Complaints Handling Procedure (Summary)

Birnbeck Finance Limited is required by the Financial Conduct Authority to have in place and operate appropriate and effective complaints handling procedures for handling and expression of dissatisfaction from its clients, whether oral or written and whether justified or not, about its general insurance related activities. These procedures must be written down.

Set out below are the procedures that we have put in place to ensure that complaints are handled fairly, consistently and promptly, and resolved at the earliest possible opportunity. Our objective is to resolve complaints internally, whenever possible, in order to minimise the number of cases where our clients need to refer the issue to a higher dispute resolution authority.

How to complain

If you should have any complaint we would ask you to make your complaint to Stuart Rose, Managing Director at the following address:

Birnbeck Finance Limited
129 High Street
Worle
Weston-super-Mare
Somerset
BS22 6HQ
office@birnbeck.com

You may make you complaint at any time and by any reasonable means (for example by letter, telephone, fax, e-mail or in person) although we would prefer you to contact us in writing, detailing the precise nature of your complaint, so that there can be no misunderstanding.

How we will investigate your complaint

Stuart Rose, Managing Director will record your complaint. The complaint will then be handled either by Stuart Rose, Managing Director or, where appropriate by a member of staff of sufficient competence who was not directly involved in the matter which is the subject of your complaint.

We will handle your complaint competently, diligently and impartially.

The person handling the investigation will have authority to settle complaints themselves (including the offering of redress where appropriate) or have ready access to someone who has that authority.

How we will respond to your complaint

On receiving your complaint we will send prompt written acknowledgement (usually within five business days) giving you the name and job title of the person who will be carrying out the investigation and detailing when you can expect to receive a response.

We will keep you informed on any progress made with the complaint and the measures being taken to resolve the matter.

Within eight weeks of receiving your complaint we will provide you with a written final response informing you of the outcome of our investigation. This letter will detail the nature and terms of any offer of compensation which we may consider appropriate or, alternatively, our reasons for rejecting the complaint. At this time we will also inform you that if you are dissatisfied with our final response, you may refer your complaint to an Approved Dispute Resolution Facility.

Approved Dispute Resolution Facilities

Eligible Complainant (see definition below)	The Financial Ombudsman Service
The Financial Ombudsman Service’s explanatory leaflet will be enclosed with our communication.
Non-Eligible Complainant	Insurance companies use various Dispute Resolution Facilities and we will provide you with full details of the appropriate body with our final response.

If the alleged complaint if not the firm’s fault and may be attributed to the actions of another firm either wholly or partially then we may forward the complaint or the relevant part of the complaint to the other firm.

We will:

1. Forward the complaint promptly
2. Inform you promptly in a final response of why the complaint has been forwarded and the contract details of the firm now dealing with the complaint
3. Where jointly responsible we will deal with the part of the complaint that has not been forwarded in line with our complaints handling procedures

Definitions

An eligible complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction whether oral or written, and whether justified or not, form or on behalf of an eligible complainant about the firm’s provision of or failure to provide a financial service.

A person is an eligible complainant if:

1. They are a potential customer, a current customer or a past customer of Birnbeck Finance Limited
2. The complaint arises out of matters relevant to them being or having been a customer as described above
3. They are:
   1. A private individual/consumer
   2. A micro-enterprise with an annual turnover or annual balance sheet of less than EUR2 million and fewer than 10 employees. For the purpose of this process, a micro-enterprise is defined as a business engaged in economic activity irrespective of the legal form, including but not limited to, self employed persons and family businesses, partnerships or associations
   3. small business that is not a micro-enterprise as defined above, with an annual turnover of less than £6.5 million and:
      1. fewer than 50 employees, or
      2. an annual balance sheet of less than £5 million
   4. charity with an annual turnover of less than £6.5 million
   5. trustee of a trust with a net asset value of less than £5 million
   6. guarantor and the complaint arises from matters relevant to their relationship with the business. For the purpose of this process, guarantor is defined as someone who is not a consumer and who has given a guarantee or security in respect of an obligation or liability of a micro-enterprise or small business, as defined above.