[WSBAPT] Letters to Known Creditors - Duty to provide account numbers?

Fri Dec 21 09:40:17 PST 2018

I was about to reply saying essentially what Heather did, and Heather did it for me.

Reminds me of a personal situation a number of years ago, when I got a dunning letter from a collection agency for about $13 the same day I got a check back from the creditor/hospital for the same amount. As a family we seemed to have about a gazillion account numbers with that provider and our payment was credited to the wrong account. I  called the collection agency, spoke to someone who was very sympathetic (!) and who deadpanned “Yea, when you park there they attach something to your car so that from that point forward, every time you drive by they assign you an additional account number.”

Merry Christmas everyone.

________________________________________
THOMAS M. CULBERTSON  I  Lukins & Annis, PS
717 W. Sprague Ave, Suite 1600, Spokane, WA 99201
(509) 455-9555  I  fax (509) 363-2500  I  tculbertson at lukins.com<mailto:tculbertson at lukins.com>

From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com [mailto:wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com] On Behalf Of Heather deVrieze
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2018 9:14 AM
To: WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv
Subject: Re: [WSBAPT] Letters to Known Creditors - Duty to provide account numbers?

Brent,

RCW 11.40.020 merely provides that the Personal Representative may give actual notice to creditors who become known, by “serving the notice on the creditor or mailing the notice to the creditor at the creditor's last known address, by regular first-class mail, postage prepaid”
This is all that is required to limit that creditor to the time period provided in 11.40.051 (four months from date of first publication or 30 days from date of actual notice, whichever is later). I have never gotten push-back from a creditor who was provided actual notice (I send a copy of our declaration of mailing and/or affidavit of diligence) when we reject a claim.

That said, I generally attempt to include account numbers when I have them on notices from creditors. As much as anything, this helps us keep track of which creditors we notified and when.

I am a bit confused by the last bit of your post. You state that no one has sent a claim and you want to make sure you didn’t miss something before rejecting. If there was no claim, there is nothing to reject.

Heather

Heather S. de Vrieze
Attorney-at-Law
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From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of Brent Williams-Ruth
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2018 8:46 AM
To: WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv <wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com>
Subject: [WSBAPT] Letters to Known Creditors - Duty to provide account numbers?

I am helping a PR with an estate where the hospital immediately sent the bills of the decedent to collections. That's fine - so we sent notice to both the hospital and collection agency when mailing the notice to known creditors. However, given how the hospital bills, they opened ten (10) different creditor accounts with the collection agency.

If that collection agency received a direct letter and copy of the notice to probate creditors but does not list the various account numbers, is there an argument that they should have been given "better" notice?

My question: Has anyone had push back from a creditor that received the notice (as prescribed by 11.40.030) but didn't provide account numbers?  This isn't an insubstantial debt but no one has sent a claim in accordance with the statute and I want to ensure that before rejecting that there isn't something missed.

Appreciate the responses.

Brent

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Brent Williams-Ruth
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BWR Consulting, PLLC

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