Complaints we can help with

We can usually look at complaints about CMCs that:

• provide their services from England, Scotland and Wales or to customers in these countries
• are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

This covers CMCs handling claims about:

• criminal injury (personal injuries that result from a crime)
• employment (for example, unfair dismissal)
• financial products and services
• housing disrepair (for example, when you’ve reported repairs to your landlord and they haven’t done anything about it)
• industrial injury (claims for benefits if you’ve been injured in an accident at work)
• personal injury

We can also look at complaints about how CMCs find customers with potential claims in these areas (for example, through unsolicited phone calls).

And we can look at complaints about CMCs that were covered by the Legal Ombudsman at the time of the event your complaint is about.

We can help you if your complaint is about the service you’ve received from a CMC.

This could be a situation where you think the CMC:

• didn’t clearly explain:
  • what fees they would charge you before they entered into a contract with you
  • any changes to the fees during the course of a contract with you
• didn’t keep you informed about the progress of your claim
• caused unnecessary delays to the progress of your claim
• provided inappropriate or incorrect claims advice
• failed to follow your instructions
• consistently didn’t reply when you contacted them
• passed your claim onto another CMC without telling you
• repeatedly contacted you without your consent

If you’ve received poor service from a CMC, we can help put things right. But we can’t look at or change the outcome of your original claim – for example, an employment tribunal’s decision to reject your claim for unfair dismissal.

We can help you with your complaint if you’re:

• an individual consumer – or joint consumers
• a “micro-enterprise” (a business with an annual turnover of less than €2 million and fewer than 10 employees)
• a business with an annual turnover of less than £6.5 million, and either fewer than 50 employees or a balance sheet of less than £5 million
• a charity with an annual income of less than £6.5 million
• a trustee of a trust that has a net asset value of under £5 million

Before you come to us, you need to have given the CMC the chance to sort out the problem. They have up to 8 weeks to provide you with their final response to your complaint. You then need to contact us within 6 months of the date of the CMCs final response letter.

There might be other time limits that apply to your complaint – find out more about time limits.

We can usually look at complaints about CMCs that:

• provide their services from England, Scotland and Wales or to customers in these countries
• are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

If you don’t live in England, Scotland or Wales and want to make a complaint about a CMC that’s based outside of these countries, you may be able to get help from an equivalent complaint-handling body. In Northern Ireland different rules apply. If you’re in Northern Ireland, or dealing with a CMC based there, let us know. 

Get in touch with us and we’ll try to help you direct your complaint to the right organisation.

If you’re not sure whether we can help with your complaint, or have any other questions, just call us on 0800 023 4567.

You can also find out more about how to get in touch if you have accessibility needs.