Following our recent discussions with FOS they have made the following announcement (refer below). This is a positive development which will hopefully prevent some motor commission cases from being pushed through and becoming chargeable.

 

Please note we will discuss this further at the next Regulatory Reform Working Group on the 2 April. If you have any questions about this latest announcement, please let me know.

 

“Following our recent discussions on the issue of representatives bringing us increasing volumes of cases where the respondent firm has had the complaint for some time but has not responded to make clear whether the case is subject to the FCA ‘pause’, we wanted to let you know we are implementing some transitional arrangements for charging case fees to respondent financial businesses.  Broadly, this will mean that in eligible cases, firms have an additional period to confirm whether the complaint is subject to the pause and thus out of jurisdiction, or to settle the case, before the case becomes chargeable.  In eligible motor finance commission (MFC) cases the deadline will be 30 April 2025, aligned with earliest possible judgement that may be given on the pending Supreme Court hearing on Johnson, Wrench and Hopcraft.

 

These arrangements apply to complaints we receive between 7 February and 31 March 2025 (i.e. after we announced the date when charging would begin); where the complaint relates to an issue that is subject to an ongoing and evolving regulatory activity, including the FCA’s work on motor finance commission complaints and the attendant ‘pause’ on complaint-handling, and where the complaint is outside of the usual time limits for firms to respond to a complaint.

 

They will only apply in specific and exceptional circumstances, and we are in direct contact with the businesses that are likely to have cases that meet the criteria. We will monitor the cases we receive during the transitional period and will proactively let respondent financial businesses know if we have received a complaint where the transitional arrangements apply. We will also be publishing information about the arrangement on the case fee page of our website.”

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