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Legal Audit / Debt Recovery Manchester & London

At Precision, we have solicitors who have been working in the field of debt recovery for years. Most of our success comes from irresponsible lending.

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of debt can you deal with? Most consumer credit agreements, including but not limited to; personal loans, credit cards, store cards, agreements with payday lenders, hire purchases etc. We will not be able to deal with any debts that have arisen from utility bills, phone services, debts with HMRC, any council taxes and bills, or any debt which has had a previous County Court Judgement (“CCJ”) or where there is a charge placed against any of your properties.

Will you be able to get me out of an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (“IVA”)? We will be unable to help assess the validity of your debt if you have entered in to an IVA.

What if I already have a Debt Management Plan set up? As you are aware, Precision Solicitors is a firm of Solicitors and not a Debt Management Company. Any monthly payments you make to us will be for the purposes of challenging the validity, fairness and enforceability of your debts. If you choose to instruct us and we accept that your case is suitable, we will write to each creditor to state that the debt is disputed, that you do not intend to make any further payments while the debt is in dispute and the creditor should not take any further action against you until this dispute is resolved. It will be your choice whether or not you cancel the Debt Management Plan while we are instructed to challenge those debts. Please note that we will not be making payments to your creditors on your behalf, other than possibly any agreed settlement fees.

What if I decide not to proceed after you have started the process? If at any time, you decide to cancel your plan with us, we will close your file and inform your creditors that we are no longer acting for you. You are under no obligation to complete your payment plan.

Can my creditors contact me whilst you work on my behalf? Throughout our process after your creditors are notified we are acting for you then you should have no contact from your creditors. We will deal with your creditors on your behalf at all times throughout our process. If any creditors do contact you please inform them that you have an appointed representative acting on your behalf and refer them to us. You must also provide us with all the necessary information in order for us to contact the creditor directly.

Will my debts increase whilst you work on my behalf? Once we are acting for you, any debts which we consider to be in dispute should not have any interest or charges added to them. We will of course request in our initial contact with each creditor that they do not add interest or charges while we dispute the debt on your behalf. Therefore, the debts should not increase. We point out that the ultimate goal is to significantly reduce or write off your debt and we will only dispute the debt where we are confident a satisfactory outcome can be achieved.

How long will the process take? The payment plan has a set length (please see: Our Agreement with You); however, we will act on your behalf for as long as it takes to achieve an outcome that you are satisfied with or until the complaint process with the Financial Ombudsman Service (“FOS”) has come to an end. We will attempt to prove unenforceability; that the agreement or the way it has been underwritten, administered or enforced has been unfair, obtain write-offs and/or negotiate reductions of your debts. If this takes longer than the payment plan, we will not ask you for further payments as the fee is fixed. We expect the process should take anything between 3 and 12 months. However, the process could take less or even significantly longer than this estimate. It will depend on the willingness of your creditors to agree to an early resolution, the manner and length of time it takes creditors to respond, the complexity of the arguments raised. As a rough guide, we will send an initial letter to each creditor for further information and we would expect a response within 30 days. We can then review your case and attempt to reach an early resolution with your creditors. If this is not possible, we will prepare and send a formal complaint to each creditor. We would expect 3 to 5 months to have elapsed by this stage. Once the complaint has been received by the creditor, they are allowed up to 8 weeks to respond to the complaint. Should the matter need to be taken further by referring your complaint to FOS, then the timescale will depend on the complexity of the issues. In some cases, we expect FOS could come to a decision on a complaint within a matter of weeks and in other cases it could take months. It is very much in their hands.

What if I decide not to proceed after you have started the process? If at any time, you decide to cancel your plan with us, we will close your file and inform your creditors that we are no longer acting for you. You are under no obligation to complete your payment plan. However, if we are successful in writing off or significantly reducing your debt then the fixed fee will remain payable.

Will my credit rating be affected? There should not be a negative impact on your credit rating. We may be able to remove any default entries on your credit rating but we cannot guarantee this. Our first priority is reducing your overall debt level.

How can I make payments to any creditors that you cannot deal with? If we have advised you that we are unable to dispute your debt with a particular creditor then you will need to contact the creditor directly (we will provide contact details if required) to negotiate a payment plan.

Will I have to go to court? It is unlikely that you will be required to attend any court hearings as part of our process. Please also note that any litigation costs are not covered in this agreement. If we feel that litigation is appropriate we will advise you of this separately and discuss your options with you in detail.

Our Credit Agreement Review Process

Upon receipt of your completed sign-up pack, we will:

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  1. Write to your creditors and request any documents we intend to review;

  2. Identify any current or previous non-compliance with all relevant legislation, case law and regulatory duties your creditors were subject to, including but not limited to:

    • The Consumer Credit Act 1974 and 2006;

    • The Consumer Credit (Cancellation Notices and Copies of Documents) Regulations 1983;

    • The OFT’s Irresponsible Lending Guidelines 2010/2011;

    • The OFT’s Debt Collection Guidance 2003;

    • The Protection from Harassment Act 1997;

    • The OFT’s Mental Capacity Guidance for Creditors;

    • The FCA’s Consumer Credit Sourcebook;

    • The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999;

    • The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008;

  3. Advise you and your creditors of any non-compliance;

  4. Seek a full write-off or, upon your instruction, negotiate a reduction of any outstanding debts;

  5. Send a formal complaint to one or more of your creditors in relation to any issues we identify;

  6. We may then refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service to investigate and for adjudication of the complaint;

  7. Complete a final report to you detailing our findings, including any write-offs or reductions in your debts.

Ben Hampson

I have used Precision solicitors a few times now for various services. They are brilliant and will be using them again. Chris and Nick especially helpful.

 09/06/2018

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