This week the High Court found in favour of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) in a review of its decision to uphold a complaint relating to a discretionary commission arrangement in a motor finance agreement.
As expected, the FCA has today introduced a pause for non-DCA complaints until 4th December 2025. This applies to any Letters of Complaint received by the lender from 26th October 2024 onwards.
The FCA have extended the time for submitting complaints to FOS for any Final Responses sent since 21 June 2024, as outlined in their table below.
Time to refer a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman
| Group | Scenario | Time to refer a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman |
|---|---|---|
| A | Consumer is sent a final response during period beginning 21st June 2024 and ending 19th December 2024 | Up to and including 29th July 2026 |
| B | Consumer is sent a final response during period beginning 20th December 2024 and ending 29th April 2025 | Up to and including 29th July 2026 |
| C | Consumer is sent a final response during period beginning 30th April 2025 and ending 29th January 2026 | Within 15 months of the date the firm sends its final response |
| D | Consumer is sent a final response on or after 30th January 2026 | Within 6 months of the date the firm sends its final response |
Coby Benson, Solicitor at Bott and Co comments: We welcome the FCA’s announcement that lenders now have further time to respond to non-DCA complaints. Previously lenders were disputing 99.9% of complaints and ignoring case law which is detrimental to their arguments.
The pause will avoid the needless to-ing and fro-ing of senseless responses whilst waiting for the Supreme Court to provide further guidance on these cases.
Read the full consultation document here
Bott and Co are encouraging anyone who hasn’t yet submitted their claim, to use our mis sold car finance claims checker. We’ll find your car finance agreements and tell you if you can claim and how much you might receive. We’ll guide you through the process of recovering what you’re entitled to and remember, you do not require any paperwork in order for us to check.