STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6388
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 13, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. HARCKHAM -- 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 providing for
electronic notice for collateral loan brokers
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 49 of the general business law, as
2 amended by chapter 594 of the laws of 1997, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 1. [No pledge shall be sold unless written or printed notice of inten-
5 tion to sell with a statement of the article or articles to be sold has
6 been first mailed by letter addressed to the pledgor at the address
7 given at the time of pledging at least thirty days prior to the date of
8 sale] Notwithstanding any general or special statutes, local law and
9 ordinances to the contrary, upon the tendering of a pledge, the pledgor
10 shall provide a collateral loan broker an email address or phone number
11 to be used in the event a pledge is not timely redeemed for purposes of
12 providing a notice of intention to sell. No pledge shall be sold unless
13 a notice of intention to sell, with a statement of the article or arti-
14 cles to be sold, is forwarded electronically, by email or text message,
15 at least thirty days prior to the date of sale. A second notice of
16 intention to sell shall be forwarded electronically, by email or text
17 message, to the pledgor at least fifteen days prior to the sale. Alter-
18 natively, a pledgor may at the time of tendering a pledge elect to
19 receive a notice of intention to sell by United States postal service
20 mail with a statement of the articles to be sold by letter addressed to
21 the pledgor at the address given at the time of pledging at least thirty
22 days prior to the date of the sale. A pledgor may at any time prior to
23 the transmission of the second notice referenced above, or mailing of a
24 letter addressed to the pledgor, provide one or more updated addresses
25 or phone numbers to be used for purposes of transmission of a notice of
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07205-01-5
S. 6388 2
1 intention to sell and the collateral loan broker shall accordingly
2 employ a substitute new address or phone number. Copies of notices of
3 intention to sell sent pursuant to this subdivision shall be retained by
4 a collateral loan broker for not less than six years. If the sale shall
5 be by public auction, then notice of every such sale shall be published
6 for at least six days previous thereto, in at least two of the daily
7 newspapers printed in the city where the business shall be carried on,
8 and also in two daily newspapers of the city where the sale is to take
9 place and to be designated by said mayor, and such notice shall specify
10 the time and place at which such sale is to take place and the name of
11 the auctioneers by whom the same is to be conducted together with a
12 statement of the class of pledges to be sold and the inclusive dates and
13 numbers of the pawn tickets of the pledges to be sold. If the pledge, at
14 such sale, shall be purchased back by the collateral loan broker, the
15 pledgor shall be entitled to redeem same within ten days thereafter by
16 tendering to the collateral loan broker the amount of the loan with the
17 interest due thereon, the amount of the auctioneer's lawful commission,
18 lawful extra care charges, and the expense of the advertisement of the
19 sale.
20 § 2. Subdivision 2 of section 50 of the general business law, as
21 amended by chapter 321 of the laws of 1983, is amended to read as
22 follows:
23 2. In the event there is any surplus money due to a pledgor after such
24 sale, the collateral loan broker shall give the pledgor written notice
25 thereof, by mailing to such pledgor, directed to [him] such pledgor at
26 the address given at the time of pledging or in the event such pledgor
27 has notified the collateral loan broker, in writing, of a change of
28 address, to such new address, within thirty days after such sale, a
29 notice which shall state the name and address of the collateral loan
30 broker, the number of the pledge, the date of sale and the amount of any
31 surplus, provided however that in the event that the collateral loan
32 broker has transmitted a notice of sale via electronic means pursuant to
33 section forty-nine of this article, the notice of surplus herein shall
34 be transmitted in a manner identical to the means employed with regard
35 to the notice of sale, provided further that such electronic notice
36 shall be required to be transmitted one time to the electronic address
37 provided by the pledgor at the time the article was pledged or to at
38 least one or more alternative electronic addresses if provided, in writ-
39 ing, hard copy or electronic, to the collateral loan broker by the pled-
40 gor prior to the transmittal of the notice of surplus as prescribed
41 herein. In the event any person entitled to such surplus fails to make
42 claim for the same within one year from the date of such sale, such
43 surplus shall be paid over, by the collateral loan broker, to the state
44 comptroller in accordance with the provisions of section one thousand
45 three hundred one of the abandoned property law.
46 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
47 it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amend-
48 ment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implemen-
49 tation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and
50 completed on or before such effective date.
