Rajinder Kumar & Ors v LSC Finance Limited

Facts

LSC Finance Ltd is an unregulated lender providing short-term finance for the purchase and development of real property; Mr Shaun Morley is its managing director and Mr Adam Turner its finance director. The first appellant, Mr Kumar, is the former husband of the second appellant, Mrs Kumari, with whom he continued to cohabit after their divorce; the third appellant, Mr Verma, is their son. Between 6 April 2017 and 25 May 2018 LSC entered into a series of loan agreements with the appellants personally and with two of their companies, Aureation Developments Ltd and Aureation Construction Ltd. The appeal chiefly concerned three loan agreements entered into with each appellant on 17 January 2018, secured by mortgages over three adjoining plots at Redhill Poultry Farm, Pattingham. After default, a dispute arose as to whether LSC could enforce those agreements and whether time for repayment had been extended, the appellants also alleging an unfair relationship under sections 140A-B of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. In a judgment of 298 paragraphs identifying 16 issues, HH Judge Rawlings, sitting as a Judge of the High Court in the Business and Property Courts in Birmingham, held that the loans were investment property loans and enforceable, and construed clause 4.3 of the guarantees as barring only double recovery of interest. The appellants appealed on two grounds, and Mr Kumar applied shortly before the hearing to adduce fresh evidence and add a further ground.