We recently successfully represented Ferrari Financial Services GMBH in roundly defeating a claim by administrators who sought to interfere with Ferrari’s right to possession of a vehicle worth in the region of £7 Million.
Continue ReadingThe FCA has indicated that it intends to increase the limit of an award which can be made by the Financial Ombudsman Service under its compulsory jurisdiction scheme from £150,000 to £350,000.
Continue ReadingWe were surprised to come across a situation recently in which an asset financier (who we were not advising) sought to rely upon a declaration contained within its standard terms and conditions to the effect that the assets on finance had been delivered, were of satisfactory quality and were fit for their purpose.
Continue ReadingWe recently advised asset financiers as to their rights where a company which had taken numerous items of plant and machinery on Hire Purchase purported to sell the assets to a buyer in the European Union who then sold them on to a buyer in Asia.
The Hirer Company was effectively insolvent but it was clear from the investigations we carried out that the purported sale had been arranged by the sole director of the Company, and that no other individual had any real involvement in the transaction on its behalf.
Continue ReadingThe Consumer Rights Act 2015 (“CRA”) is an important piece of recent legislation which governs many contracts between traders and consumers, and implements the. EU Unfair Contract Terms Directive (93/13/EC) (“UTD”.) “Consumer” is defined in section 2 (3) of the Act as: –
“an individual acting for purposes that are wholly or mainly outside that individual’s trade, business, craft or profession.”
There is as yet no direct authority on how the definition of consumer applies in the context of security documentation, but the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) has set out the test in the UTD for when it applies to personal Guarantees and security agreements given by an individual to secure debts of a company In Dumitru Tarcău, Ileana Tarcău v Banca Comercială Intesa Sanpaolo România SA (C-74/15) the court held that a personal Guarantee was to be subject to the UTD because it was given by a natural person, acting outside his trade or business, and who had no functional links to the guaranteed company.
Continue ReadingThe FCA has published new versions of the information sheets that consumer credit firms must use to accompany arrears and default notices. Firms are required to use the new versions from 27 July 2018.
Continue ReadingThe Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG) has published a revised version of the Asset Finance sectors in Part II of its guidance on the prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorism for the UK financial services industry.
Continue Reading“We are not looking for perfection. We do not have thousands of inspectors going out and checking people’s homework. What we do have are millions of people that have new rights and they can make a complaint against a company to our office”.
Continue ReadingWe recently prepared for trial a Funder’s defence to a claim which raised a number of difficult issues in relation to the annual statements required for a fixed sum credit agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (“CCA”). In the event the matter settled before trial but a number of interesting points arose and are worth considering.
Continue ReadingFunders should be well advanced in their preparations for the introduction of the EU General Data Protection Regulation on 25 May 2018.
Continue Reading
| 
