Debt write-off cases to be suspended by courts, lawyer claims

Former_MSE_Guy

This thread is to discuss the following news story:

Debt write-off cases to be suspended by courts, lawyer claims

Comyface

I do fall into the 'if you borrow money, pay it back' camp tbh. So, this is good news to me.

cyril82

Blocking legislation that is designed to help those who have been signed into unfair or misleading contracts because people are abusing the system for me is a mixed bag.

It's good to stop the people who are milking the system, but ultimately it is those who are struggling and who have been preyed on by unscrupulous lenders that will suffer in the end as one more potential door to freedom is slammed in their face.

~Brock~

It was only a matter of time before the 'system' woke up to the fact that people are trying to milk it. The article appears to confuse itself between 'unfair' agreements and 'unenforceable' agreements. I suspect the judge means the latter.

The CCA legislation was not written in the spirit of debt avoidance, with the thought of people using it their advantage to acheive such an aim.. It is mildly amusing to think of the section 77/78 terms, for example. The author would undoubtedly have thought that the consumer would be pleased to be able to receive a copy of their agreement from the lender if they had lost their own. Nowadays, the debtor actually HOPES that the lender cannot provide it!

It would not surprise me to see backwards legislation to be intorduced over time to stop this abuse altogether. It is pretty clear that people have had enough of the scams being run by claims management companies - even their own regulator appears to be growing tired of them.

Nothing here stops a consumer challenging a genuinely unfair agreement, under either the UCCR rules or the CCA 2006, however people need to wake up to the fact that agreements are not inherently unfair just because they expect the debtor to repay the loan back.....with interest.

diamondtweezer

“All debt write off cases to be suspended” – please. It’s ironic that the article makes reference to mis-leading claims! What type of unenforceable claims will be stayed exactly? All cases involving breaches of the Consumer Credit Act? Get real – can you imagine how many cases that involves day in day out
The person that has released this article certainly knows how to attract attention but doesn’t seem to be bothered about credibility or reputation.:T

cyril82

~Brock~ wrote: »

It was only a matter of time before the 'system' woke up to the fact that people are trying to milk it. .

Although nothing has really changed as yet, the test cases could go either way.

bigstevex

Lets hope the court see sense and actually make these people pay back the money they clearly knew they were lending and spending on things they shouldn't have!

orangetrader

I suspect we are going to see many more cases going through. The case behind this story was a ruling, end of March 2009 against a lender at chester county court.
The judge quite rightly ruled that the debt could not be enforced as the lender had applied interest to loan charges. Applying interest in this way is illegal. why are there so many here supporting these illegal practices against consumers?

dvs

I don't think this is quite the same as unfair bank charges scenario. With those, it has boiled down to whether the charges are fair or unfair. The law is pretty vague on this and as a result, it's still undetermined whether the charges are fair or not. With regards to the CCA, the legislation is more clear. I think people need to move aside whether it is morally right or wrong to avoid paying the debt and look at what the law says about the actual contracts.

masmit

diamondtweezer wrote: »

“All debt write off cases to be suspended” – please. It’s ironic that the article makes reference to mis-leading claims! What type of unenforceable claims will be stayed exactly? All cases involving breaches of the Consumer Credit Act? Get real – can you imagine how many cases that involves day in day out
The person that has released this article certainly knows how to attract attention but doesn’t seem to be bothered about credibility or reputation.:T

Not all cases are stopped.
this is for chester courts.
ALSO it is not in favour to any side,
there are so many different reasons to claim unenforceable on CCA's so the test cases cannot be in one area alone.
It will also stop judges ignoring the 1974 CCA & ruling in favour of the lenders, leaving themselves to be overturned at appeal.
there's a lot more info on the consumer action group (CAG).

dvs

Guess it must be the creditors that are taking court action rather than consumers trying to get a definitive answer. Any coincidence that MBNA are based in Chester?