NEWS...
Compliance and Guidance
With the membership of the Debt Buyers and Sellers Group beyond seventy the organisation is becoming increasingly active.
Recently, a meeting was held to discuss the progress of the group as well as important topics such as; yes you guessed it, the Consumer Credit Act 2006.
First on the agenda was the press release made by the OFT in April. Following on from this press release the DBSG and CSA had taken immediate action by way of a meeting with the OFT. We highlighted our disappointment that we were not informed of the intention to 'warn' nine of our members in addition to the fact that many of the concerns raised by the OFT related to practices as far back as 2005 and had already been rectified.
However, the association was pleased with our members' response, eight out of the nine 'warned members' came forward to ask for assistance and to share the content of the release. Doing so gave the association ammunition to take to the meeting with the OFT in order to rebut the allegations.
The meeting then went onto the Consumer Credit Act 2006 and the requirements to send post contract information. A Q&A session was held with Robert Rosenberg from Leicester Aldridge Solicitors to help members understand the requirements.
Robert Rosenberg is a leading solicitor in this field who helped to draft the 2006 act and has been acknowledged in Chambers & Partners as a leading expert in consumer finance law. The problems surrounding the Act were discussed, in particular the issues of gone aways and IVAs.
The DBSG is currently working with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory reform to secure a reform order which would allow members an exception in these cases.
This leads me onto the following...
As a result of intensive lobbying from the DBSG the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform have been putting together an options paper for MPs.
Members have raised concern that sending statements and arrears notices (as required under the Consumer Credit Act 2006) to debtors in an IVA would serve simply to confuse and antagonise debtors.
This is due to the fact that statements and notices must relate to the original agreement and not subsequent payment plans but must be sent until all sums under the agreement have been paid, this results in debtors who are in an IVA getting information which does not relate to their current circumstances.
It is a similar issue for gone aways. The Act requires that the statements and notices are sent to the last known address, failure to do so would result in the agreement being unenforceable until a statement or notice is served.
However, members do not wish to send the information to the last known address where they know the debtor no longer resides there as this would not only upset the occupier but increase the likelihood of fraud and could damage the reputation of members.
Therefore as part of the options paper we are asking for an exception where the debtor is no longer at the provided address.
The paper is currently being drafted and we will inform members of our progress as soon as possible.
by Robert Bell, Junior Compliance Executive, CSA and DBSG.
Original article courtesy of DBSG. For further information visit www.dbsg-uk.com.
