Erudio Claimform - Old Student Loans - poss Statute Barred.

[Nurselayer]

Although they are not a bank the Student Loans Company have been applying charges on my Loan account for letters that they have sent me. As these charges have been for 30quid each (I think), can I reclaim these fees just as I am reclaiming the fees that my banks have been unlawfully charging me?

 

Thanks

[dolly]

You certainly can

[Nurselayer]

Hi Guys and gals,

I'm fed up with the Student Loans Company and I want to take them on.

I've done my reading on this site but I'd still like your advice.

On this thread

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/other-institutions/10900-loan-company-cannot-supply.html

it seems that the SLC (Student Loans Company) have lost some original agreements but that I will only be able to get my loan written off if I ask for a copy of the original signed agreement under the CCA (Consumer Credit Act) and they can't supply it within 12? 30? 40? days.

I also know that the SLC have added charges to my account for letters that they claim to have written to me.

I would like to claim these back and I suppose that the first step would be to send a SAR letter.

I am assuming that I could do these on the same letter as long as I send a payment for £11 (£10 SAR and £1 CCA) ?

 

I would be most grateful if someone could look over the text of the letter below and advise me if it would be ok to send to the SLC.

 

"Student Loans Company Ltd

21 Thomas Street

Bristol

BS1 6JS

24th July 2006

Dear Sirs,

Data Protection Act 1998

Subject Access Request

And

CCA 1974 Request

Reference: Student Loan Account Numbers –

98PONOXXXX

97PONOXXXX

96NCFHXXXXX

95NCFHXXXXX

Please be aware that I no longer acknowledge these debts to your company, and therefore require you to supply the following documentation before I will correspond further.

Firstly, you must supply me with true copies of the agreements you refer to in these matters. This is my right under the legislation contained within section 77 (1) and section 78 (1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 - your obligation also extends to providing statements of account. I enclose a payment of £4 in payment of the statutory fee for each account.

As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the CCA and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued.

Please also supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges relating to my history with your organisation. Alternatively, a complete set of statements for that period will be acceptable.

Additionally, where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any member of your staff, or any other person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention, or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my business with you.

If you are unable to supply this data because there has been no such manual intervention, then please be so kind as to confirm this in your response.

I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10. You have 40 days in which to comply. Furthermore, if I discover that you have levied disproportionate penalties against me, then I shall be reclaiming them, and also reclaiming the enclosed £10 Data Protection Act subject access request fee.

If there is specific information which you require in order to satisfy yourself as to my identity, please let me know by return. However, please note that the above address is the one which you normally use to communicate my private business to me and which you have hitherto found to be acceptable.

Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested.

Yours faithfully

ENC: Cheque for the sum of £14."

It would also be really great if there was a specific Student Loans Section/Forum on the site as I think that there many of us who would like to avoid paying their unlawful charges (and if possible and legal, avoid paying them anything at all).

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Nurselayer

[Giveitback]

I'd thought that the £1 was to be a postal order. Otherwise it looks good to me, and guess what I'll be doing in the morning.

 

Shouldn't it also be clearer that they have 12 days to comply with the CCA? Or is that in fact a plan to make it less likely that they supply it?

 

Best of luck with it, I'm right with you. I hate the SLC with a passion, so if this could work..

[blackrain]

Any reason it would have to be a postal order and not a cheque? I sent a cheque.....hope I haven't balls'd up.

[Nurselayer]

I'd have thought a cheque or postal order would be fine. I'm sure that as long as it is an accepted method of payment there won't be a problem.

[meagain]

My understanding is that they are not entitled to pick and choose payment methods.

[Nurselayer]

I got the following response from SLC:

 

"Thank you for your letter dated 25/7. I acknowledge receipt of your payment of £10 which has been passed to our finance dept.

 

In accordance with sec.7 of the Data Protection act '98 we will dispatch a copy of your file within 40 calender days. This information will be sent to you by special delivery on or before 8th Sept. We will confirm the delivery date prior to sending.

 

If in the interim period you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us."

 

What I find most interesting is that they have only addressed the Data Protection Act part. In my letter (above) you can see that I actually sent a chq for £14 of which £4 was for the CCA 1974 disclosure. I am hoping that they have just ignored this part of my letter.

 

Watch here for further news.

[Giveitback]

they don't seem to be bound by the Consumer Credit Act. However I can't seem to get hold of any original T&Cs to find out if they're bound by anything at all.

[Nurselayer]

Why do you say that they are not bound by CCA Giveitback? Have you tried this with them then?

 

I thought that pretty much any loan was governed by the CCA?

[Giveitback]

It was mentioned over on this post:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/other-institutions/10900-loan-company-cannot-supply.html

 

And I've seen it in a random article somewhere. I'm still researching further, as I have a feeling that there might be a cut - off point before which they were CCA.

 

Something to do with the Education (Student Loans) Act 1998?

 

Still working on it. Anyone else?

[Nurselayer]

It seems that you may well be right Giveitback.

Loans taken out before 1998 are governed by the CCA.

 

It has now been well over 30 days since I made the CCA request and so I am about to compose my letter asking them to confirm that they accept that the debt is now unenforceable. I'll put it up on here before I send it.

 

EEK, I've just read that it is 12 working days and then another calendar month. Is this right?

This would mean that my request was deemed as received on the 27th July, 12 working days would be 14th August and now they have another calendar month to take the date that they need to respond back to 14th September!

 

Am I right on this?

If  I think that they'll send the information that I asked for in my DPA request on the 6th September and this could well include copies of the signed agreements.

 

If necessary can I instruct them to cancel my DPA request?

I think that if I do that then they won't send the CCA information that I requested.

 

Any advice is much appreciated.

[Giveitback]

yeah, they might just get it to you just in time. They got mine to me today, which is about 25 days after they defaulted. I swore a lot. but hey, such is life. Still going to take them for the 'charges'

[Nurselayer]

am I right about the 12 days and then plus a calendar month?

Interesting that they sent your information to you under the CCA, does this mean that they accept that they are governed by it?

 

I shall ring up and cancel my SAR request under the DPA tomorrow.

- I'm praying that that'll throw them enough not to think to respond to the CCA request.

 

Out of interest Giveitback, did you make a separate CCA request to them or was it like mine a joint one with a DPA request too?

[Movingon]

SLC do not operate agreements regulated under the Consumer Credit Act. In other words, for the avoidance of doubt, there are no "copies of original agreements" to be supplied, and no time limits under which they would be supplied. Student Loans are regulated under other legislation. I would advise you to drop this immediately.

 

In addition, you know you owe Student Loans money.

You know how much the loan is, and how much you have paid.

You are sent a full statement every year.

 

This site cannot condone activity designed to absolve your of responsibility for legitimate debt.

The idea of the CCA process is to allow people who are being harassed by DCA's for debts (regulated under the CCA 1974) which are NOT THEIR DEBTS, or where unreasonable fees have been applied by the DCA or original debtor, to force the DCA to desist, and to have those balances written off where appropriate.

[meagain]

So, how are the Student Loans regulated, and where do borrowers stand as regards their rights?

[dolly]

Quote

From: http://www.slc.co.uk/noframe/index.html

 

The Student Loan Company is wholly owned by the UK Government and operates within the policy context set by the Government, Scottish ministers and the legislative framework.

 

 

As far as I can see, they are regulated by the government themselves.

 

[Nurselayer]

Thank you for your quick reply Stonelaughter.

 

I'm not convinced that student loans pre 1998 are not regulated under the CCA 1974 act as I've been advised that they are.

 

As you can see SLC have responded to Giveitback under terms of CCA1974 which would lead me to believe that they are bound by it's rules.

 

And if they are bound by it's rules I intend to ensure that the SLC abide by them, I do not see this as morally wrong.

 

The SLC run their own DCA and are as capable of harassing people and applying outrageous fees as any other DCA. I'm not 100% sure of the exact penalty charges but just like banks they apply automatic charges of £30 (I think) per letter.

 

It is the Student Loans Company LIMITED.

 

It is just another Limited company, I cannot see why they should be treated any differently from Joe Bloggs Loansharking Company Limited.

 

I decided to cancel my SAR request with them.

I rang them.

 

I was told by the person that answered the telephone that I couldn't speak to Joan McArdle in the Customer Assistance Team as they were not allowed to put calls through to that team.

 

I explained that Ms McArdle had already written to me and that I wanted to speak to her about an issue involving the Data Protection Act, again I was told that I couldn't speak to her and that I could only speak to someone in collections. I asked to speak to the person in charge of Data Protection, again I was told that I could only speak to Collections!

 

In the end I ended up leaving a message saying that I no longer required the SAR information for which I have paid £10.

 

It'll be interesting to see whether I get the SAR information, the CCA information or indeed any or all of it.

[Giveitback]

Right.. I sent CCA to SLC, as my loans are pre-1998, and after a lot of research I was pretty confident that they were bound by it for pre-98 loans.

 

I don't expect anyone to condone my actions, I have decided that since SLC want to play games with me, I'll play back. They have consistently failed to send any statements, they have failed to update details, they have lost documents between phone calls, denying that they were ever there. (but the guy I spoke to yesterday had it in his hand). They have resorted to harassment, they have lied and they have misled myself and my family. They have threatened to send bailiffs to my parents house - enough to concern my parents.

 

They have added several penalty charges to my account, and demand immediate payment of them, and they have failed to send me details of where these charges arose.

 

Simply, they've either been incompetent or shown me utter contempt. So this year I fight back. I would have loved to have them continue acting the way they were, thus making the debt unenforcebale, but they haven't. I have a copy, I acknowledge I owe them a sum of money, and that it will be repaid under the terms of the contract. Fair's fair. They fulfilled their obligation, I will do the same.

 

I understand that there will be people who think what I attempted was morally wrong, but I was comfortable in my actions, and in this case, stand by them.

[Nurselayer]

Is it 30 days from default or before that they have to SEND them or 30 days or before that I have to have RECEIVED them?

[national treasurer]

Fraternal Greetings from the National Union of Students!

 

First off, to clear this up. DfES says that the income-contingent loans available to students currently (and to new students since Sept 1998) are low cost loans and thus not governed by the CCA:

 

http://www.studentsupportdirect.co.uk/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/SPIPG001/SPIPS001/SPIPS008/A%20GUIDE%20TO%20T%26C.PDF

 

What low cost loans are is outlined here:

http://www.oft.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/7BEE730B-3BA6-4F34-81E4-A046F78DB131/0/oft140.pdf

See p7 for a definition.

 

Which as they don't require a credit agreement there isn't one to provide and thus the loan would remain outstanding.

 

However, old style loans (available to new students Sept 1990 - Aug 1998) are governed by the CCA and I remember signing the credit agreement myself, so this procedure should be valid.

 

We have been looking into what this would mean.

 

We've figured out that, yes, the repayment of the loan would not be necessary whilst the credit agreement has not been provided, but cannot see any reason as to why this would mean the debt is effectively wiped out.

 

Yes, the SLC may well have been committing a criminal offence, but that does not necessarily mean that the loan gets written off, or indeed that the loan does not become enforcable again if the credit agreement is found at a later date.

 

It is quite possible we are missing something that is covered in another act or in a legal precedent somewhere. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

I would also like to take issue with Stonelaughter, who seems totally unaware of the practices and incompetences of the Student Loans Company and the misery they cause. I paid my loan off in full a couple of years ago when I sold my house, partially for the reason that I would never have to deal with the incompetents ever again on a personal level. I could bore anyone for hours with the casework which we have handled in the past regarding the way they operate.

 

That should be an eight. No idea why the smiley appeared!

[Nurselayer]

Have you read through this thread Loan Company Cannot Supply The Original Agreement ? It shows where other lenders who've not been able to supply the original agreement within the terms of the CCA1974 have used this technique to get loans written off.

[national treasurer]

I was just reading through it again.

 

It's about a process that probably ultimately ends up in court.

 

With that in mind, have people actually gone to court with this defence and lost?

 

I am assuming that each case will be taken on an individual basis, where the judge/magistrate will look at the actions etc of both parties involved, or is it that failure to provide the agreement within the set timetable is considered an absolute, unquestionable defence?

[Nurselayer]

Hi all,

 

Having requested a signed copy of my loan agreement under the CCA1974 rules, the lending company have not supplied it within the proscribed time. (See here for details http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/other-institutions/18775-nurselayer-student-loans-company.html)

 

It is now over 30days since they went into default and I believe that they have now committed an offence. What is my next step? I really want to get written confirmation from them that they acknowledge that the debt now is unenforcable. I've looked through various posts on here and the templates forum but cannot find a example of a draft letter to send. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Is there anything else I need to do? Report them to the Police? (or someone else?)

 

Many thanks in advance for your help on this.

[jimfishybob]

Whoa.

 

Hang on a minute.

 

I'm almost sure the SLC is exempt from the Consumer Credit Act, (though it's surprising they've not written and told you as much).

 

Will look into it.