Response from BMW

fzx5v0

Just received the following response from BWM I thought they were waiting on the FCA before making decisions on what to do.

You entered into the Agreement numbered 123456 on 01 November 2014. We

maintain that the limitation period for any complaint has now expired. The Limitation Act

1980 states that any contractual claims, statutory claims, or actions based on

misrepresentation is 6 years from the date you were or should have been aware of the

problem. As you were notified prior to entering into the Agreement that commission

might be paid to the dealer you could have used reasonable diligence to immediately ask

for details before signing the Agreement. You were therefore aware of a potential

complaint when you entered into the Agreement over 6 years ago.

The Ombudsman might not be able to consider your complaint if:

• what you’re complaining about happened more than six years ago, and

• you’re complaining more than three years after you realised (or should have

realised) that there was a problem.

We think that your complaint was made outside of these time limits for the reason set

out above. If the Ombudsman agrees with us, they will not have our permission to

consider your complaint and so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances

(see below).

If you do decide to refer your complaint to the Ombudsman, you must do so

within six months of the date of this letter.

If you do not refer your complaint to the Ombudsman within six months of the date of

this letter, the Ombudsman will not have our permission to consider your complaint and

so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances.

For more information, please refer to the consumer leaflet at financial-

ombudsman.org.uk/businesses/resolving-complaint/ordering-leaflet.

You can also get in touch with them via their website at financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

dunstonh

It looks like they have read your complaint as if you have complained about the dealer receiving a commission and not as a DCA complaint.

What did you say in your original complaint? (i.e. did you state you were not told the dealer would get a commission? as that is the sort of thing that generates that type of response).

fzx5v0

Hi
This is what i sent to them not sure where the template came from I think this site.

On 11 January 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority launched an investigation into unfair historical motor finance commission arrangements. This has made me aware that I may have been caught out by this unfair practice. As I had a finance agreement with your firm, I am writing for clarification on the following two requests:

1. A request for information you hold on my behalf. I would like to ask if my finance agreement with you, reference 123456, had any form of discretionary commission arrangement between you and the broker / car dealer or any other entity involved in the transaction. If it did, I request you inform me within 28 days of the date of this communication.

For the sake of clarity, this first request is purely for information and is not a complaint or expression of dissatisfaction, and is not subject to the FCA’s pause. If there is failure to comply with my request, please treat this request as a data subject access request under the Data Protection Act 2018/GDPR.

2. If there is/was a discretionary commission arrangement in place in relation to my finance agreement with you, I request you treat this communication as a formal complaint arising out of the commission arrangement and the fact it was not adequately disclosed at the time it was taken out. The complaint should be treated as being made on the date of this communication. Please confirm to me within 28 days that you have done so.

dunstonh

It looks like they have taken bits of that template and interpreted it as an unfair commission complaint.   They may still have passed it to the DCA side as well but the first paragraph could be easily misinterpreted with references to being "caught out" or "unfair" and "commission" without reference to DCA.

Nasqueron

fzx5v0 said:

Hi
This is what i sent to them not sure where the template came from I think this site.

On 11 January 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority launched an investigation into unfair historical motor finance commission arrangements. This has made me aware that I may have been caught out by this unfair practice. As I had a finance agreement with your firm, I am writing for clarification on the following two requests:

1. A request for information you hold on my behalf. I would like to ask if my finance agreement with you, reference 123456, had any form of discretionary commission arrangement between you and the broker / car dealer or any other entity involved in the transaction. If it did, I request you inform me within 28 days of the date of this communication.

For the sake of clarity, this first request is purely for information and is not a complaint or expression of dissatisfaction, and is not subject to the FCA’s pause. If there is failure to comply with my request, please treat this request as a data subject access request under the Data Protection Act 2018/GDPR.

2. If there is/was a discretionary commission arrangement in place in relation to my finance agreement with you, I request you treat this communication as a formal complaint arising out of the commission arrangement and the fact it was not adequately disclosed at the time it was taken out. The complaint should be treated as being made on the date of this communication. Please confirm to me within 28 days that you have done so.

You might as well go back to them and clarify it's a DCA query, scrub the deadline, they have no obligation to do that as the whole DCA complaint is on hold