As a new year of legislation dawns, Nicola Hoskins says goodnight to 2012
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house / Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse
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Well – not strictly true. There was a consumer stirring a little bit. Only a few days earlier, he had decided that the car he had recently
bought was not a good idea, and so had sought to withdraw from the deal, in accordance with the right to do so given to him by those in Brussels.
Like many, he hadn’t realised that the right only related to the finance agreement itself, and not the hire arrangement wrapped around the car. It turned out he was stuck with it, only now he had the problem of how to finance it – too late he had realised that the right to withdraw is effectively a forced sale at the full cash price.
The stockings were hung by the fire with care / In the hope that St Nicholas soon would be there
Waiting for St Nicholas is a bit like waiting for Godot. He simply isn’t going to come. But there’s no scope for being lonely at this time of year, because the claims management companies are only too willing to keep us all busy with their half-baked arguments, looking for the coins in the PPI-pudding they remain so determined to share.
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By GlobalDataSure, they’ve had some equine-based setbacks this year, and the future is looking significantly bleaker thanks to changes in the litigation landscape, but they plough resolutely on.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter / I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter
Remember that logbook loan your neighbour took out to pay for Christmas? Well, it looks like he didn’t make the repayments and now they’ve come for his car. Those high interest rate payments and the Dickensian Bill of Sale he executed in order to get his hands on a bit of cash for an Xbox have cost him dearly.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is going to get the power to cap interest rates, but that will come too late to save his car.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight / "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!"
But will the future consist of good nights? 2013 will be a year of enormous change which will likely see the early moves towards the FCA’s ‘rules-based approach’ and the transfer of functions from the OFT. This may mean more regulation, at least in the short term, given the plan is to implement these changes by April 2014.
And then there’s the Consumer Rights Directive. Ho, ho, ho, indeed!
Nicola Hoskins is a solicitor at Optima Legal
