Correspondence received from FCA re 'General information on the Consumer Credit Act'

[ccholland]

Morning All,

 

 

Not totally sure if have posted in the correct place so apologies if not.

 

 

Thought I'd share with you an extract from correspondence received direct from the FCA today:

 

 

General information on the Consumer Credit Act

Copy of credit agreement

 

Under section 77 and 78 of the Consumer Credit Act, a lender is required, at the request of a borrower, to provide a copy of the executed credit agreement and information in relation to outstanding amounts within the 12 working days of receiving the request.

If the lender fails to comply with this request, it is not entitled to enforce the credit agreement until the request is fully complied with. While the credit agreement remains unenforceable, the lender is still entitled to take a number of actions, including demand repayment of the debt.

 

To meet the requirements of these sections, the lender is not required to provide an exact copy, photocopy or microfiche copy of the signed original. This is reflected in the CCA which requires the copy of the credit agreement provided under sections 77 and 78 to be a “true copy”.

Under the Consumer Credit (Cancellation Notices and Copies of Documents) Regulations 1983, a “true copy of the credit agreement may omit the signature and date of the credit agreement. The “true copy” of the executed credit agreement may be reconstituted from sources other than the actual signed credit agreement following Carey v HSBC [2009].

However, if the lender provides a reconstituted copy of the credit agreement, it should explain to the borrower that this is what it has done.

 

 

The Purposes of these sections

The purpose of sections 77 and 78 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 is to provide a borrower with the relevant information about his or her contract, in particular the contract terms and the current state of the account.

Parliament appears to have recognised that consumers may lose documentation, or may not keep clear records of payments, and may be unable to ascertain accurately what their contractual rights and obligations are, or how much has been paid and what is still owed.

This is particularly important if there is a dispute over what is owed, or an alleged default.

In those cases, preventing a creditor or owner from enforcing the contract until clarification is provided is an important and reasonable protection for the consumer.

At the same time, it’s important to remember that the purpose of this legal provision is to provide information to the consumer; it is not to provide a method for consumers to avoid paying their debts. Unenforceability is merely the sanction where there is a continuing failure on the lender's part to provide the information.

[mikeymack2002]

Basically if no agreement they cannot take you to Court. If they provide a reconstituted agreement then they may try to take it further. But, they should have a copy of the original to rely on in Court.

 

 

They must also supply the terms and conditions at the time of signing, during and any amendments' during the period of the agreement if not they are on a sticky wicket. Newer generic T&C's do not count...

 

 

Is there a particular reason you have had this letter? Do you have a debt you wish to discuss?

[ccholland]

Hello mikeymack2002,

 

 

Thanks for your input.

 

 

I received an email from them this morning in response to some correspondence I copied them into to Lowell as I just got so annoyed and frustrated at Lowell at a particular moment in time! I also copied in the ICO and FOS so am waiting to see if I get a response. I have got a thread running on the Lowell issue at the moment but did not want to clog it up with something not directly relevant (if that makes sense).

 

 

They also stated to me:

 

 

We’re impartial, so we can’t comment on your complaint. We can use any information consumers give us about a firm’s conduct for our own purposes as the regulator though.

If you’ve got any evidence or clear information that Lowell is not following our rules please send this on to us. If we see they’ve broken any of our rules, we can take action against them as the regulator.

[mikeymack2002]

Have you already posted about the debt and Lowell? if so can you provide a link for history purposes..

 

 

Thx

[ccholland]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?433032-NewDay-Ltd-Debenhams-Store-Card-Assigned-to-Lowells&p=4759492#post4759492

 

 

I hope this works

[mikeymack2002]

Just found it too lol

[mikeymack2002]

Have you got any further on with Lowell yet? Or are they still running you around?

[ccholland]

they are still running me around - heard nothing from them since Feb this yr and then all of a sudden they started recording on my credit file. The reason given for not having heard from them for 5 months is because my case is with their external litigation team!!