TERMS AND CONDITIONS
The agreement between you and us is made on the following terms: Kensington Financial Management Consultants Limited Terms and Conditions Of Trading
1. Definition of terms
‘You’ our client, whose name is recorded overleaf (and partner where any of the debts are in joint names).
‘Us’ Kensington Financial Management Consultants Limited. Office; Thornley House, Carrington Business Park, Carrington, Manchester, M31 4DD. Licensed by the Office of Fair Trading under Consumer Credit License Number 532545.
‘Creditors’ any and all of your unsecured creditors whose details you will provide to us in accordance with section 3.
‘Debt Management Programme’ a plan of repayments produced by us in accordance with section 4.2.
‘Period’ the period during which the Debt Management Programme is in operation. ‘Fees’ the fees to be paid by you to us in accordance with the Debt Management Programme.
‘Monthly Payment’ is the total amount paid by you every month as part of your Debt management Programme. If you make weekly payments this will be calculated as four and a third times your weekly payment.
2. Agreement
You request and we agree to provide you with a debt counselling advisory and adjusting service in accordance with these terms and conditions. You authorise us to negotiate on your behalf with your creditors. This agreement shall continue until final repayment of the creditors is made in accordance with the Debt Management Programme, unless it should have been terminated beforehand in accordance with section 6.
3. Your responsibilities
3.1 You will provide to us on request with information relating to your finances. This will include but will not be limited to details of your income and expenditure, your creditors and any agreements you have with them, any loans or mortgages you have, your dependants and any judgements made against you or any other enforcement action being taken against you.
3.2 You will sign any necessary forms of authority or any other documents so that we may negotiate with your creditors on your behalf.
3.3 You will pass copies of all correspondence from your creditors to us and keep us informed of any dealings you have with any creditors, whether we are negotiating with them or not. All correspondence that is passed to us will be securely destroyed for the purpose of data protection, we will at all times be able to provide copies of the correspondence from your creditors that you have provided to us. Once the Debt Management Programme has been agreed, you will not make any expenditure over and above your reasonable living expenses as calculated in the Debt Management Programme. You will not use your credit cards or incur further debts.
3.4 You will consult with us in relation to your Debt Management Programme of repayments and in relation to any alterations to it or reviews of it. Your payments to us will need to be amended to reflect any reasonable changes which your circumstances dictate. You will make payments to us under and in accordance with the Debt Management Programme promptly and without any deductions.
3.5 On occasion your creditors may not provide us with balances of your accounts due to their own company procedures. If these circumstances arise then you will obtain this information for us and supply us accordingly.
3.6 We cannot be held responsible for any legal action taken against you by your creditors as a result of fraudulent or incorrect information provided by you at the time of acquiring a loan, HP agreement, credit card or any other form of credit.
3.7 Non contact from you will not be considered as cancellation of the agreement. If any funds are owing to you then written confirmation will be required to release funds owing to you in accordance with section 6 of this agreement.
3.8 If you do not maintain regular payments we will suspend any action and payments on your account. Your creditors may have to be informed that payments are not being maintained. This may result in your creditors continuing legal action against you for which we cannot be held responsible.
3.9 You remain responsible for continuing to pay any secured loans, mortgages or hire purchase agreements and all household bills (including insurances).
4. Our responsibilities
4.1 We will review your finances, covering your income, expenditure, debts and assets. These must include all debts secured on property or goods, which we will take into consideration but cannot, negotiate reduced payments on. We will calculate your disposable income, based on reasonable living expenses. All financial statements will be reviewed by our consultants.
4.2 In consultation with you we will produce a Debt Management Programme by which you can pay off your creditors out of your disposable income at rates you can afford. The Debt Management Programme will let you make monthly payments to us and will take account of your creditors and our fees. It will not take account of any matters you have not told us about in accordance with section 3. It will also take account of the differing requirements of your different creditors, if there is more than one.
4.3 We will negotiate with your creditors and attempt to agree repayment terms with them of the amounts outstanding. In doing so we shall use the Debt Management Programme and we shall ensure that the periodic payments that we agree with your creditors on your behalf will not exceed your disposable income (less our fee) as calculated by us for the same period.
4.4 We shall attempt to agree with your creditors, where appropriate that they freeze or reduce their interest charges and they will suspend or withdraw enforcement proceedings issued in connection with your agreements with them.
In rare instances county court proceedings may still be actioned against you. In these cases we will assist in completion of all the relevant paperwork as required. We cannot guarantee to stop legal action by your creditors.
4.5 Payments will be made to creditors within 5 working days of receiving cleared funds equivalent to one Monthly Payment.
4.6 The payments made to your creditors will be reflected in the statements you will receive from them. A full break down of payments we have made can be obtained on request. On all creditors accepting the offers of repayment we will issue you with a break down of these. In addition we will issue monthly statements showing all payments and receipts on your account.
4.7 Should your circumstances or any other relevant matter change during the period, we shall, in consultation with you and your creditors, review the Debt Management Programme and if necessary shall make changes to it in agreement with you and with any creditors concerned.
4.8 From time to time your creditors will request and update of your financial situation. We will contact you to review your current financial circumstances and update your Debt Management Programme accordingly. To aid this process we request that pay slips are regularly forwarded to us for review.
4.9 All payments to us will be made into our Kensington Financial Management Consultants client account. This account is separate to our own business accounts and funds held for distribution to your creditors will be retained for that purpose only. At all times funds held for distribution to your creditors will be classed as client monies.
4.10 During the negotiation process some creditors may continue to charge interest and other recovery charges. We cannot always prevent these charges being levied. These will however be paid off as part of your Debt Management Programme.
4.11 We can only provide advice on the service that we offer.
4.12 The company takes any complaints regarding its practices very seriously. Any complaints can be sent in writing to the directors of the company and will be dealt with personally by them. The directors of the company will return correspondence within 14 days.
4.13 If there is a delay, we will inform you in writing and make good any extra interest or charges you may have incurred if the delay is proven to be our fault.
5. How we will be paid.
5.1 We will take from each monthly payment under the Debt Management Plan a gross fee equal to 17.625% of the periodic payment under the Debt Management Programme. However, this is subject to a minimum fee of £37.50 per month (or any other fee that is agreed with you in advance).
5.2 Because most of our work for you will be done at the start of the period, we will retain as a fee the first monthly payment to cover the cost of implementing your Debt Management Plan.
5.3 We will retain as a fee the second monthly payment as a creditor set up fee, minus £1 for each creditor which is to be paid to them as a ‘token’ payment. This fee is non refundable once the creditors’ token payments of £1 each have been dispersed.
5.4 If this agreement is ended in accordance with section 6, we will return any undistributed funds after having deducted the above fees and you will not have to pay us any more money. This will be made within 30 days of receiving written confirmation in order to allow us time to process all receipts and payments on your account.
5.5 If for any reason we receive monies from you and are unable to credit it to your account as it appears as an unknown deposit. We will: make all reasonable efforts to identify the originator of the funds, but, in the event that we do not manage to identify the depositor and no one is forthcoming with proof of payment within 6 months from date of deposit. Kensington shall move the deposit to our account and treat as our funds. We will be under no obligation to return these funds once moved.
6. Termination of agreement
6.1 You have the right to cancel this agreement at any time and for any reason within our 14 day cooling off period as required by the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000.
6.2 On receipt of your first payment we will issue to you a key feature document and estimated fees schedule. If for any reason you wish to cancel we offer a fourteen day cooling-off period from the date of this letter in which we offer a full refund of any fees which we have taken.
6.3 After the fourteen day cooling-off period you may end this agreement by giving us four weeks notice in writing.
6.4 We may end this agreement by giving you four weeks notice in writing if any one of the following things happens:
i) You breach this agreement and do not remedy the breach within seven days of our bringing the breach to your attention;
ii) A bankruptcy petition is issued against you;
iii) You enter into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement / Trust Deed;
iv) Where the information provided to us is knowingly incorrect;
v) The Information provided by you at the time of acquiring a loan (HP agreement, credit cards or any other form of credit) is deemed incorrect or fraudulent by any creditor; or
vi) If we are affected by Force Majeure. 6.5 When this Agreement ends:
i) Our duties and obligations under his Agreement will come to an end;
ii) Your liability to your Creditors will continue to the extent that any amounts Creditors remain outstanding over and above the repayments made to them by Us.
7. Data Protection Statement
7.1 Please read this statement carefully as it explains what personal information we collect about you and how we use this information.
7.2 We collect personal information about you both directly and when you apply for our services, and from you creditors as authorised by you on our Client Authority Form. We may also collect further information as a result of managing your Debt Management Plan.
7.3 We will use your personal information to provide our services to you, and in particular:
i) prepare and issue to you your Debt Management Plan;
ii) negotiate with your creditors on your behalf. And;
iii) keep you informed about your Debt Management Plan and our services.
7.4 Subject to section 7.5, we may also use your personal information to contact you to provide you with details of other products and services which we may think might be of interest to you, including those offered by selected third parties. We may share personal information with these selected third parties and they may contact you directly to provide you with details of such products and services.
7.5 You may let us know if you do not want us to use or disclose your personal information as set out above in section 7.4 or if you wish to amend the way we communicate with you.
7.6 Other than as set out above, we will only disclose your personal information to the extent required by law, court order or as requested by other government or law enforcement authorities, or to any company or other entity to whom we either transfer or subcontract any or all of our obligations to you under this Agreement.
7.7 You may contact our Data Protection Officer in writing at any time at the address given below for further information or if you want to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you or ask us to amend any inaccurate information held by us. If you request a copy of personal information which we hold about you, we will charge you a fee of £10. This will be sent to you within 21 days of receiving cleared payment of the charge.
7.8 Please note that we may record and monitor your calls to us in order to help us to improve our service.
7.9 All telephone calls will be recorded for monitoring and training purposes.
Kensington Financial Management Consultants Limited
Licensed by the Office of Fair Trading under Consumer Credit Licence Number 532545 Office: Thornley House, Carrington Business Park, Carrington, Manchester M31 4DD Reg No 4636160, England.
