S 7167: Prohibits reporting debt arrears of an individual which are due to a COVID-19 related hardship to a consumer reporting agency; provides for the removal of such information from an individual's file with such agency.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 7167 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE April 3, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. CLEARE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Consumer Protection AN ACT to amend the general business law, in relation to prohibiting certain debt arrears from being reported to consumer reporting agen- cies The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The general business law is amended by adding a new section 2 399-zzzzzz to read as follows: 3 § 399-zzzzzz. Prohibition on reporting of certain debt arrears. 1. No 4 person, firm, partnership, association or corporation shall report debt 5 arrears of an individual which are due to a COVID-19 related hardship to 6 a consumer reporting agency as defined in section three hundred eighty-a 7 of this chapter. 8 2. Debt arrears reported in violation of the provisions of subdivision 9 one of this section shall be expunged from the file, as defined in 10 section three hundred eighty-a of this chapter, of any individual who 11 files a dispute regarding such debt arrears pursuant to section three 12 hundred eighty-f of this chapter. 13 3. As used in this section "COVID-19 related hardship" means: 14 (a) A significant loss of household income during the COVID-19 pandem- 15 ic. 16 (b) Increase in necessary out-of-pocket expenses related to performing 17 essential work or related to health impacts during the COVID-19 pandem- 18 ic. 19 (c) Childcare responsibilities or responsibilities to care for an 20 elderly, disabled, or sick family member during the COVID-19 pandemic 21 have negatively affected the ability of the individual or the ability of 22 someone in the household of such individual to obtain meaningful employ- 23 ment or earn income or increased such individual's necessary out-of- 24 pocket expenses. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD00384-01-5 
 S. 7167 2 1 (d) Other circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic have nega- 2 tively affected the individual's ability to obtain meaningful employment 3 or earn income or have significantly reduced the individual's household 4 income or significantly increased such individual's expenses. 5 § 2. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall 6 have become a law.