Final response not being honoured 6 August 2018 at 7:13PM in Insurance & Life Assurance 11 replies 1.5K views

cakefudgeandcherries

Hi

This is quite complex and unusual but will keep it brief.

I have a phi in payment for 3 years bought through an adviser. The adviser didnt discuss escalation of benefit with me and i complained about the poor advice. The complaint was UPHELD by the business who advised me and they admitted in writing that thier advice was poor and promised in writing in thier final response of May 2017 to pay me every year for the loss of escalation and to backdate this to the start of the claim. I accepted in writing thier final response but pointed out to them the compounding nature of inflation and how thier liability would increase to me every year. They went away and issued a NEW final response saying they werent paying (obviously because they realised the cost of what they promised). Can they refuse to honour a final reponse which I have accepted? Surely a final reponse is exactly that? I am at the start of FOS process now but dont know how they will deal with it as its over 6 months since the first final response but surely as I accepted it the firm are obliged to implement it? Can anyone quote something from FCA rules or handbook or something? I am very ill (have lots of evidence of this) so hoping they can take into account my illness and disability if theres a problem with the timescales.

I appreciate all your help.

cakefudgeandcherries

Can anyone please help with this and offer some opinions or advice? Im imagining that an organisation going back on a final response which has been accepted by the customer is quite unusual but i'd like to know where I stand.

Thank you everyone.

Quentin

Should the FOS not be able to adjudicate on an "old" complaint you will still have the option to pursue this through Court

ACG

You will need to speak to the ombudsman. It will come down to them to decide on.

Quentin

ACG wrote: »

You will need to speak to the ombudsman. It will come down to them to decide on.

An FOS decision is not binding on the the complainant (who can still use the Court as advised), irrespective of the FOS not upholding the complaint

ACG

Surely it is legally binding on the firm who gave the advice?
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/faq/businesses/answers/rules_a11.html

Quentin

Yes.

But the final decision does not legally bind the complainant if they aren't happy with it

Thus if the FOS refuse to deal with this because it's decision is it's out of time (or it decides not to uphold the complaint) it is not the end of this as far as the OP goes

cakefudgeandcherries

Thanks for all the replies so far.

The main issue here is there was a final response and I accepted. When i pointed out the way inflation works and how it is escalatory they went silent for a while, didn't pay the arrears and then eventually issued a second final response.

All I want is for them to pay out on thier own first final reponse letter. Is there a rule or something in the FCA handbook that requires firms to honour final responses when they have been accepted? If not then surely a final reponse is just meaningless if a firm can go back on it and issue another final response.

Quentin

As posted, if you can get this escalated to the FOS then their adjudication will be binding on the company

cakefudgeandcherries

I understand that any FOS ruling will be binding however do you think they will reopen and rexamime the whole dispute or will they simply order the business to honour its original findings and promises made in its initial final response?

The original final response was over a year ago but as I said its different to most cases as I agreed with the final response and they just haven't inplemented this. I known if you disagree with a final response you have 6 months to go to FOS. I have been and continue to be incapacitated and can show evidence if they raise issues about timescales in this case but as I said I was expecting the business to honour its final response.

Quentin

You need to put those questions to FOS.

As advised, if they rule it out of time then you can still take legal action over this to get it remedied.

(You may have unwittingly turned down the final response when you responded by adding strings, following which they took the original offer off the table.)

You will have to see first off if FOS can deal with this then take it from there

Why have you left it so long - did the advisor not give you details of the FOS along with the final response?