MCOB 7.8 1Home purchase plans
Post-sale disclosure
A firm is reminded of its obligation to ensure that its customer's interests are protected to a reasonable standard (see MCOB 2.6A).
Annual statement
A firm must provide the customer with a statement at least once a year (or, in relation to the first statement, within the first 13 months of the plan term) covering the home purchase plan and including information about:
- (1)
payments due and made during the period since the last statement (or, where the statement is the first statement, since the customer entered into the home purchase plan), including:
- (a)
whether the payment is a rental payment or a purchase payment;
- (b)
the applicable rental rate(s);
- (c)
where relevant, the customer's beneficial interest in the property;
- (a)
- (2)
the remaining acquisition amount;
- (3)
the actual remaining term;
- (4)
the ability of the customer to terminate it early and sell the property, together with any charges that would apply.
Annual statement - additional content for customers in arrears
If a firm uses the annual statement to provide a customer with a written statement relating to arrears, it will need to include the actual payment shortfall in the annual statement (see MCOB 13.5.2 G (4)).
In some circumstances, a firm may agree a temporary payment plan with a customer that does not involve the customer paying the full amount he owes in each payment period. Where an account in arrears is subject to such a payment plan, and the amount that falls due each payment period is greater than the agreed payment, the firm will still need to show the payments that were due during the period since the last statement. However, in these circumstances, the firm may wish to add information to acknowledge that a temporary payment plan is in place.
Tariff of charges
A firm must include a tariff of charges with the annual statement if it has changed since the previous version provided.
Event-driven information
When a post-sale variation of the home purchase plan is proposed or takes place, a firm should have regard to the Principles (in particular, Principles 6 and 7) in determining the action it should take and what information to provide to the customer.