A cold call to a homeowner in foreclosure is two legal problems stacked on top of each other. The first is the same federal law that governs any seller cold call - the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, Do-Not-Call rules, and calling-hour restrictions. The second switches on once a Notice of Default hits the county recorder: state "equity purchaser" statutes that regulate what you can say, promise, and put in a contract. TCPA foreclosure calling compliance means clearing both bars, not just the one you already know. This article covers the federal rules as they stand today, then walks through California Civil Code section 1695 - the best-known equity-purchaser law - as a worked example of what these state statutes require. Nothing here is legal advice; rules differ by state and change with case law and FCC rulemaking, so confirm the current rules for your state with counsel before building volume around a foreclosure list.
The federal layer: TCPA rules that apply to every seller call
Before state law enters the picture, an ordinary set of federal rules governs the call itself. You must scrub numbers against the National Do-Not-Call registry and your own internal DNC list and honor both (National Do-Not-Call Registry), and keep calls inside roughly 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the called party's local time, not yours (FCC, guidance on unwanted calls). None of this changes because the person you are calling is behind on their mortgage - a homeowner in default gets the same baseline TCPA protection as anyone else, plus whatever their state layers on top once a filing is public.
The exposure is not abstract. The TCPA carries a private right of action with statutory damages of $500 per violation, trebled to $1,500 for willful violations, and plaintiffs' firms have leaned in hard: TCPA filings reached 2,628 in 2025, roughly a 60% jump over 2024, with class actions a growing share of that total (CompliancePoint, 2025 TCPA Litigation Trends). A single bad list or sloppy revocation process does not cost you one complaint - it can cost you a few hundred, each carrying its own damages claim.
What consent revocation actually requires right now
This is the part of TCPA foreclosure calling compliance that changed most recently, and where a lot of published guidance is now out of date. Since April 11, 2025, a caller must honor a consumer's revocation of consent made through any reasonable method - saying "stop," replying to a text with any word, using a keypress opt-out on a call, or submitting a request through a designated form or number - and must act on it within 10 business days. A separate, stricter piece of the same 2024 FCC order would have required a single "stop" sent in response to one type of message to revoke consent for every future call and text from that company, the so-called "revoke-all" rule. The FCC has twice delayed that specific requirement by waiver; as of the most recent order, full compliance is not required until January 31, 2027 (FCC, order extending the consent-revocation effective date). Build your process to honor any clear revocation fast regardless - the safest posture treats every "stop" as covering that caller's entire program, waiver or not.
The state layer: what changes once a Notice of Default is recorded
California's Home Equity Sales Contract Act, Civil Code section 1695, is the clearest example of a state "equity purchaser" law and the one most cited nationally, so it is worth understanding in some depth even if you call outside California. It applies once four conditions are all true: the property is a one-to-four-unit dwelling, the owner occupies one of the units as a principal residence, a Notice of Default has been recorded against the property, and the buyer does not intend to occupy it as a personal residence (California Civil Code section 1695). Meet all four and you are an "equity purchaser" dealing with an "equity seller" under the statute, whether or not you think of the transaction that way.
The Act does three things an ordinary purchase contract does not. It mandates specific written disclosures and contract language in a format the statute spells out. It gives the homeowner an absolute right to cancel until midnight of the fifth business day after signing, no reason required. And it bars a defined list of misrepresentations under section 1695.6 - about the home's value, the seller's rights, or the effect of any document the seller is asked to sign (California Civil Code section 1695.6). Separately, section 1695.13 bars taking unconscionable advantage of the homeowner; violate it and the homeowner can rescind the entire sale for up to two years after the deed records, plus recover actual damages and attorneys' fees (California Civil Code section 1695.13) - a far longer, costlier exposure window than an ordinary contract dispute, and exactly why the legislature built these protections: to counter investors using speed and confusion against homeowners who had just received a foreclosure filing.
Other states run their own versions - some track California closely, others define the trigger event or rescission window differently, and a few have none. Treat "which states have an equity-purchaser law" as a question for counsel before scaling a program across states, not something to infer from one state's rules.
What you can say, and what you can never say
Strip the statutes down to a working rule for the actual phone call, and it holds up whether or not the state you are calling into has a Civil Code section 1695 of its own:
Never say: that you can stop the foreclosure, that you work with, represent, or have a relationship with the homeowner's lender or servicer, that they should stop paying their mortgage or stop responding to their servicer, or anything about the home's value or the contract's terms that is not true. Those are the specific representations section 1695.6 forbids in California, and they are the same pattern the FTC and CFPB publish as warning signs of a foreclosure rescue scam - so avoiding them protects you legally and keeps you from sounding like the scammers your prospect has likely already been warned about.
What you can say is the honest version of the same conversation: who you are, how you found the property, that you are not affiliated with their lender, roughly what you can offer and on what timeline, and that they are free to say no and free to cancel even after signing. See our guide to pre-foreclosure cold calling for how to build that opener and the discovery questions that follow it - this article covers the rules that opener has to survive, not the conversation itself.
Recording the call and keeping a record
California is also one of the states requiring all-party consent to record a phone call (Cal. Penal Code §§ 632, 632.7), which matters here for a practical reason beyond the recording rule itself: in litigation over what was said on a foreclosure call, the caller's own record is often the best evidence that the required disclosures were made and the prohibited statements were not. An at-start announcement that the call may be recorded, followed by the homeowner staying on the line, is the standard way callers satisfy all-party-consent states before recording begins. Software built for regulated calling programs increasingly automates that step and keeps a timestamped, searchable record of it - our parent company backs work in exactly this category, and call recording and compliance tooling is one example of software doing the record-keeping job a spreadsheet cannot. Whether or not you adopt a tool, the underlying discipline - announce, record, retain - is the same one section 1695.13 and TCPA litigation both reward.
Disclosure: Real Invest Republic, LLC backs and operates CallVisor, a proptech company referenced in this article.
A simple framework to keep
- Scrub first. National DNC registry, your own internal list, and calling hours - every call, every state.
- Honor revocation fast. Any reasonable "stop" within 10 business days; treat it as covering the whole program.
- Confirm the trigger event. Know whether a Notice of Default has actually been recorded before you assume an equity-purchaser law applies.
- Never promise a stop, a lender relationship, or a value you have not verified. The same sentence that sounds like reassurance is the one the statute and the regulators both flag.
- Disclose the cancellation right where state law requires it, in writing, in the format the statute specifies.
- Announce and keep the recording where you record calls, and retain the record.
- Check state-specific rules before you scale - what applies in California is not automatically what applies anywhere else.
None of this is optional compliance theater. It is also, done well, the difference between a call that sounds like a scam and one that sounds like the most straightforward conversation a stressed homeowner has that week.
Frequently asked questions
Does the TCPA apply to investors cold calling homeowners in foreclosure?
Yes. A foreclosure list creates no TCPA exemption. You still scrub the National Do-Not-Call registry and your own internal list, keep calls inside 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time, and honor revocation. A homeowner in default gets the same TCPA protection as anyone else, plus whatever their state's equity-purchaser law adds.
What is California Civil Code section 1695?
The Home Equity Sales Contract Act - California's law governing purchases of an owner-occupied one-to-four-unit home after a Notice of Default is recorded. It requires specific written disclosures, bans certain contract terms, gives the homeowner a right to cancel until midnight of the fifth business day after signing, and lets them rescind the sale for up to two years over a prohibited misrepresentation.
Is the FCC's TCPA consent revocation rule fully in effect yet?
Partly. Since April 11, 2025, callers must honor revocation through any reasonable method within 10 business days. The stricter "revoke-all" piece - a stop on one message type revoking consent for every future contact - has been delayed twice by FCC waiver, most recently to January 31, 2027. Confirm the current order before relying on either date.
What can you never say to a homeowner in foreclosure?
Never say or imply that you can stop the foreclosure, that you represent their lender or servicer, or that they should stop paying or stop responding to their servicer. Those are exactly what section 1695.6 and equivalent state laws prohibit, and the same pattern the FTC and CFPB use to flag foreclosure rescue scams.