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Debt counsellor struck off NCR register
On 18 January 2012, the National Consumer Tribunal (NCT) handed down a judgement in terms of which the registration of Susanna van Dyk of Vanderbijlpark, as a debt counsellor with the National Credit Regulator (NCR), was cancelled with immediate effect and she was ordered to refund consumers all amounts taken from them as administrative fees. Approximately 400 consumers are affected by this application.
Adv. Jan Augustyn, manager for Investigations and Enforcement at the NCR, says deregistration of Van Dyk comes after the organisation received numerous complaints from consumers, which prompted an investigation by the regulator into her debt counselling practices.
"Following the investigation, the organisation brought an application before the NCT for the cancellation of Van Dyk's registration with the regulator," says Augustyn.
The investigation revealed that Van Dyk was not adhering to the debt review procedures as set out in National Credit Act.
"Furthermore, it revealed that she receives and distributes consumer funds, which is in contravention of her conditions of registration as well as charging consumers a 10% monthly administration fee," says Augustyn.
Van Dyk contravened Section 86(4)(b)(i) read with Regulation 24(2) of the National Credit Act (NCA) by failing to notify credit providers within five business days of receiving an application for debt review. Additionally, she contravened her general conditions of registration number 11 for failing to maintain adequate records.
She further contravened Regulation 24(1) read with Regulation 24(6) and Section 86(6) of the NCA for failing to submit the Form 17.2 notification to credit providers within five business days of making a determination regarding the consumer's indebtedness or within 35 business days of receiving an application for debt review. In addition, Van Dyk failed to use the correct form 17.2 as prescribed in terms of the Act.
Furthermore, she failed to comply with Condition 2 of her general conditions of registration as she failed to perform debt counselling in a manner consistent with the purpose and requirements of the National Credit Act.
"In all instances, she failed to act professionally and reasonably in providing debt counselling services to consumers and to provide such services in a manner that is timely, fair and non-discriminatory and does not bring the NCR or debt counselling into disrepute.
Van Dyk failed to comply with her specific condition of registration prohibiting her from receiving and distributing consumer payments.
"She was further ordered to surrender all her consumer files to the NCR for handing over to a new debt counsellor within 10 days from date of the order and ordered to submit a report to the NCR within 60 days from the date of the order. The report should detail the amount of all repayments made by Van Dyk, the recipients of all the repayments and the steps taken to locate consumers that she was unable to trace," concludes Augustyn.
