“Logbook loans”, pre-payment vouchers and wills are targeted in the Law Commission’s latest round of reform projects.
The new programme of law reform projects, launched this week, includes the law relating to pre-payments by consumers where the retailer becomes insolvent. Consumers lost about £4.7m on unused vouchers when the retail giant Comet collapsed in 2012.
The Commission will look at “logbook loans”, where a loan is secured on a debtor’s vehicle with the lender retaining the vehicle registration certificate (or “logbook”). About 60,000 logbook loans are expected to be taken out this year, and interest rates can be as high as 500% APR.
Citizens Advice Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, says: “The current law on logbook loans belongs in the history book.
“The archaic rules provide a loophole for lenders to overload people with debt and take cars from innocent people. The same protections given to those who take our hire purchase agreements should apply to logbook loans.
“That would stop innocent second hand car buyers having their car taken away because, unbeknown to them, there was a logbook loan attached.”
Land registration will come under scrutiny in a wide-ranging review of the law in this area—earlier in July, the government abandoned plans to part-privatise the Land Registry. Wills—intestacy, mental capacity and how to remedy mistakes—is another area of potential reform that the Commission will review.
It will also look at concerns that it is often difficult for professionals to determine the law in Wales, and seek ways to improve the clarity and comprehensibility of Welsh law as well as, in a separate review, planning law in Wales. It will review the law relating to people who lack mental capacity and are in supported living arrangements with a view to improving protection against deprivation of liberty.
The Commission is an independent body set up by the government to recommend proposals for law reform.
