132ADisclosure about debt collection

1. This section applies to any credit contract under which—

2. the debtor is a natural person; and
3. when the contract was entered into, the credit was to be used, or was intended to be used, wholly or predominantly for personal, domestic, or household purposes; and
4. debt collection is, or is to be, carried out in the course of a business.

5. Before debt collection starts, the debt collector must ensure that disclosure of all the information set out in the regulations that applies to the contract is made to every debtor under the contract.

6. A person who becomes a debt collector after debt collection has started must also make the disclosure required by subsection (2) within 10 working days of the day on which the person becomes a debt collector.

7. In this section, unless the context otherwise requires,—

   debt collection means an act to recover (or attempt to recover) any money that is owing by a debtor under a credit contract as a result of the debtor’s breach of the contract

   debt collector, in respect of a contract, means a creditor or any other person engaging in debt collection in respect of the contract.

8. However, this section does not apply—

9. if the act to recover (or attempt to recover) money is either of the following:
   1. a payment reminder provided by the creditor who made the advance under the credit contract:
   2. a payment reminder provided by a person to whom the rights of a creditor have been transferred by assignment or operation of law (the assignee), if the assignment did not occur for the purpose of the assignee undertaking debt collection:
10. if the creditor has complied with section 119 of the Property Law Act 2007 (notice must be given to current mortgagor of mortgaged land of exercise of powers, etc):
11. if the creditor has served a repossession warning notice in accordance with section 83G:
12. if the action is in respect of a repossession of goods that are at risk (see section 83E(2)).

13. In this section, unless the context otherwise requires,—

    payment reminder—

    1. means a communication that—
       1. is made within 6 months of a default in payment; and
       2. only requests a payment that is overdue; but
    2. excludes—
       1. a notice demanding payment of any amount in addition to the overdue payments (for example, a notice demanding that the unpaid balance be repaid in full):
       2. in-person visits to the debtor, the debtor’s residence, or the debtor’s place of work:
       3. communications with any person other than the debtor (other than incidental communications in the course of attempting to contact the debtor):
       4. requesting the debtor to consent to deductions from wages (under section 5 of the Wages Protection Act 1983), from a benefit (as defined in Schedule 2 of the Social Security Act 2018), or from a student allowance established by regulations made under section 303 of the Education Act 1989:
       5. filing enforcement proceedings or lodging a claim with the Disputes Tribunal

    payment that is overdue—

    1. includes default fees and default interest charges in respect of an overdue amount:
    2. does not include an amount payable under an acceleration clause (being an express or implied term in a credit contract which provides that, if there is a default, any amounts become payable (or may be called up as becoming payable) earlier than would be the case if there had not been a default).

14. Subpart 4 of Part 2 applies with necessary modifications.

15. The rules in sections 11(1A) and (1B), 12 to 14, 15(1)(ca), and 16 apply with necessary modifications for the purposes of subsection (1).