Past the date for Ombudsman

Foxwold_2

Hi,

I had a ppi claim rejected by the ombudsman as I waited too long after finishing communication with the company I was claiming against.

Someone has told my lately that I can start the complaint again with said company then the ombudsman can look at it.

Does anyone know if this is correct?

If so do I need to use a special letter template or anything?

Thanks
Brian

Nasqueron

No you can't in short.

Long answer is that the company would have to agree to re-open it. Once rejected you can't just keep complaining to bypass the 6 month rule unless you have some major new compelling evidence that wasn't on the original complaint.

Once you had a final rejection from the company why didn't you refer to the FOS rather than keep communicating with them? You'd need a good reason for this e.g. if they didn't send a rejection with details of the FOS with your right to refer to get the FOS to look at it.

Foxwold_2

Sorry, what is FOS?

dunstonh

Someone has told my lately that I can start the complaint again with said company then the ombudsman can look at it.

Does anyone know if this is correct?

no its not correct.

Sorry, what is FOS?

Financial Ombudsman Service.

Foxwold_2

I had tried to phone, fax and write to the company with in that 6 months. Would that help my case?

Nasqueron

Foxwold wrote: »

I had tried to phone, fax and write to the company with in that 6 months. Would that help my case?

No, it's the ombudsman you needed to contact within 6 months - once a company has issued a final rejection and told you about the FOS they generally won't entertain any more correspondence about it.

If the company correctly rejected you and informed you about the FOS and your rights to refer to an ombudsman they can enforce the time-bar

magpiecottage

You can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to look at the complaint.

However, it is unlikely that the business will volunteer to waive the time limit. You would therefore be reliant on FOS identifying a reason why it could override the limit.

Foxwold_2

So what are my best options?

Small claims?

Can I get the case reopened as I wasn't told they would receive commission?

Does the fact they they responded (even though they just said they stand by the last decision) mean the case has been looked at again?

Thanks

[Deleted User]

Foxwold wrote: »

So what are my best options?

Your complaint is concluded already.

Foxwold wrote: »

Small claims?

Since PPI is not a legal issue, you are unlikely to gain anything by going down this route. Could be expensive too.

Foxwold wrote: »

Can I get the case reopened as I wasn't told they would receive commission?

Your complaint is concluded already, you can't keep going back to them once you have been rejected. The only exception is when you have new and compelling evidence (preferably documentary) not in your original complaint.
Making new hearsay accusations for which you can provide no evidence is never going to cut it.

Foxwold wrote: »

Does the fact they they responded (even though they just said they stand by the last decision) mean the case has been looked at again?

No, it just means that their records show that you have already complained some time ago and they have sent you a reminder of that.
It doesn't give you any new rights to go to FOS. You are far too late for that.

Probably wise to let this one go now, although you can contact the Ombudsman for confirmation that your complaint cannot be looked at now if you wish.

dunstonh

Can I get the case reopened as I wasn't told they would receive commission?

If it was a bank or a company selling its own product then they dont have to.

Does the fact they they responded (even though they just said they stand by the last decision) mean the case has been looked at again?

no

magpiecottage

Foxwold wrote: »

So what are my best options?

Probably to simply let the matter rest

Foxwold wrote: »

Small claims?'

In theory you could try going to court.

There is a poster on here who insists that this is the way to go. However, when pressed to give details of an actual PPI court case which a claimant has won, he has invariably failed to do so - so it seems to be an unsubstantiated, and unqualified, opinion. That does not seem a good basis on which to launch into the expense of legal action.

You have also not said when you bought the policy or when you first became aware that you might have a valid complaint. This is important because if it is more than six years since the plan was sold and more than three years since you ought reasonably to become aware of cause for complaint, the business can simply apply section 14A of the Limitation Act 1980 to stop the action.

Similarly, if it is more than 15 years since you took the plan out, it can use section 14B of the same Act regardless of when you became aware of a problem.

Foxwold wrote: »

Can I get the case reopened as I wasn't told they would receive commission?

If you paid a fee for the advice AND they took commission which you were unaware of then you can argue that the commission amounted to a bribe from the insurance company to the adviser and ask for that to be refunded.

However, if you did not pay a fee for the recommendation, then it is assumed that you were aware of the commission.

The only variation on this is a recent court case in which it was decided that if the commission was excessive a refund might be warranted. This is still being considered by the FCA but seems any commission paid in excess of 50% of the premium. So, the insurer would keep all of its money, the intermediary would keep all of its commission up to half of the premium and you would get any difference. If the commission did not exceed half the premium you would get nothing.

Foxwold wrote: »

Does the fact they they responded (even though they just said they stand by the last decision) mean the case has been looked at again?

Don't be silly. If that were so, no case would ever be closed.