Record numbers of financial complaints – trust deed news

2nd June 2011

One of the disappointing aspects of the comments in the forum section of Trust-Deed.co.uk is the significant number of visitors who are genuinely disappointed with the performance of their trust deed providers. The majority of trust deed providers deliver the service they promised in a professional way, however, there are too many examples of poor service and a failure to fully explain the full ramifications of signing into Scottish trust deed from some of the firms involved in the industry.

Complaints about financial services providers in general have been on the rise. The Financial Ombudsmen Service (FOS) handled a staggering 200,000 complaints last year. This figure is made all the more dramatic by the fact that such complaints only reach the Financial Ombudsmen Service if the complainant is unhappy with the way a company’s internal complaints department has dealt with their concerns. These complaints departments are clearly not dealing with complaints properly as more than half of FOS cases result in the complainant winning their dispute.

In addition to the 200,000 formal complaints, the FOS has dealt with a further 800,000 initial enquiries where they offered guidance to the individuals who had contacted them.

More than half of the complaints dealt with relate to just four banks; Barclays, HSBC, RBS and Lloyds.

Financial services providers in the UK, whether they are banks or trust deed providers, are clearly letting down too many of their clients. Some obviously lack the will to empower claims departments to deal with the issues they have caused.

The Financial Ombudsman Service is theoretically not always the best place to complain if an individual feels they have cause for complaint with regards to the way their trust deed has been administered.

In all instances a complaint should first be made to the Trustee him or herself. The Trustee is the individual working at the trust deed provider that has taken on the case as a personal appointment.

If the Trustee fails to resolve a trust deed complaint in a timely manner or to the satisfaction of the complainant the matter can then be taken further. Generally individuals may wish to consider raising their complaint with the professional body their individual Trustee is a member of (the details of which should be on the correspondence they send out). Such bodies act in a supervisory capacity and require their members to address complaints.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy also has a supervisory role in connection to protected trust deeds and might be another point of contact for serious trust deed complaints.

It’s clear that complaints about financial services providers are increasing with service problems existing in certain quarters. However, complaints may also be increasing as we become less prepared to tolerate poor service. Whether it’s a bank account or a protected trust deed which is being poorly handled, complaints should not be made without good justification, on the other hand people should not accept poor service or treatment either.

Please browse our trust deed news articles or contribute to our trust deed forum to further your understanding of the sometimes intricate ins and outs of a protected trust deed.

Trust Deed Latest News