IF YOU HAVE HAD A COUNTY COURT CLAIM ISSUED AGAINST YOU RELATING TO A CONSUMER CREDIT AGREEMENT CALL US IMMEDIATELY ON 0845 6188525. 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.
Loans and credit agreements must comply with the terms set out in the Consumer Credit Act. The Consumer Credit Act is a law which was established to protect your rights as a consumer. One of the key principles of this law is that there must be “truth in lending”, so that you can clearly see what you are paying for and avoid any hidden costs. Unfortunately, many lenders and brokers have not fulfilled their obligations in this respect. In fact, many of the loan agreements that we see contain figures which are incorrect, inaccurate, missing and even misleading. If your loan agreement breaches the Consumer Credit Act, you may have a case to have the contract declared unenforceable. In which case, you will not have to repay the outstanding balance.
The assessment is carried out in four stages:
We obtain a copy of your loan agreement
The format and content of the loan agreement is audited
Any breaches are assessed to determine if there are sufficient legal grounds to render the agreement unenforceable
You are provided with the results and informed whether the solicitors can accept your case
All of this is done for a one off solicitor audit fee of £199 per agreement.
Once we have obtained a copy of your agreement, we’ll typically give you an answer within 7 to 10 working days.
The audit involves a series of tests. Different tests are applied to individual agreements depending upon how the loan was arranged, whether insurance was taken out, whether a commission or introducer fee was applied etc…Interest and figures such as APR, total cash price, total charge for credit are recalculated to determine if the correct formulas have been applied. These are just some of the areas which are assessed.
Please be aware that not all loan agreements are unenforceable. Some agreements have been drawn up correctly whilst others only have minor technical breaches which would not warrant legal proceedings. Our audit is designed to identify those loan agreements which contain fundamental breaches and which in the opinion of our solicitors and barristers render them irredeemably unenforceable.
Please note that we are only looking at loans taken out BEFORE April 6th 2007.
Yes. Breaches have been found in agreements drawn up by nearly all of the high-street banks and building societies as well as mainstream and sub-prime loan and mortgage companies.
On a successful case the legal costs plus a success fee will be paid by the lender to the solicitor. If the case is not successful, the legal costs are covered by an insurance policy. The cost to insure the case is met by the solicitors and not you. There are no other fees, so regardless of the result you pay nothing! (The only exception to this is if you ask us to claim back PPI for you at the same time. In which case there are still no fees for the unenforceable case but we will deduct 25% + VAT of the PPI-compensation paid).
The solicitors will request that your credit file is cleared of ALL references to the debt as part of the settlement (as in the case of Bank of Scotland -v- Robert Mitchell June 2009). Furthermore, under the banking code, banks are not permitted to register a default on your credit file whilst the balance is in dispute. However lenders do not always follow the rules!. If you are therefore concerned about your credit rating whilst the case is running, you should continue making payments.
The precedent for these cases was established in the House of Lords (now the Supreme Court) which is the highest court in the land. That decision meant that courts thereafter had to declare loans as unenforceable if they found that a “prescribed term” had been breached. So whilst the outcome of a case can’t be guaranteed, if a solicitor and barrister agree that a prescribed term has been breached, it is highly likely that the same conclusion will be reached in a court of law. If it is, your loan will have to be declared unenforceable.
In addition to working on the advice of solicitors who specialise in this area of law, each case is vetted and approved by a specialist barrister’s chambers. So you can be confident that the cases which the solicitors run have an extremely high chance of being successful.
If you are concerned about your credit rating whilst the case is running, you should continue making payments. You will however have the option to stop making payments to your lender once:
The solicitor has confirmed that the loan agreement is unenforceable
You have entered into a no-win no-fee agreement
The loan has been entered into “dispute”
The solicitor has confirmed that you can stop making loan payments
Please note that registering defaults on a loan which is in dispute is against the banking code but some lenders may still attempt to do so. For example if you were about to re-mortgage you may want to avoid the possibility of there being any disruption by continuing payments whilst the case is in progress or perhaps reconsider the timing. Whichever you decide you will not be able to recover any loan payments made during the course of the case.
Once the case has started, your lender will be under instruction to channel all communication through the solicitor. If you continue to receive calls, simply inform the solicitor who will take up the matter with your lender. Your lender is obliged to follow these instructions and if they do not comply the solicitor will take action. That means you should not receive any harassing phone calls or letters once the solicitor is involved.
Don’t worry we will obtain it for you. A £11 fee to the bank is applicable.
You may have grounds to reclaim Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) premiums (plus interest). We will discuss this with you and establish if you have grounds for compensation. If you do, our solicitors will include this as part of the overall case against your lender. Should you wish to make a claim for PPI in addition to an unenforceable loan declaration a fee of 25% + VAT of the PPI compensation paid will be applied.
We are currently only looking at loans for £25,000 or less, which were taken out before April 2007 and have an outstanding balance of £2,000 or above. These include mortgage advances, consolidation, personal, secured, non-secured, car finance and hire purchase loans.
We can assess any secured loan taken out before April 6th 2007 so long as the original sum was for £25,000 or less (or states “Regulated under the Consumer Credit Act 1974” on the agreement). We can also audit cash advances made as part of a mortgage deal so long as the case advance was for less than £25,000 and it was arranged before April 6th 2007.
On the basis that the agreement was legal and complied with the regulations... yes you did in good faith. BUT if the agreement isn’t legal and breaches the regulations, then you should not have been asked to enter into it in the first place.
You enter into a no-win no-fee arrangement You decide whether to continue making payments or not The solicitors take over all correspondence with the lender and initiate proceedings On the successful completion of your case, the outstanding balance is declared unenforceable 
We are professional and act with integrity
We offer a free-of-charge, no-obligation assessment.
A £199 solicitor audit fee is applicable once approved
All of our cases are vetted by a leading barristers chambers prior to approval
If your case is accepted, you will not have to pay any legal or insurance costs
We are able to run PPI and unenforceable cases in parallel
Apply for a apply now - start your claims today now or to find out more, contact Credit Crunch UK and speak to one of our experienced claims advisers. It's easy, either call 0845 6188 525 or select Call Back.
CCUK brings together legal and financial claims management expertise. We specialise in claiming compensation in relation to mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance policies (otherwise known as PPI or loan insurance). We also carry out loan-checks on loan and credit card agreements to verify if they comply with the Consumer Credit Act (CCA).