Section 5 – Assignation in part
31.Subsection (1) provides that a claim may be assigned in whole or in part.
Example
Andrew lends £2,000 to Brenda. He then has a claim for repayment of that sum. But he could assign £500 of that claim to Carol and the other £1,500 to Doris. These would be assignations in part.
32.Subsection (2) provides that where the claim is not one requiring payment of money, assignation in part is only permissible where the claim is divisible and one of two circumstances applies:
the first is where the debtor (i.e. the person against whom the obligation is enforceable) consents,
the second is where the assignation in part is not likely to result in a significantly greater burden on the debtor.
33.For example, say Elaine has an obligation to deliver 30 motor vehicles to Frank. Her obligation may not become significantly more burdensome if Frank assigns part of his claim to one person and the remainder to another. If, however, Frank assigns the claim to 30 persons then the obligation may well be likely to become significantly more burdensome (and therefore not assignable in part in that manner). The assessment as to result is carried out at the time of making the assignation in part and is based on the likely outcome, which means that the assignation in part could not appear to be valid and then be challenged in future as a result of unforeseen events arising.
34.Subsection (3) enables the debtor to recover from the assignor, unless agreed otherwise with the then-assignor, the expenses attributable to a claim being assigned in part under subsection (1). For example, sending payments to several partial assignees rather than one assignee may be more costly. The additional cost in doing so is therefore recoverable.
35.This section does not make provision as to how any consent or agreement for the purposes of this section is to be constituted. It might, for example, be in the agreement which gives rise to the claim or in a subsequent agreement.
