creditor directs the garnishee to hold funds (pay, commission or wages) that are owed to the Debtor and give them to the judgment creditor. Again, to be clear, there is no wage garnishment or wage attachment in Pennsylvania for credit card debt.

Unfortunately, debt collectors still make this threat on a very regular basis, even though wage garnishment cannot occur in PA. They use this threat as a scare tactic and their reasoning is two-fold. The first reason is obvious, they want the money. Most collectors work on a contingent or bonus basis. That means that they get paid a percentage of what they collect, or, they have quotas that they have to meet to get paid. The second reason is that they know that most people are not educated in the law and that most people simply want the issue to go away.

To make a threat of wage garnishment in PA is illegal. There is a federal law called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) that provides protections to consumers/debtors. This law makes it illegal for debt collectors to make a threat that they cannot carry out. Since wage attachment or garnishment cannot occur in PA, making a threat to do so is illegal.

If you are a debtor in Pennsylvania and a wage garnishment threat is made against you, contact a consumer attorney right away. You will have the ability to bring a claim against that debt collector and it will not cost you a penny! The FDCPA has a provision in it whereby the debt collector is responsible for your attorney fees if there is a debt collection violation. In that regard, any knowledgeable consumer attorney will take on your case without taking a retainer (an up front payment).