National Credit Act Archives - Ashersons Attorneys

05 Dec 2018

Lending to a Friend or Selling Property on Credit – Must You Register as a Credit Provider?

It seems logical that the very strong consumer protections in the NCA (National Credit Act) are designed for commercial situations in which credit is advanced by “credit provider” businesses to “credit consumers”. But does the NCA also apply to non-commercial, once-off loans? Like a loan to a friend or relative? And what about property sales? Why should you be worried? If you aren’t in the business of providing credit it seems counter-intuitive that you should have to worry about NCA registration when making a single loan or giving credit on a once-off basis. And in fact until now our various…

27 Jan 2016

By Ashersons Attorneys

Could your property debts be cancelled?

“How, on these figures, an employee of the bank could conclude that the farming may prove to be successful, is beyond me. It seems that money was just being poured into a bottomless pit.” (Extract from judgment below) If you are a bank (or other lender), or if you have borrowed money against your property and are facing financial difficulty, you need to know about a recent High Court decision declaring that a bank’s loans to a farming couple had been granted “recklessly”, setting aside the loans, and cancelling the mortgage bonds. The pensioners who went farming; and the bank…

29 Jul 2015

By Ashersons Attorneys

Garnishee Orders – Are 2 million of them now invalid?

“The ability of people to earn an income and support themselves and their families is central to the right to human dignity” (Extract from judgment below) “Garnishee” orders (more properly “Emoluments Attachment Orders” or EAOs) are often used by creditors to attach a debtor’s earnings. The debtor’s employer is served with a court order to deduct specified amounts from the debtor’s salary or wages. The employer pays those deductions over to the creditor until the debt and legal costs are settled in full. Misuse! The facts that alarmed the High Court Supporters of this process argue that, fairly obtained and…

09 Jul 2015

By Ashersons Attorneys

Another step in the right direction in the protection of vulnerable consumers against unscrupulous lenders

There has for some time been a problematic and worrying trend of unscrupulous lenders preying on the uneducated and financially unsophisticated consumers. In such situations consumers are lured into borrowing money or entering into purchase plans on terms which anyone with financial literacy would never agree to. (more…)