CCA Response Received - What Next?

hugh1964

I have received a response to a CCA request submitted on a 1st Credit account. This makes reference to the 'true copy of your credit agreement at the time the account was opened'. IE, no document with a signature.

Could someone advise how this should be interpreted, and what my next steps could be? Or if I need to accept that this is as good as it is going to get?

H

fermi

Carey v HSBC

1) A creditor can satisfy its duty under s78 by providing a reconstituted version of the executed agreement which may be from sources other than the actual signed agreement itself;

(2) The s78 copy must contain the name and address of the debtor as it was at the time of the execution of the agreement. But the creditor can provide the name and address from whatever source it has of those details. It does not have to take them from the executed agreement itself;

(3) The creditor need not, in complying with s78, provide a document which would comply (if signed) with the requirements of the Consumer Credit (Agreements) Regulations 1983 as to form, as at the date the agreement was made;

(4) If an agreement has been varied by the creditor under a unilateral power of variation, the creditor must still provide a copy of the original agreement, as well as the varied terms;

and

https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/CONC/13/1.html

The copy agreement

CONC 13.1.4G01/07/2014

(1) The copy of the executed agreement should be a 'true copy' of the original. However, as confirmed in the case of Carey v HSBC Bank plc [2009] EWHC 3417 (QB), in this context the term 'true copy' does not necessarily mean a carbon, photocopy, microfiche copy or other exact copy of the signed agreement. There is no obligation to provide a copy which includes a copy of the signature.

(2) The firm can reconstitute a copy. It can do this by re-populating a template of the relevant agreement form with the details of the specific agreement taken from its records. If the firm does provide a reconstituted copy, it should explain that that is what it has done, to avoid misleading the customer that this is a contemporaneous copy.

(3) The terms and conditions should be those applicable at the time the agreement was executed. The name and address at the time of execution must be included.

(4) The reconstituted agreement should contain a heading prescribed by the CCA and any relevant cancellation notice.

(5) If the reason why no copy is given in response to a request under these sections is that there never was an executed agreement, the firm should acknowledge this in its response.

(6) If the agreement has been varied, the duty is to provide not only a copy of the agreement as originally executed but also either:

(a) a copy of the latest variation given in accordance with section 82(1) of the CCA relating to each discrete term of the agreement which has been varied; or,
(b) a clear statement of the terms of the agreement as varied.

(7) Further, section 180(1)(b) of the CCA and regulation 3(2) of the Consumer Credit (Cancellation Notices and Copies of Documents) Regulations 1983 expressly allow certain matters to be omitted from the copy. There may be excluded from the copy of the executed agreement to be provided under these sections:

(a) any information relating to the borrower, hirer or surety, or information included for the use of the lender or owner only, which is not required to be included by the CCA or by any regulations made under the CCA as to the form and content of the agreement;
(b) any signature box, signature or date of signature;
(c) in the case of pawn agreements, any description of the article taken in pawn.

National_Debtline

Hi

If you particularly want to know whether they have the signed original credit agreement you could make a request for it using a subject access request under the Data Protection Act. They can charge you £10 to comply though. This factsheet has more information:

www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/gettinginformationfromyourcreditors/creditagreementadvice.aspx

James
@natdebtline