Cease and desist letter templates

You might be able to send a written communication to those making collection calls to you and upon receipt of this communication collection calls must cease. In the collection industry these are known as cease and desist letters. Failure to comply with a cease and desist letter is a violation of the law.

I have created templates for a variety of scenarios you can use to create your own cease and desist letter.

Under federal law if you are receiving collection calls in connection with a loan, line of credit, or credit card debt then you have the right to send a cease and desist letter to (1) your original creditor, (2) a collection agency acting on its behalf, or (3) a lawyer acting on its behalf.

If (1) you live in Ontario, or (2) you are receiving collection calls from a collection agency physically within Ontario then you can send the collection agency a cease and desist letter under Ontario law.

If you live in Alberta, New Brunswick, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut or Quebec you can send a cease and desist letter to a collection agency making collection calls to you under the law where you reside.

These templates were created by Mark Silverthorn, a former collection lawyer who spent 12 years working for some of Canada's largest collection agencies before switching sides to help consumers.