FCA against FSO

Stevietee

I submitted a Plevin claim to my building society [Chelsea] and it was rejected on the grounds that I did not take the policy out before October 2004 when mortgages became regulated. I checked with the FCA and they advised that a claim can be submitted if the policy was taken out before April 2007 and was still active after April 2008. My policy was taken out in August 2006 so meets that criteria. I then took my case to the Ombudsman but they too rejected my claim because the policy was taken out after October 2004.

I have contacted the FCA on a number of occasions and they are adamant that they are correct but then so do the FOS. The two parties will not talk to each other but one must be right and one wrong. Does anyone have any experience of this or advice as to how to break the impasse ?

dunstonh

I submitted a Plevin claim to my building society [Chelsea] and it was rejected on the grounds that I did not take the policy out before October 2004 when mortgages became regulated.

That is almost right but not quite.

I checked with the FCA and they advised that a claim can be submitted if the policy was taken out before April 2007 and was still active after April 2008.

That is almost right but not quite right.

My policy was taken out in August 2006 so meets that criteria.

No it doesnt.

I then took my case to the Ombudsman but they too rejected my claim because the policy was taken out after October 2004.

That is correct.

Does anyone have any experience of this or advice as to how to break the impasse ?

Yes. It is published in the FCAs own guide.

The FCA is correct when referring to loan and credit card PPI. That covers the majority of PPI sales. However, when you spoke to the FCA, did you make it clear that you were talking about MPPI rather than PPI?

Plevin is an issue that only applies to debts covered under the consumer credit act. Mortgages from October 2004 were not covered the consumer credit act but were covered under the FCA MCOB rules. The plevin ruling does not apply to mortgages covered by MCOB.

Bottom line is that Plevin does not apply to you.

Stevietee

Thank you, at least you have provided me with an explanation which is something the FCA has not so far done and yes they were well aware that it was a policy on a mortgage.

[Deleted User]

Stevietee wrote: »

Thank you, at least you have provided me with an explanation which is something the FCA has not so far done and yes they were well aware that it was a policy on a mortgage.

The FCA don't deal personally with individual customer complaints and they are not an arbiter of them I'm afraid. They don't owe you any "explanation" therefore.

I'm certain the Ombudsman service would have directed you to the relevant FCA guidelines in their final rejection of your Plevin claim. If they didn't, you should have simply requested that they do so.

I'm guessing the person you spoke to at the FCA was unused to responding directly to a consumer (and was obviously confused/mistaken), but it was unwise for you to contact them anyway for the reason above.

I'm also at a loss as to why you thought it pertinent to contact them "several times"?

In future, I recommend you check the FCA website for such information. You would have saved yourself a whole lot of stress and hassle if you had done so. In fact you could have saved yourself the trouble of making a Plevin claim at all.

Stevietee

If you are going to post a reply it would be helpful if you got your facts right first.
So lets clarify a few points. Before submitting my claim I obtained the facts from the FCA website and this information is freely available on other sites including this one. From the information on the FCA website I have perfectly valid grounds to submit a complaint.

So why should I not have submitted a complaint in the first place ?

The Ombudsman contacted me and checked the information on the FCA website and agreed that based on that they could see as to why I had submitted my complaint and on what grounds.

So why should I not have submitted a complaint in the first place ?

As regards neither the FCA or FOS not dealing directly with consumers where did you get that from or have you made it up ? Both organisations have contacted me by phone and discussed the situation with me so to get it factually correct they have contacted me, not the other way round.

I will now await your apology and retraction of your incorrect comments but suspect I have a long wait. When you have something useful to post do so but until then I suggest you keep your incorrect facts to yourself.

John-K_3

Stevietee wrote: »

If you are going to post a reply it would be helpful if you got your facts right first.te...


...I will now await your apology and retraction of your incorrect comments but suspect I have a long wait. When you have something useful to post do so but until then I suggest you keep your incorrect facts to yourself.

You want help, and think that that attitude is the best way to get it?

Wow.

dunstonh

So lets clarify a few points. Before submitting my claim I obtained the facts from the FCA website and this information is freely available on other sites including this one. From the information on the FCA website I have perfectly valid grounds to submit a complaint.

To be fair, I also interpreted your first post to indicate that you had spoken with the FCA.

The problem with relying on the FCA website is you either get the single page summary or you get the 100 page technical bulletin. The bulletins will go into all the details covering every type. The single page will be generic and cover only basics and not all scenarios.

In respect of Plevin, the policy statement from the FCA (PS17/3) was in pdf form and 185 pages. It did cover all the rules
https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/policy/ps17-03.pdf

where the FCA consumer site was just a few paragraphs and is very vague. It uses words like " you may be eligible". And it only covered one date range covering the most common type of PPI through the distribution channels with the main issues but not the others.
https://www.fca.org.uk/ppi/eligible-claim-commission

As regards neither the FCA or FOS not dealing directly with consumers where did you get that from or have you made it up ? Both organisations have contacted me by phone and discussed the situation with me so to get it factually correct they have contacted me, not the other way round.

Again, to be fair, the FCA do not deal with consumer complaints. They are also relatively poor at dealing with consumers directly (and even us regulated firms have communication issues with them unless you can get past the front line where they are much better than they used to be. And to avoid generalisation, some departments are much better than others). They are not geared to deal with individual consumer issues. It is not their remit. Indeed, I just posted on another thread in another section where the person said they phoned the FCA and the info given by the FCA was wrong. It sounded more like someone trying to be helpful without actually knowing what they were doing.

The FOS do deal with consumers. However, the frontline telephone service is typically very agreeable to the person that is calling even when there is absolutely no case to answer. Their responses tend to be script like and they will usually say they would like to look at it. Mainly as they dont want to put people off without being 100% sure.

[Deleted User]

Stevietee wrote: »

As regards neither the FCA or FOS not dealing directly with consumers where did you get that from or have you made it up ?

I said that the FCA do not deal personally with individual complaints. That is the case.

I never mentioned the Ombudsman (who do deal directly with the public) in that context at all.

Dunston has graciously answered your other points.

-taff

There is no impasse. The FCA dont do comsumer cases, the FOS do. You wan FOS to be the FCA. They aren't.
The FOS don't agree you have a case.

What's the point of arguing here about something that isn't going to change, which is, your complaint is over, no matter how much you dislike being told that.

Stevietee

Thank you for the replies and I did not mean to offend anybody. I would hope you will see that I felt that I was in the middle of two well respected organisations but the consensus of opinion is that the FOS are indeed correct and that is what I was trying to establish. So as you say the matter is over and I will just have to enjoy the success that I had with other claims which were based on the theory that if you do not try you do not succeed. Thank you