Letter · Debt Recovery & Civil Enforcement
Response to a hardship notice under the National Credit Code: information request, agreement and refusal letters
Three linked letters for a credit provider answering a debtor's hardship notice under s 72 of the National Credit Code: a request for information, an agreement to change the contract (with the s 73 notice) and a refusal with reasons and AFCA details.
- Kind
- Letter. A letter or email you adapt and send.
- Where it applies
- Australia
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 18 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 18 October 2026 against the 3 authorities it cites, for Australia.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when a debtor under a regulated consumer credit contract says, orally or in writing, that they cannot meet their obligations, including when the notice reaches the creditor's lawyers or collectors during recovery. Diarise the 21-day response period from the day after the notice is received.
How AI may be used
AI may draft the chosen letter from the hardship notice, the account and the decision record; a lawyer or authorised credit officer checks the dates, the decision and the reasons before it is sent.
AI may
- Calculate the 21-day and 28-day response dates from the date the hardship notice or the requested information was received
- List the information the debtor has already given and what is still missing to make a decision
- Fill the agreement letter with the varied repayment terms exactly as approved in the decision record
AI must not
- Must not decide whether the contract will be changed, or state reasons the decision-maker did not give
- Must not omit the AFCA contact details and the debtor's right to complain from a refusal letter
- Must not refer to default notices, enforcement or credit listing in a letter answering a hardship notice unless the lawyer has confirmed the step is lawful at that point
The lawyer checks
- The date the hardship notice was received (oral notices count) and the response date that follows from it
- The contract is a regulated credit contract and the debtor is the person who gave the notice
- For an agreement: whether the change defers or reduces obligations for more than 90 days, so a written notice of the change is required within 30 days
- For a refusal: the reasons are the real reasons on the file, and AFCA's current contact details are correct
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
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- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
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