The Law Gazette this week has a couple of articles on the new mortgage repossession/money claim protocol.
First is a clear and possibly optimistic outline of the requirements of the protocol from Christopher Atkinson. Well worth a read on the details and process.
Second is a view from DJ Peter Jolly, of Portsmouth, on the operation of current law and the likely impact of the protocol, noting that clear unreasonableness of behaviour is needed to apply a costs sanction. This is particularly interesting on the use of case citation by ‘bullish’ lenders.
The January 09 Legal Action also has an outline of the requirements of the protocol, such as they are, by Derek McConnell, but it isn’t available online.
I have to say that, in my experience, threats to report the lender to the FSA tend to produce rapid settlement proposals. The protocol is – perhaps wrongly – not where I tend to found my defence.
Given the limited to the point of pointless options for enforcement or penalty…
I had a case at Court where the lender withdrew proceedings as they weren’t sure they had complied with the protocol..
Our DJ’s seem to be thinking the protocol does more than it actually does, but then they have never really liked lenders anyway!