The Friendly Societies Act 1992 (Amendment) Regulations 1994

Right to withdraw from transaction

23.  After section 67B of the 1992 Act insert—

“Right to withdraw from transac– tion.

67C.— (1) A person who has received a statutory notice in relation to a contract may, before the expiration of the fourteenth day after that on which he is informed in writing that the contract has become binding, serve a notice of cancellation on the friendly society.

(2) A person to whom a friendly society to which section 37(2) above applies ought to have, but has not, sent a statutory notice in relation to a contract may serve a notice of cancellation on the society; but if the society sends him a statutory notice in relation to the contract before he has served a notice of cancellation under this subsection, then without prejudice to his right to serve a notice of cancellation under subsection (1) above, his right to do so under this subsection shall cease.

(3) A notice of cancellation may, but need not, be in the form annexed to the statutory notice and shall have effect if, however expressed, it indicates the intention of the person serving it to withdraw from the transaction in relation to which the statutory notice was or ought to have been sent.

(4) Where a person serves a notice of cancellation, then–

(a) if at the time when the notice is served the contract has been entered into, the notice shall operate so as to rescind the contract;

(b) in any other case, the service of the notice shall operate as a withdrawal of any offer to enter into the contract which is contained in, or implied by, any proposal made to the society by the person serving the notice of cancellation and as notice to the society that any such offer is withdrawn.

(5) Where a notice of cancellation operates to rescind a contract or as the withdrawal of an offer to enter into a contract–

(a) any sum which the person serving the notice has paid in connection with the contract (whether by way of premium or otherwise and whether to the society or to a person who is the agent of the society for the purpose of receiving that sum) shall be recoverable from the society by the person serving the notice;

(b) any sum which the society has paid under the contract shall be recoverable by him from the person serving the notice.

(6) Any sum recoverable under subsection (5) above shall be recoverable in any court of competent jurisdiction.”.