(a) If a debtor, upon receipt of a statement of his account under a retail credit transaction, believes that there is an error in such statement as to the whole or any part of the amount shown as owing to the creditor, he may, in writing, not later than sixty days from the date of mailing of such statement, so notify the creditor, stating the basis or reasons for his belief that the statement is in error. The creditor shall within thirty days after receipt of such notification send a written acknowledgment to the debtor, and no later than two complete billing cycles of the creditor but in no event more than ninety days after receipt of the notification, investigate the debtor's complaint and make the necessary corrections in such account and submit a corrected statement or send a written explanation to the debtor setting forth the reasons why the creditor believes the account is correct as shown in the statement. Prior to completing such investigation, the creditor shall take no action to collect the amount in dispute or to in any way affect the debtor's credit rating.
(b) Any creditor who fails to comply with the provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall: (1) Forfeit any right to collect from the debtor the amount in dispute and any interest, service, finance, carrying or other charge on such amount, and (2) if such amount is in fact in error, be liable to the debtor for the actual damages sustained by him as a result of such failure of the creditor to comply, or twice the amount referred to in subdivision (1), whichever is greater, and in the case of any successful action to enforce such liability, the costs of the action together with attorney's fees.
(P.A. 77-345, S. 2.)
History: Sec. 42-84b transferred to Sec. 42-100c in 1995.
See Sec. 36a-676 for definitions under the Connecticut Truth-in-Lending Act applicable to this section.
Creditor is not required to investigate underlying controversy between boat dealership and debtor when debtor reported to creditor he wished to cancel loan agreement based on debtor's decision not to take delivery of goods and to cancel entire transaction. 285 C. 294.