If you have had a County Court Claim issued against you, or you are being threatened with legal action relating to a Consumer Credit agreement call us immediately on 020 7681 8888. We may be able to represent you on a "no win no fee" basis to defend the claim. Your lender may not legally be able to enforce the agreement in court.
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“Do you legally have to repay your credit card debt and personal loan debt? Some credit card and loan agreements cannot legally be enforced by the lender.” Find out the truth.
The Consumer Credit Act 1974 provides that certain credit card or credit loan agreements taken out before 6 April 2007 (i.e. for those less than £25,000) must contain certain terms and conditions (prescribed terms). Without these prescribed terms the agreement cannot be enforced by the lender (“unenforceable”) unless the lender applies to the court for an enforcement order. However, there are certain circumstances in which the court does not have power or jurisdiction to enforce repayment and the agreement in question remains unenforceable. If your agreement is unenforceable, the lender is unable to recover any money from you in legal proceedings.
We are trying to help consumers discover whether or not their credit or loan agreements are unenforceable. The purpose of the following is to familiarise you with the circumstances in which consumer credit agreements may be unenforceable and to offer you the opportunity of instructing us to act on your behalf. Firstly, we are prepared to review the status of your credit or loan agreement and, secondly, where we advise that your agreement is unenforceable to offer you our legal services on a no-win no-fee basis whether as a claimant or defendant in legal proceedings against your lender. Our charges are £345 per agreement.
Subject to our general terms and conditions:
Upon receipt of a copy of your credit agreement from the Lender we will review it and advise you whether or not it is enforceable under the Consumer Credit Act. Our fees are £345 for each credit card and/or loan agreement that you want us to consider. This sum covers our fees for the request and review of each agreement and initial advice given in respect of it. The lender also charges £11 per agreement to provide a copy of your agreement. For each agreement that is unenforceable we will reclaim this fee back from the Lender which we will repay to you as soon as we receive it from them. Consumer credit issues can be extremely complicated and there are a number of matters that need to be considered. To assist you please read our FAQs and our Consumer Credit Guide. We recommend that you familiarise yourself with their contents. We can also advise you on miss-sold Payment Protection Insurance. Click here to request a copy of our
1. We will contact your lender to obtain a copy of your credit agreement. 2. 3. There are two options:
(a)
(i)
If your credit agreement is unenforceable, we will give you full written advice. We will also notify the lender in writing requesting confirmation that you have been discharged from any further obligations in respect of the loan or credit agreement concerned;
(ii)
Furthermore, should your agreement be unenforceable but, nevertheless, your lender issues enforcement proceedings against you, we will offer to represent you on a ‘no win no fee’ basis to defend the claim. We may be able to obtain a letter from the lender or the court discharging you from the debt. In addition, we may be able to remove the account from your credit rating so that no adverse credit rating can be made and in certain limited circumstances we may be able to obtain compensation from your lender. If you are being contacted by solicitors or debt collectors we will write to them to stop further collection activity and we will take all steps possible to ensure that an adverse credit rating is not made against you. If the lender does not comply with our request to discharge you from any further obligation, and you want us to instigate proceedings immediately for a declaration against your lender we will act on a CFA basis however, you will need to fund the court fees. The court issue fee is currently £150.00, and we will reclaim this back from the Lender as part of our legal fees. If you have house contents insurance we need to see a copy of the policy and the terms and conditions as you may be covered for any costs in legal proceedings.
(b)
If your credit agreement is found to be enforceable after review, then we will advise you immediately but there is little else that we can do for you in this instance. We can, of course, help with any other debt problems which you might need advice on. 4. 5.
Consumer Credit Guide and Application Pack
orCall: 020 7681 8888
A Brief History of the Law
In 1974, Parliament enacted the Consumer Credit Act (the “Act”). The Act was designed to protect the public from unscrupulous lenders. It laid down requirements which had to be complied with for a credit card or credit loan agreement (“credit agreements”) to be enforceable. The relevant part of the Act covers agreements for less than £25,000. The Act was drafted on the basis that lenders who fell foul of certain provisions could not enforce repayment of the loan in a court of law. It was never intended to catch out the large blue chip banks and credit card companies but it has become apparent that many lenders have inadvertently fallen foul of the requirements and so some of their credit agreements are unenforceable.
The 1974 Act provides that an agreement must contain certain prescribed terms. If an agreement lacks the prescribed terms it is unenforceable unless the lender applies to court for an enforcement order. There are certain circumstances in which the court does not have power or jurisdiction to enforce the agreement so the agreement remains unenforceable and the lender is unable to recover any money, in legal proceedings, from the borrower.
This is only the position for agreements signed before 6 April 2007. For agreements made on or after 6 April 2007 the court now has discretion under the Consumer Credit Act 2006 to enforce an agreement which does not comply with the 1974 Act’s requirements. In exercising its discretion, the court must balance the prejudice that would be suffered by the borrower if the court decided to enforce the agreement, against the prejudice that would be suffered by the Lender if the court decided not to enforce the agreement.
Claims Management Companies
You will probably have seen advertised or on the internet a number of companies claiming to be able to eliminate your debts and claim compensation on your behalf. Some companies are claiming that 80% of agreements are unenforceable. A proportion of these companies will be charging various prices in order to ‘get you out of your debt’ and they may also charge a percentage of any savings that you make. They may also claim that they will subsequently claim compensation for you. The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) who monitors claims management companies who provide these services has issued warnings to consumers to help them identify unscrupulous companies. In particular, claims management companies should not be giving guarantees or making promises to get you out of your debt. The MOJ’s concern is that claims management companies are essentially selling services, using misleading statements, that they are unable to prove. Certain aspects of the current law are still unclear. What is evident is that a proportion of agreements are unenforceable in certain circumstances but it is wrong to assume that a high percentage of credit agreements are unenforceable. You will need to be informed of your position as quickly as possible because if you are not making repayments you may be incurring additional default charges and legal costs. However, if you instruct us we will advise you fully on your rights.
Our Services
We are a firm of city solicitors’ regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Law Society. We are able to give you practical and reliable legal advice. Many of you will also be concerned that challenging your credit agreements may prejudice your credit rating. You may also be concerned as to whether you have to continue making your re-payments. We will advise you on all of these issues. We are compliant with the requirements of our own regulatory authorities, namely, the Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority in the provision of these services direct to you as a consumer and potential client. We also have professional indemnity insurance to protect our clients in the event that negligence on our part might arise. In this event, you will be able to recover any losses from us.
Media Hype, Miss-selling and Misunderstanding
As you may be aware, a great deal of current marketing by Claims Management companies has been regarded as misleading by the regulatory authorities. Some in the media have misunderstood the situation and wholeheartedly dismissed Claims Management companies as acting unscrupulously. Such a blanket dismissal overlooks the fact that whilst a high percentage of such agreements might not be unenforceable, a good deal are. The only way to find out is to review the credit or loan agreement concerned in order to ascertain whether or not it fails to meet the requirements of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. This important issue has been misunderstood generally by the media. The services that we are offering you are essentially tailored to finding out whether or not your credit or loan agreement is unenforceable and, if so, what other support we can give you in this eventuality.
Click here to request a copy of our
Consumer Credit Guide and Application Pack
or
Call: 020 7681 8888
We can also advise you on miss-sold Payment Protection Insurance.
