The Consumer Credit (Total Charge for Credit) Regulations 1980

PART I GENERAL

Citation, commencement, interpretation and revocation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Consumer Credit (Total Charge for Credit) Regulations 1980 and shall come into operation on 28th April 1980.

(2) In these Regulations—

“the Act” means the Consumer Credit Act 1974;

“agreement” means a consumer credit agreement;

“period rate of charge” has the meaning assigned to it by regulation 7(2) below;

“the relevant date” means, in a case where a date is specified in or determinable under an agreement at the date of its making as that on which the debtor is entitled to require provision of anything the subject of the agreement, the earliest such date and, in any other case, the date of the making of the agreement; and

“transaction”, except in regulation 5(1)(c) below, means an agreement, any transaction which is a linked transaction by virtue of section 19(1)(a) of the Act, any contract for the provision of security relating to the agreement and any other contract to which the debtor or a relative of his is a party and which the creditor requires to be made or maintained as a condition of the making of the agreement,

and, except where the contrary intention appears, other expressions used in these Regulations have the same respective meanings as in the Act.

(3) For the purposes of these Regulations, references to the period for which credit is provided,–

(a) in the case of an agreement under which the period for which credit is to be provided is ascertainable at the date of the making of the agreement, are references to the period beginning with the relevant date and ending with the end of the period for which credit is to be provided;

(b) in the case of an agreement under which the period for which credit is to be provided can be ascertained at the relevant date if the assumption set out in regulation 13 below is applied, are references to the period beginning with the relevant date and ending with the end of the period for which credit would be provided under the agreement if the amount given by that assumption were the amount of the credit so provided; and

(c) in any other case, are references to the period of one year referred to in regulation 14 below.

(4) References in these Regulations to repayment of the credit under an agreement and of the total charge for credit include references to any repayment or payment, as the case may require, of any part of the credit and of the total charge for credit.

(5) The Consumer Credit (Total Charge for Credit) Regulations 1977 are hereby revoked.

General provisions about calculation

2.—(1) Any calculation under these Regulations shall be made on the following assumptions—

(a) the assumption that the debtor will not be entitled to any income tax relief relating to the transaction other than relief under section 19 of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1970(1) and Schedule 4 to the Finance Act 1976 (which afford relief in respect of premiums under certain policies of insurance) without any deduction under section 21 of the said Act of 1970;

(b) the assumption that no assistance is given under the Home Purchase Assistance and Housing Corporation Guarantee Act 1978;

(c) (i) in the case of a transaction which provides for repayment of the credit or of the total charge for credit at or not later than a specified time or times, the assumption that the creditor will not exercise any right under the transaction to require repayment at any other time or times; and

(ii) in any other case, the assumption that the creditor will not exercise any right under the transaction to require repayment;

the debtor, in any case, performing all his obligations under the transaction; and

(d) in the case of a transaction which provides for variation of the rate or amount of any item included in the total charge for credit in consequence of the occurrence after the relevant date of any event, the assumption that the event will not occur; and, in this sub-paragraph, “event” means an act or omission of the debtor or of the creditor or any other event (including where the transaction makes provision for variation upon the continuation of any circumstance, the continuation of that circumstance) but does not include an event which is certain to occur and of which the date of occurrence, or the earliest date of occurrence, can be ascertained at the date of the making of the agreement.

(2) For the purposes of these Regulations—

(a) subject to sub-paragraph (b) below and regulation 18 below, in the case of any agreement each provision of credit and each repayment of the credit and of the total charge for credit shall be taken to be made:—

(i) at the earliest time provided under the transaction, and

(ii) in a case where any such provision or repayment is to be made at or not later than a specified time, at that time

and, where any such repayment is to be made before the relevant date, it shall be taken to be made on the relevant date;

(b) where under an agreement for running-account credit or an agreement for fixed-sum credit where the credit is not repayable at specified intervals or in specified amounts a constant period rate of charge in respect of periods of equal or of nearly equal length is charged, it shall be assumed for the purposes of calculations under these Regulations, notwithstanding regulation 17 below, that—

(i) the amount of credit outstanding at the beginning of a period is to remain outstanding throughout the period;

(ii) the amount of any credit provided during a period is provided immediately after the end of the period; and

(iii) any repayment of credit or of the total charge for credit made during a period is made immediately after the end of the period; and

(c) the assumption that the amount of any repayment of credit or of the total charge for credit will, at the time when the repayment is made, be the smallest for which the agreement provides.

(3) In determining the amount of the total of the interest on the credit which may be provided under the agreement, any subsidy receivable by any person under Part II of the Housing Subsidies Act 1967 shall be deducted.

(1)

Section 21 was amended by 1976 c. 40, Schedule 4, paragraph 21.