Who regulates who?

neilperks

Hey y'all  

A quick question about regulation / legistlation for ya ...

*My question is ...  which legislation / regulatory body do communications companies like EE adhere to when recording default notices on consumer credit files?

Having recently emailed EE (mobile phone) to appeal for the amendment of a default notice on my credit file (the default date is incorrect), they have refused to do so on the basis that

EE is an debtor/creditor supplier agreement under which provision is made for the issue of monthly bills in respect to which there is a requirement for the monthly bill to be discharged in one single payment. Therefore the Service Agreement is an agreement which is not regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974. 

Terms and Conditions of your agreement state that any failure to settle a bill by its respective due date would constitute a breach of contract. 

In addition, the agreement also makes provision that your payment history and any defaults would be recorded with appropriate credit reference agencies. We have not breached the terms of the agreement; we have acted in accordance with them. So, as previously mentioned, the information recorded on your Credit File can not be amended or removed.

For further clarification, I have spoken to OFCOM who have confirmed that they do not set any regulations for the recording of default notices.

*After posing this question to National Debtline, Citizens Advice and OFCOM, it seems nobody actualy knows 

Can you shed some light on this? TIA 

neilperks

Thanks for the views so far ....

If I do get any answers from outside of the forum, I'll be sure to provide them in here for you all 

[Deleted User]

The ICO.            

sourcrates

I actually answered last night, but for some bizarre reason my post has vanished ??.

Anyhow, the ICO is one route, after you have exhausted EE`s complaints procedure, you could also try the ombudsman services who regulate EE.

Use Google to find the correct service, as there are two.

neilperks

Thanks all ... here's a quick update so far 

After emailing the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), they confirmed that the provision of mobile and landline telephony services falls under the remit of the communications regulator, OFCOM and recommended the following;

1) Contacting Citizens Advice  - already tried, to no avail (see original post)

2) Contacting Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) - had a brief online chat with them and have now filed a complaint (will keep you posted on the outcome)

3) Contact Ombudsman Services: Communications / Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS)  - have filed my complaint with the ombudsman and EE have provided evidence of previous bills and deadlock letter (again, I'll keep you posted on how this progresses)

4) Submitted a *£5 question on www.JustAsnwer.co.uk to see if a solicitor would be able to offer any further insight - they confirm the first default payments are governed by the consumer credit act, and advised I should raise a consumer report dispute through your credit report provider usually Experian (already done this and was referred to EE directly)

I'm now looking through EE's documents and providing comments where necessary in support of my complaint 🤞

* The advice is limited but £5 is refundable and you can cancel your subscription straight away to avoid their recurring £50 pcm subscription charge.

y3sitsm3

neilperks said:

Thanks all ... here's a quick update so far 

After emailing the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), they confirmed that the provision of mobile and landline telephony services falls under the remit of the communications regulator, OFCOM and recommended the following;

1) Contacting Citizens Advice  - already tried, to no avail (see original post)

2) Contacting Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) - had a brief online chat with them and have now filed a complaint (will keep you posted on the outcome)

3) Contact Ombudsman Services: Communications / Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS)  - have filed my complaint with the ombudsman and EE have provided evidence of previous bills and deadlock letter (again, I'll keep you posted on how this progresses)

4) Submitted a *£5 question on www.JustAsnwer.co.uk to see if a solicitor would be able to offer any further insight - they confirm the first default payments are governed by the consumer credit act, and advised I should raise a consumer report dispute through your credit report provider usually Experian (already done this and was referred to EE directly)

I'm now looking through EE's documents and providing comments where necessary in support of my complaint 🤞

* The advice is limited but £5 is refundable and you can cancel your subscription straight away to avoid their recurring £50 pcm subscription charge.

They're wrong.

Mobile phone bills are service agreements and are not regulated under the Consumer Credit Act.  Then again, for a fiver, I doubt they're actually a solicitor.

neilperks

Thanks y3sitsm3

If you are correct then do you happen to know why mobile phone companies can apply default notices outside governance of the CCA? 

y3sitsm3 said:

They're wrong.

Mobile phone bills are service agreements and are not regulated under the Consumer Credit Act.  Then again, for a fiver, I doubt they're actually a solicitor.

y3sitsm3

neilperks said:

Thanks y3sitsm3

If you are correct then do you happen to know why mobile phone companies can apply default notices outside governance of the CCA? 

y3sitsm3 said:

They're wrong.

Mobile phone bills are service agreements and are not regulated under the Consumer Credit Act.  Then again, for a fiver, I doubt they're actually a solicitor.

Anyone can issue a default notice.  It's only debts that are regulated under the CCA where it is required if the creditor wants to take the debtor to court.  They could, if they so wish, not issue a default notice if they don't want to take the matter to court.

If you're referring to the credit reference agency "defaults" these are not default notices and anyone who is entitled to list an agreement with the credit reference agencies (and non-CCA agreements certainly can be) can list a debt as defaulted if the agreement has broken down (which is by and large up to the creditor as to when that is.)

sourcrates

neilperks said:

Thanks y3sitsm3

If you are correct then do you happen to know why mobile phone companies can apply default notices outside governance of the CCA? 

y3sitsm3 said:

They're wrong.

Mobile phone bills are service agreements and are not regulated under the Consumer Credit Act.  Then again, for a fiver, I doubt they're actually a solicitor.

Its not a default notice as defined under sec 87 CCA.

The CCA is not the appropriate legislation for mobile phone contracts, as it relates to the sale of money products primarily whereas mobile phones contracts are for the provision of service. 

There’s no legal requirement on mobile phone companies to issue a default notice in the form demanded by the CCA, as the CCA doesn’t apply.

Mobile phone companies often terminate an agreement simply because of payment default.

neilperks

Thank you both y3sitsm3 and sourcrates 

I appreciate your clarification and indeed I was more so referring to the credit reference agency "defaults".

For context to my complaint, due to illness I missed a paymen in August 2019, followed by suspension of service in September 2019 for non-payment, followed by the minimum term of the contract ending in October 2019.

EE issued a final bill in January 2020 and applied a default to my credit file in the same month. I appealed to them but they refused to amend or remove it. Nevertheless, I made payment in February and settled the balance in April 2020.

The default date has since been changed to April 2020 ... something which natually escaped my attention until recently / post-pandemic.

I have appealed again for correction, contending the default date should really be August 2019, but they refuse to amend or remove it.

y3sitsm3

neilperks said:

Thank you both y3sitsm3 and sourcrates 

I appreciate your clarification and indeed I was more so referring to the credit reference agency "defaults".

For context to my complaint, due to illness I missed a paymen in August 2019, followed by suspension of service in September 2019 for non-payment, followed by the minimum term of the contract ending in October 2019.

EE issued a final bill in January 2020 and applied a default to my credit file in the same month. I appealed to them but they refused to amend or remove it. Nevertheless, I made payment in February and settled the balance in April 2020.

The default date has since been changed to April 2020 ... something which natually escaped my attention until recently / post-pandemic.

I have appealed again for correction, contending the default date should really be August 2019, but they refuse to amend or remove it.

The default date would not be August 2019.  It would be typically 3-6 months worth of payments after you stopped making full repayments.  April 2020 is roughly in line with ICO guidance given you made a payment in February which would push back the time it took you to get to 6 months in arrears.

Can't see you winning this (although admittedly registering a default in January and then pushing it back to April is a little strange.)