Part XII Supplemental
Interpretation
185 Agreement with more than one debtor or hirer.
1
Where an actual or prospective regulated agreement has two or more debtors or hirers (not being a partnership or an unincorporated body of persons)—
a
anything required by or under this Act to be done to or in relation to the debtor or hirer shall be done to or in relation to each of them; and
b
anything done under this Act by or on behalf of one of them shall have effect as if done by or on behalf of all of them.
2
Notwithstanding subsection (1)(a), where running-account credit is provided to two or more debtors jointly, any of them may by a notice signed by him (a “dispensing notice ”) authorise the creditor not to comply in his case with section 78(4) (giving of periodical statement of account); and the dispensing notice shall have effect accordingly until revoked by a further notice given by the debtor to the creditor:
Provided that:
a
a dispensing notice shall not take effect if previous dispensing notices are operative in the case of the other debtor, or each of the other debtors, as the case may be;
b
any dispensing notices operative in relation to an agreement shall cease to have effect if any of the debtors dies.
F1c
a dispensing notice which is operative in relation to an agreement shall be operative also in relation to any subsequent agreement which, in relation to the earlier agreement, is a modifying agreement
3
Subsection (1)(b) does not apply for the purposes of section 61(1)(a) or 127(3).
4
Where a regulated agreement has two or more debtors or hirers (not being a partnership or an unincorporated body of persons), section 86 applies to the death of any of them.
5
An agreement for the provision of credit, or the bailment or (in Scotland) the hiring of goods, to two or more persons jointly where—
a
one or more of those persons is an individual, and
b
one or more of them is a body corporate,
is a consumer credit agreement or consumer hire agreement if it would have been one had they all been individuals; and the body corporate or bodies corporate shall accordingly be included among the debtors or hirers under the agreement.
6
Where subsection (5) applies, references in this Act to the signing of any document by the debtor or hirer shall be construed in relation to a body corporate as referring to a signing on behalf of the body corporate.