Complaints Policy
Complaints Manager contact details
Name: Hayley Colenutt
Telephone: 01590 670226
Address: Fi-Nest Ltd, Efford Park, Milford Road, Lymington, Hampshire, SO41 0JD
E-mail: complaints@fi-nest.co.uk
Our Procedures
Receiving your complaint
In order for us to look into your complaint fully, we ask that you provide us with all the relevant details, preferably in writing, either by e-mail to complaints@fi-nest.co.uk or by post to the above address.
How we will deal with your complaint
Any complaint relating to your dealings with Fi-Nest Ltd, whether verbal or written, will initially be looked at by your case handler, if you have one, for them to try and resolve in the first instance.
If the case handler is unable to resolve the complaint or if you do not yet have a case handler, your complaint will be referred to our Complaints Manager at the earliest opportunity or to a member of the senior management if the Complaints Manager is unavailable.
Upon receipt of your complaint, we will:
- acknowledge the complaint in writing within 5 working days of receipt
- provide details in our acknowledgement response of the Financial Ombudsman Service
- where necessary, make contact to seek clarification on any points
- fully investigate the complaint with the aim of resolving it as soon as possible
- keep you informed of our progress
- discuss with you our findings and proposed response.
Time-frame for dealing with your Complaint
We will endeavour to deal with the complaint promptly, however you will receive contact from us advising on progress if we cannot respond immediately.
We will let you have our final response as soon as possible and not later than within eight weeks from the date on which we received the complaint.
Should we, for any reason, be unable to answer your complaint with the issuing of our final response within the 8 week period, we will contact you in writing to explaining the situation and if you are an eligible complainant (See below for details) inform you that you may now refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service and provide you with the contact details to do so.
We will be the first point of contact if you have any complaints.
Time-Frames for referral to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)
Should you feel that your complaint remains unresolved following your communication with us, and you are an eligible complainant, you may also subsequently be able to refer your complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service if:
- You feel you have suffered financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience and
- You have already received our final response, or our written explanation informing you that we were unable to send you our final response, within the 8 week period.
- The complaint must be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service no later than 6 months after the date on which we sent you the final response; or
- Eight weeks have lapsed since we received your complaint.
However, the complaint will not be considered by the Financial Ombudsman Service if it is referred more than 6 years after the event complained of or more than 3 years from the date on which you should have reasonably become aware that you had cause for complaint.
See further information on the FOS and how they deal with complaints in their Consumer Leaflet here.
Complaints regarding an Adviser or Lender
Customers may express dissatisfaction regarding their Legal or Financial Adviser or about the Lender of their loan product. These are unlikely to be matters which are dealt with under Fi-Nest’s Complaints Procedure since the issues they concern are usually not pertaining to the services provided by Fi-Nest Ltd.
In these cases we would seek to establish whether or not your complaint relates to the advice you have received, or to the historic service or product provided by the Lender.
The Complaints Manager will review this matter and, where appropriate, take the complaint to the Lender, in consultation with you.
Should, however, the complaint relate to advice you have received from a Legal or Financial Advisor, we will revert to you explaining that you should go back to the adviser and raise your complaint with them and inform you that, as such, the complaint will therefore not be dealt with by Fi-Nest Ltd.
Investigation of the Complaint
The Complaints Manager will establish the nature and scope of your complaint having due regard to the Financial Conduct Authority’s directions to:
- Deal with complaints promptly and fairly
- Give complainants clear replies and, where appropriate, fair redress
It is the firm’s policy to treat all complainants the same, however, eligible complainants are legally defined, and have additional rights in law that we must acknowledge and adhere to.
Eligible complainants are those who have a potential claim against a firm whereby he/she believes they have suffered a financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience due to poor advice or service and who are:
- Private Individuals
- Companies within the EU definition of a microenterprise
- Charities with an income of under £1,000,000
- Trustees of a trust with assets of under £1,000,000
- Professional clients and eligible counterparties where the person is an individual acting for purposes outside his trade, business, craft or profession
The Financial Conduct Authority and Complaints
The Financial Conduct Authority complaints rules apply to complaints:
- made by, or on behalf of an eligible complainant;
- relating to regulated activity;
- involving an allegation that the complainant has suffered, or may suffer, financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience;
- not resolved by close of business on the day following receipt;
- referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service
This will set out clearly the firm’s decision and the reasons for it. If any compensation is offered a clear method of calculation will be shown.
We must include details of the Financial Ombudsman Service in our final response if dealing with an eligible complainant (see definition above) and we will:
- explain that the complainant must refer the matter to the Ombudsman within six months of the date of the final response, after which the right to use this service is lost.
Analysis
A root cause analysis will be undertaken by Fi-Nest Ltd in the case of any complaint raised and this will be recorded with the appropriate action having been taken.
Closing a complaint
- Once we have issued to you our final response, or
- Where you have indicated, whether verbally or in writing, acceptance of an earlier response from us to confirm that you are satisfied with the findings of the investigations and any resolution.
Financial Ombudsman Service
If our final response is not acceptable, or if we have been unable to provide a response within the 8 week time-frame, and you are an eligible complainant then you may be able to refer this matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service – full details regarding the Financial Ombudsman Service will be sent to you as part of our response to your complaint, or at any other time if you ask us to do so.
We will co-operate fully with the Ombudsman in resolving any complaints made against us and agree to be bound by any awards made by the Ombudsman.
We undertake to implement promptly any award made in your favour by the Financial Ombudsman Service
Contact
- Address: The Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR (Monday to Friday – 8am to 8pm and Saturday – 9am to 1pm)
- Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
- Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Contacting the FOS by Telephone
0800 023 4567 – Calls to this number are free from a landline or mobile phone
0300 123 9123 – Calls to this number are charged at the same rate as 01 or 02 numbers on mobile phone tariffs
These numbers may not be available from outside the UK – so please call the Financial Ombudsman from abroad on +44 20 7964 0500
The Financial Ombudsman will be happy to phone you back, if you’re worried about the cost of calling them.