The Consumer Credit (Agreements) Regulations 1983

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Consumer Credit (Agreements) Regulations 1983 and shall come into operation on 19th May 1985.

(2) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

“the Act” means the Consumer Credit Act 1974;

“advance payment” includes any deposit and in relation to a regulated consumer credit agreement includes also any part-exchange allowance in respect of any goods agreed in antecedent negotiations to be taken by the creditor in part-exchange but does not include a repayment of credit or any insurance premium or any amount entering into the total charge for credit;

“the APR” means the annual percentage rate of charge for credit determined in accordance with the Total Charge for Credit Regulations and Schedule 7 to these Regulations and, in the case of modifying agreements, Regulation 7 of, and Part I of Schedule 8 to, these Regulations;

“cancellable agreement” includes an agreement which is a modifying agreement treated under section 82(5) of the Act as a cancellable agreement;

“cash price” in relation to any goods, services, land or other things means the price or charge at which the goods, services, land or other things may be purchased by, or supplied to, the debtor for cash;

“earlier credit agreement” means an earlier agreement for the provision of credit;

“earlier hire agreement” means an earlier agreement for the bailment or the hiring of goods;

“hire payment” means any payment to be made by the hirer in relation to any period in consideration of the bailment or hiring to him of goods under a regulated consumer hire agreement;

“lettering” includes figures and symbols;

“modified agreement” means an earlier agreement as varied or supplemented by a modifying agreement, which is treated as—

(a)

revoking the earlier agreement, and

(b)

containing provisions reproducing the combined effect of the two agreements

;

“the relevant date” shall be determined in accordance with the Total Charge for Credit Regulations and, in the case of modifying agreements, Regulation 7(7) below;

“total charge for credit” shall be determined in accordance with the Total Charge for Credit Regulations and, in the case of modifying agreements, Regulation 7 of, and Part I of Schedule 8 to, these Regulations; and

“the Total Charge for Credit Regulations” means the Consumer Credit (Total Charge for Credit) Regulations 1980.

(3) In these Regulations, any reference to a repayment is a reference to—

(a) a repayment of the whole or any part of the credit;

(b) a payment of the whole or any part of the total charge for credit; or

(c) a combination of such repayments and payments.

Form and content of regulated consumer credit agreements

2.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2) below, documents embodying regulated consumer credit agreements (other than modifying agreements) shall contain the information set out in Column 2 of Schedule 1 to these Regulations in so far as it relates to the type of agreement referred to in Column 1.

(2) Where any information about financial and related particulars set out in paragraphs 9 to 11 of Schedule 1 to these Regulations cannot be exactly ascertained by the creditor, estimated information based on such assumptions as the creditor may reasonably make in all the circumstances of the case and an indication of the assumptions made shall be included in documents embodying regulated consumer credit agreements.

(3) Documents embodying regulated consumer credit agreements shall contain statements of the protection and remedies available to debtors under the Act, in the Form numbered in Column 1 of Part I of Schedule 2 to these Regulations and set out in Column 3, in so far as they relate to the type of agreement referred to in Column 2.

(4) Subject to paragraph (5) below, the information about financial and related particulars set out in paragraphs 3 to 19 of Schedule 1 to these Regulations, and also the statements of the protection and remedies available to debtors under the Act specified in Forms 5 to 10 of Part I of Schedule 2, shall be shown together as a whole in documents embodying regulated consumer credit agreements and not interspersed with other information apart from subtotals of total amounts and cross-references to terms of the agreement:

Provided that the said statements specified in Forms 5 to 10 of Part I of Schedule 2 need not be shown together as a whole with the said information about financial and related particulars, if a reference to those statements is shown together with the said information about financial and related particulars.

(5) In the case of documents embodying restricted-use debtor-creditor-supplier agreements for fixed-sum credit to finance a transaction comprising the acquisition of goods, services, land or other things specified in the agreement or identified and agreed on at the time the agreement is made and relating to more than one description of goods, services, land or other things, the cash prices, and the total cash price, referred to in paragraph 4 of Schedule 1 to these Regulations may be shown in a schedule to such document together with each description of the goods, services, land or other things, provided that the total cash price and a reference to the schedule to such document are shown together with the remaining financial and related particulars specified in paragraphs 5 to 19 of Schedule 1.

(6) The APR referred to in paragraphs 15 to 17 of Schedule 1 to these Regulations shall in documents embodying regulated consumer credit agreements—

(a) be denoted as “APR” or “annual percentage rate” or “annual percentage rate of the total charge for credit”; and

(b) be afforded no less prominence than any of the other financial and related particulars referred to in paragraphs 3 to 19 of Schedule 1 and the statements specified in Forms 5 to 10 of Part I of Schedule 2.

(7) Documents embodying regulated consumer credit agreements shall contain a signature box in the Form numbered in Column 1 of Part I of Schedule 5 to these Regulations and set out in Column 3 in so far as it relates to the type of agreement referred to in Column 2 and shall, if the agreement is one to which section 58(1) of the Act applies, is a cancellable agreement or is an agreement under which a person takes any article in pawn and under which the pawn-receipt is not separate from the document embodying the agreement, contain a separate box immediately above, below or adjacent to the signature box in which shall be included the appropriate statements specified in Forms 1 to 4 of Part I, and in Part II, of Schedule 2.

(8) Documents embodying regulated consumer credit agreements shall embody any security provided in relation to the regulated agreement by the debtor.

Form and content of regulated consumer hire agreements

3.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2) below, documents embodying regulated consumer hire agreements (other than modifying agreements) shall contain the information set out in Column 2 of Schedule 3 to these Regulations in so far as it relates to the type of agreement referred to in Column 1.

(2) Where any information about financial and related particulars set out in paragraphs 5 and 6 of Schedule 3 to these Regulations cannot be exactly ascertained by the owner, estimated information based on such assumptions as the owner may reasonably make in all the circumstances of the case and an indication of the assumptions made shall be included in documents embodying regulated consumer hire agreements.

(3) Documents embodying regulated consumer hire agreements shall contain statements of the protection and remedies available to hirers under the Act, in the Form numbered in Column 1 of Schedule 4 to these Regulations and set out in Column 3, in so far as they relate to the type of agreement referred to in Column 2.

(4) Subject to paragraph (5) below, the information about financial and related particulars set out in paragraphs 3 to 8 of Schedule 3 to these Regulations shall be shown together as a whole in documents embodying regulated consumer hire agreements and not interspersed with other information apart from subtotals of total amounts and cross-references to terms of the agreement.

(5) In the case of documents embodying consumer hire agreements relating to more than one description of goods to be bailed or hired under the agreement, the list or other description of the goods referred to in paragraph 3 of Schedule 3 to these Regulations may be shown in a schedule to such document, provided that a reference to the schedule to such document is shown together with the remaining financial and related particulars specified in paragraphs 4 to 8 of Schedule 3.

(6) Documents embodying regulated consumer hire agreements shall contain a signature box in the Form numbered in Column 1 of Part II of Schedule 5 to these Regulations and set out in Column 3, in so far as it relates to the type of agreement referred to in Column 2 and shall, if the agreement is one to which section 58(1) of the Act applies or is a cancellable agreement, contain a separate box immediately above, below or adjacent to the signature box in which shall be included the appropriate statements specified in Forms 1 to 3 of Schedule 4.

(7) Documents embodying regulated consumer hire agreements shall embody any security provided in relation to the regulated agreement by the hirer.

Pawn-receipts

4.  Where a pawn-receipt is given under section 114(1) of the Act, by a person who takes any article in pawn under a regulated consumer credit agreement or a modifying agreement varying or supplementing an earlier credit agreement which is, or is treated under section 82(3) of the Act as, a regulated agreement, and where the pawn-receipt is not separate from any document embodying such an agreement, it shall—

(a) contain the information set out in paragraphs 1, 2 and 20 of Schedule 1 to these Regulations, or, in the case of a modifying agreement varying or supplementing an earlier credit agreement, in paragraphs 1 , 2 and 20 of Part I of Schedule 8; and

(b) contain a notice in the Form numbered 16 in Column 1 of Part II of Schedule 2 to these Regulations and set out in Column 3.

Statutory Forms

5.—(1) The wording of any Form specified in Schedule 2, 4 and 5 to these Regulations shall be reproduced in documents embodying regulated agreements without any alteration or addition, except that—

(a) the words “the creditor” or “the owner” may be replaced by the name of the creditor or owner, by the expression by which the creditor or owner is referred to in the agreement or by an appropriate pronoun, and any consequential changes to pronouns and verbs or other consequential grammatical changes may be made;

(b) the word “DEBTOR” may be replaced by “BORROWER” or “CUSTOMER” and the word “Debtor(s)” may be replaced by “Borrower(s)” or “Customer(s)”; and

(c) every Form shall be completed in accordance with any footnote.

(2) Any such footnote shall not be treated as part of any Form specified in the said Schedules and may be reproduced in addition to any such Form.

(3) Where any such footnote requires any words to be omitted, those words shall be omitted or deleted.

(4) Where words are shown in capital letters in any Form specified in Schedule 2, 4 or 5 to these Regulations and are reproduced in documents embodying regulated agreements, they shall be afforded more prominence (whether by capital letters, underlining, large or bold print or otherwise) than any other lettering in that Form except lettering inserted in accordance with paragraph (1)(c) above and no less prominence than that given to any other information in the document apart from the heading to the document, the APR, trade names, names of parties to the agreement or lettering in the document inserted in handwriting.

Signing of agreement

6.—(1) The terms specified in Column 2 of Schedule 6 to these Regulations in relation to the type of regulated agreement referred to in Column 1 (and no other terms) are hereby prescribed for the purposes of section 61(1)(a) of the Act (the terms which must be contained in a document if a regulated agreement is not to be improperly executed) and of section 127(3) (the terms which must be contained in a document before any enforcement order can be made under section 65(1), if section 61(1)(a) was not complied with).

(2) The lettering of the terms of the agreement included in the document referred to in section 61(1)(a) of the Act, containing all the prescribed terms of the regulated agreement, and of the information contained in that document for the purpose of conforming to these Regulations shall, apart from any signature, be easily legible and of a colour which is readily distinguishable from the colour of the paper.

(3) The signature of the said document shall be made in the following manner—

(a) by the debtor or hirer, or by or on behalf of the debtor or hirer in the case of a partnership or an unincorporated body of persons, in the space in the document indicated for the purpose, and, subject to sub-paragraph (c) below, the date of the signature shall be inserted in the space in the document indicated for the purpose;

(b) by the creditor or owner, or by a person on his behalf, outside any signature box in which the debtor or hirer may sign and, subject to sub-paragraph (c) below, the date of the signature shall be inserted outside any such signature box;

(c) in the case of a regulated agreement which is not a cancellable agreement, the date on which the unexecuted agreement becomes an executed agreement may be inserted in the document and in such a case any other date specified in paragraphs (a) and (b) above need not be inserted; and

(d) nothing in this Regulation shall prohibit the inclusion in the said document, near to any such signature, of the signature by any witness outside any signature box in which the debtor or hirer may sign.

(4) In Scotland any provision in paragraph (3) above requiring the said document to be signed shall be complied with by a body corporate if the document is properly executed in accordance with the law of Scotland.

Modifying agreements which are, or are treated as, regulated agreements

7.—(1) The provisions of these Regulations shall apply to modifying agreements which vary or supplement earlier credit agreements or earlier hire agreements and which are, or are treated under section 82(3) of the Act as, regulated agreements, subject as hereinafter mentioned.

(2) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (12) below, documents embodying modifying agreements varying or supplementing earlier credit agreements shall contain the information set out in Column 2 of Part I of Schedule 8 to these Regulations in so far as it relates to the type of modifying agreement referred to in Column 1.

(3) Where any information about financial and related particulars set out in paragraphs 8 to 10 of Part I of Schedule 8 to these Regulations cannot be exactly ascertained by the creditor, estimated information based on such assumptions as the creditor may reasonably make in all the circumstances of the case and an indication of the assumptions made shall be included in documents embodying modifying agreements varying or supplementing earlier credit agreements.

(4) Subject to paragraph (5) below, the information about financial and related particulars set out in paragraphs 3 to 19 of Part I of Schedule 8 to these Regulations shall be shown together as a whole in documents embodying modifying agreements varying or supplementing earlier credit agreements in relation to the credit to be provided under the modified agreement and not interspersed with other information apart from subtotals of total amounts and cross-references to terms of the modifying agreement.

(5) In the case of documents embodying modifying agreements varying or supplementing earlier restricted-use debtor-creditor-supplier agreements for fixed-sum credit which were to finance a transaction comprising the acquisition of goods, services, land or other things specified in the earlier agreement or identified and agreed on at the time the earlier agreement was made and relating to more than one description of goods, services, land or other things, the cash prices, and the total cash price, referred to in paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 8 to these Regulations may be shown in a schedule to such document together with each description of the goods, services, land or other things, provided that the total cash price and a reference to the schedule to such document are shown together with the remaining financial and related particulars specified in paragraphs 4 to 19 of Part I of Schedule 8.

(6) The APR referred to in paragraphs 14 to 17 of Part I of Schedule 8 to these Regulations shall in documents embodying modifying agreements varying or supplementing earlier credit agreements—

(a) be denoted as “APR” or “annual percentage rate” or “annual percentage rate of the total charge for credit”; and

(b) be afforded no less prominence than any of the other financial and related particulars referred to in paragraphs 3 to 19 of Part I of Schedule 8 and the statements specified in Forms 5 to 10 of Part I of Schedule 2.

(7) For the purposes of Part I of Schedule 8 to these Regulations, in calculating—

(a) the amount of repayments or of any capital outstanding under an earlier agreement;

(b) the total charge for credit (or any items included in it) in relation to the credit to be provided under the modified agreement; or

(c) the APR in relation to the modified agreement,

the relevant date shall be determined by reference to the date of the modifying agreement.

(8) For the purposes of Part I of Schedule 8 to these Regulations, the total cash price under the modified agreement shall be taken to be the total of—

(a) the total amount of the capital outstanding under the earlier agreement on the relevant date within the meaning of paragraph 5 of Part I of Schedule 8; and

(b) the cash price in relation to each list or other description of any additional goods, services, land or other things the acquisition of which is to be financed by credit under the modifying agreement.

(9) Subject to paragraphs (10), (12) and (15) below, documents embodying modifying agreements varying or supplementing earlier hire agreements shall contain the information set out in Column 2 of Part II of Schedule 8 to these Regulations in so far as it relates to the type of modifying agreement referred to in Column 1.

(10) Where any information about financial and related particulars set out in paragraphs 5 and 6 of Part II of Schedule 8 to these Regulations cannot be exactly ascertained by the owner, estimated information based on such assumptions as the owner may reasonably make in all the circumstances of the case and an indication of the assumptions made shall be included in documents embodying modifying agreements varying or supplementing earlier hire agreements.

(11) The information about financial and related particulars set out in paragraphs 3 to 8 of Part II of Schedule 8 to these Regulations shall be shown together as a whole in documents embodying modifying agreements varying or supplementing earlier hire agreements in relation to the goods to be bailed or hired under the modified agreement and not interspersed with other information apart from subtotals of total amounts and cross-references to terms of the modifying agreement.

(12) Where any information about financial and related particulars set out in paragraphs 3 to 19 of Schedule 1 to these Regulations and paragraphs 3 to 8 of Schedule 3 is contained in any document embodying an earlier agreement, nothing in the preceding provisions of this Regulation shall require the information to be contained in any document embodying a modifying agreement varying or supplementing an earlier agreement except as mentioned in Schedule 8 if the information is not varied or supplemented by the modifying agreement and the document contains a statement to this effect.

(13) Documents embodying modifying agreements shall identify clearly the terms and financial and related particulars of earlier agreements varied or supplemented by modifying agreements.

(14) In the application of Regulation 6(1) above and Schedule 6 to these Regulations to modifying agreements, which are, or are treated under section 82(3) of the Act as, regulated agreements—

(a) for any reference to the type of agreement referred to in Column 1 of Schedule 6 there shall be substituted a reference to modifying agreements which vary or supplement the type of agreement referred to in Column 1 of Schedule 6;

(b) any reference in Column 2 of Schedule 6 to an agreement, or a term, shall be a reference to a modified agreement, or a term of a modified agreement, as the case may be; and

(c) any term referred to in Column 2 of Schedule 6 in relation to the type of modifying agreement referred to in sub-paragraph (a) above shall not be a prescribed term for the purposes of sections 61(1)(a) and 127(3) of the Act, if the term was a term of the earlier agreement and has not been varied or supplemented by the modifying agreement.

(15) Where a modifying agreement varies or supplements an earlier hire agreement and the modified agreement is, or is treated as, a restricted-use debtor-creditor-supplier agreement, the provisions of this Regulation shall apply to any document embodying the modifying agreement as though it varied or supplemented an earlier restricted-use debtor-creditor-supplier agreement, except that its heading shall be “Agreement modifying a Hire Agreement and regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974”.

Application of Regulations

8.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2) below, Regulations 1 to 3 and 5 to 7 shall apply to regulated agreements, and modifying agreements treated under section 82(3) of the Act as regulated agreements, made on or after 19th May 1985.

(2) In the case of a modifying agreement of a type specified in paragraphs 3 to 19 of Part I and 3 to 8 of Part II of Schedule 8 to these Regulations made on or after 19th May 1985 which varies or supplements an earlier credit agreement or an earlier hire agreement made before that date, nothing in these Regulations shall require the information about financial and related particulars specified in those paragraphs to be contained in any document embodying the modifying agreement if no term of the earlier agreement relating to such financial and related particulars has been varied or supplemented by the modifying agreement.

(3) Nothing in these Regulations applies to a regulated agreement which purports to bind a person to enter as debtor or hirer into a prospective regulated agreement and which is excluded from the operation of section 59(1) of the Act by the Consumer Credit (Agreements to enter Prospective Agreements) (Exemptions) Regulations 1983.

Alexander Fletcher

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State

Department of Trade and Industry

24th October 1983