AGREEMENT DATE

INTERPRETATION

1.1 The definitions in this clause apply in the terms set out in this Agreement :

You : Our client, whose name is recorded overleaf (and partner where any of the debts are in joint names)

Us/We : Bright Oak Limited whose registered office is at Walters Building, Clarence Road, Cardiff, CF10 5FA and is registered under Company Number 067747006 in England & Wales

Creditors:All the people or businesses you have informed us you owe money to.

Initial Fee : Your first monthly payment (or first two monthly payments depending upon monthly contribution level), which is paid by you to us as an initial fee for our services, and is not used to pay your Creditors (and which may therefore lead to, or increase, arrears). The initial fee covers services including compiling financial and background statements, providing repayment proposals to creditors, responding to creditor contact by telephone and in writing, and attempting to negotiate arrangements with your creditors on your behalf.

Monthly Fee:The fee payable for our services. This is 17.625% of your monthly payment, apart from your first payment which is the initial fee. The Monthly Fee is subject to a minimum charge of £25 and a maximum charge of £100 per month. The monthly fee covers our ongoing communication with your creditors, communication with you, and the distribution of your creditor payments.

Writing : or written includes faxes and e-mail.

Headings do not affect the interpretation of these terms.

2. THE TERMS

2.1 We consider that this Agreement sets out the whole agreement between you and us for providing the debt management service to you. Please check that this Agreement is complete and accurate before you commit yourself to the contract. If you think that there is a mistake, please make sure that you ask us to confirm any changes in writing, as we only accept responsibility for statements and representations made in writing by our authorised employees and agents. Please ensure that you read and understand this Agreement before you sign it because you will be bound by its terms once a contract comes into existence between us, in accordance with clause 2.2.

2.2 This Agreement shall become binding on you and us when we receive your signed Agreement and your Initial Fee (or where applicable the first instalment of the Initial Fee) in cleared funds.

2.3 You have a period of 14 days from either the date of signing this Agreement or the date on which we receive the Initial Fee in cleared funds, whichever is latest, within which to terminate it by giving us notice in writing in accordance with clause 11 and in those circumstances the Initial Fee already paid to us will be refunded to you in full.

2.4 In the event that we have to make any change in the arrangements relating to the provision of the debt management service we shall notify you as soon as is reasonably practicable. We shall endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum and will seek to offer to you arrangements as close to the original as is reasonably possible in the circumstances

3. THE SERVICES

3.1 We agree to provide a debt management service which will analyse your financial affairs to establish a debt management plan which we believe you can afford. We will rely upon the information you provide to us to provide this service.

3.2 Upon receipt from you of the signed Agreement and payment of the first installment of the Initial Fee or the Initial Fee we shall notify your Creditors of our involvement and will attempt to negotiate a suitable debt management plan. We will also attempt to negotiate that your Creditors cease to charge interest, and that they suspend or withdraw any recovery or similar proceedings that have been initiated or threatened.

3.3 Whilst we will attempt to negotiate a suitable debt management plan with your Creditors we cannot stop any of them from charging you interest and other charges, or from continuing any current, or bringing any future, recovery proceeding against you if they wish.

3.4 You are made aware of the possibility that, entering in to a debt management plan may create difficulties for you in obtaining credit in the future.

3.5 Creditors are neither obliged to accept reduced payments or freeze interest charges. This may lead to the total amount repayable increasing where the repayment period is extended.

3.6 In the event that we are unable to secure all of your Creditors’ agreement to a debt management plan, we will advise you as soon as is reasonably practicable but we will retain any monies paid by you to us in respect of the Initial Fee.

4. YOUR OBLIGATIONS

4.1 In order to be able to advise you properly, we rely on you to provide us with all information that you have 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. The decision made by us to recommend that you enter in to a debt management plan was based on the information that you gave to us before this agreement was prepared.

4.2 You should sign any necessary forms of authority or any other documents that we ask you to do so that we may negotiate with your Creditors on your behalf

4.3 You should not ignore letters from Creditors and should post, fax or email these to us as well as keeping copies of all correspondence yourself.

4.4 In the event that any of your Creditors do not provide us with any details of balances due on your accounts, you will take steps to obtain that information on our behalf.

4.5 You should discuss any proposed changes to your debt management plan with us.

4.6 In the event that you fail to pay any of you monthly payments to us your Creditors may be more likely to take action against you which could include cancelling any arrangements we have already negotiated with them on your behalf.

4.7 You must notify us of any change of address or circumstances within 7 days of any such change occurring.

4.8 You should continue to make the usual payments on secured loans; the scope of the Repayment Plan does not extend to secured debts.

4.9 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.

4.10 In order that we can properly carry out our obligations under this Agreement, we ask that you maintain regular contact with us and answer any queries that we may raise as quickly as possible.

5. OUR OBLIGATIONS

5.1 We shall use all reasonable endeavours to complete our obligations in a timely fashion, but time will not be of the essence in the performance of these obligations.

5.2 We will use reasonable care and skill to perform the debt management service.

5.3 We will normally distribute all monthly payments (after deducting the Monthly Fee) to Creditors within 5 working days of receipt from you of cleared funds.

6. PRICE AND PAYMENT

6.1 You agree to pay to us the Initial Fee and monthly payment in respect of your debt management plan.

6.2 In the event that you request that we carry out any additional services on your behalf which are not included as part of this Agreement, as long as we are able to carry out the additional services, we will agree the rate and terms with you before those services are carried out.

6.3 Upon the advice of the HMRC we do not charge VAT to you on any sums payable by you under this Agreement. We do however reserve the right to charge VAT to you should the HMRC or any other relevant body, advise us that the position has changed.

6.4 (Please note that this section is personalised for each client depending upon their circumstances) An estimated duration of the debt management plan (based on the initial level of monthly payment of £***, the debt total you have provided of £***, and the assumption that interest and charges will be frozen) is *** months. The total amount to be paid is therefore estimated to be £***. The fees payable by you to us for the debt management services provided to you are estimated to be £***** if the plan ran for the full estimated duration.

6.5 As stated elsewhere in this Agreement the freezing of interest and charges is not guaranteed. Should interest and charges not be frozen by some or all Creditors the duration of debt management plan will be longer, the overall total amount to be paid will be higher, and our total fees will be higher than estimated at 6.4 if the plan ran for the full duration

6.6 All payments made pursuant to this Agreement shall be done so in whichever way you have previously agreed with us.

7. TERMINATION

7.1 This Agreement may be terminated by either party at any time, by us giving you at least 14 days written notice and by you immediately on receipt of your written notice.

7.2 In the event that the Agreement is terminated for any reason, other than pursuant to clause 2.3 we will not be obliged to return any monies to you that you have paid to us before termination to include any Fee or monthly payment.

8. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

8.1 Subject to clause 8.3, if either of us fails to comply with the Agreement, neither of us shall be responsible for any losses that the other suffers as a result, except for those losses which are a foreseeable consequence of the failure to comply with the Agreement.

8.2 If we consider that we have failed to perform the services under this Agreement with the due care and skill that we expect to carry them out, we will undertake any remedial action that is necessary to remedy the failure at no extra cost to you.

8.3 This clause does not include or limit in any way our liability for:

(a) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or

(b) any other matter for which it would be illegal or unlawful for us to exclude or attempt to exclude our liability.

9. EVENTS OUTSIDE OUR CONTROL

9.1 We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform, or delay in performance of, any of our obligations under this Agreement that is caused by events outside our reasonable control (Force Majeure Event).

9.2 A Force Majeure Event includes any act, event, non-occurrence, omission or accident beyond our reasonable control and includes, in particular (without limitation), the following:

(c)Strikes lock-outs or other industrial action; or

(d)civil commotion, riot, invasion, terrorist attack or threat of terrorist attack, war (whether declared or not) or threat or preparation for war; or

(e)fire, explosion, storm, flood, earthquake, subsidence, epidemic or other natural disaster; or

(f)impossibility of the use of railways, shipping, aircraft, motor transport or other means of public or private transport; or

(g)impossibility of the use of public or private telecommunications networks.

9.3 Our obligations under this Agreement are suspended for the period that the Force Majeure Event continues, and we will have an extension of time to perform these obligations for the duration of that period. We will take reasonable steps to bring the Force Majeure Event to a close or to find a solution by which our obligations under this Agreement can be performed despite the Force Majeure Event.

10. ASSIGNMENT

We can transfer all or any of our rights and obligations under these Agreement to another organisation, but this will not affect your rights under this Agreement.

11. NOTICES

All notices sent by you to us must be sent by post to Bright Oak Limited at Office 26, Enterprise House, 127 Bute Street, Cardiff, CF10 5LE. or whichever other address we may notify you of from time to time. We may give notice to you at either the e-mail or postal address you provide to us. Notice will be deemed received and properly served 24 hours after an e-mail is sent or two days after the date of posting of any letter. In proving the service of any notice, it will be sufficient to prove, in the case of a letter, that the letter was properly addressed, stamped and placed in the post and, in the case of an e-mail, that the e-mail was sent to the specified e-mail address of the addressee.

12. GENERAL

12.1 If any court or competent authority decides that any of the provisions of this Agreement are invalid, unlawful or unenforceable to any extent, the term will, to that extent only, be severed from the remaining terms, which will continue to be valid to the fullest extent permitted by law.

12.2 If we fail, at any time while this Agreement are in force, to insist that you perform any of your obligations under this Agreement, or if we do not exercise any of our rights or remedies under this Agreement, that will not mean that we have waived such rights or remedies and will not mean that you do not have to comply with those obligations. If we do waive a default by you that will not mean that we will automatically waive any subsequent default by you. No waiver by us of any of the terms contained in this Agreement shall be effective unless we expressly say that it is a waiver and we tell you so in writing.

12.3 This Agreement shall be governed by English and Welsh law and we both agree to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English and Welsh courts.