Complaint Handling

Making a Complaint

We do not make a charge for handling a complaint.  If you wish to make a complaint, we can be contacted as follows:

The Cobalt Building, Lower Pemberton, Ashford, TN25 4BF

richard@smarter-mortgages.co.uk  – 01233 512012

Acknowledging your Complaint

If your complaint cannot be resolved by the close of the next business day, following its receipt, we will promptly send you a written acknowledgement of your complaint, following its receipt.

If you make an oral complaint, our written acknowledgement will set out our understanding of your complaint.

If we have reasonable grounds to be satisfied that another firm may be solely or jointly responsible for the allegation(s) made, we will promptly forward the complaint, or the relevant part of it, to that firm.  We will write to you to confirm our actions and provide contact details of the firm concerned.

Investigating your Complaint

Your complaint will be investigated by somebody who is competent and as far as is possible by an individual who is unconnected to the subject of your complaint.  Your complaint will be investigated diligently and will be assessed fairly, consistently and promptly. We may ask you to submit copies of documentation and may request further information from you to assist us with our investigation. We will take into account any documents and/or information you may provide in relation to your complaint.

Keeping you Informed.

If your complaint cannot be resolved by the close of the next business day, following its receipt, we will ensure that you are regularly kept informed of our progress with regards to the investigation into your complaint.

Any progress updates will include:

• the reasons for any delay;
• what further information / documents we require to resolve your complaint; and
• when you may expect to receive a further update / our Final Response letter.

We will work towards completing our investigation into your complaint within eight weeks of its receipt.

We will undertake a thorough investigation of your complaint which may take a little bit of time.  However in the event that we have been unable to conclude our enquiries within the eight week period, we will write to you and let you know when we expect to be in a position to issue our Final Response letter.

We will also provide you with details of your right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).  The FOS can be contacted as follows:

Financial Ombudsman Service

South Quay Plaza

183 Marsh Wall

London

E14 9SR

Telephone: 0845 080 1800

E-mail: enquiries@financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Resolving your Complaint

When we have finalised our investigation into your complaint, we will issue our Final Response letter.

Our Final Response letter will be:

• fair, clear and not misleading;
• provide details of our investigation and decision; and
• if relevant, include any offer of remedial action or the appropriate level of redress (or both).

If you are not satisfied with our decision, you will have the right to refer the matter onto the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) within 6 months from the date of our

Final Response letter, or you may lose that right.  Details of this right and an explanatory leaflet will be provided.