Complaints Policy

Regulatory Requirements

The Financial Conduct Authority requires Stratus Legal Solutions Ltd (‘the Firm’), to operate a complaints handling policy that enables the effective identification, investigation and resolution of customer complaints.

Principle 6 of the FCA’s Principles for Businesses requires The Firm to treat customers fairly. Part of The Firm’s commitment to treating customers fairly is to ensure that customers do not experience any post-sale barriers such as experiencing difficulties in lodging complaints.

Definition

The FCA defines a complaint as any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction, whether justified or not, from, or on behalf of a customer or potential customer about the provision of, or failure to provide, a financial service which alleges that the complainant has suffered (or may suffer) financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience and relates to an activity of Stratus Legal Solutions Ltd or any other organisation that Stratus Legal Solutions Ltd has some connection to in marketing or providing financial services or products.

In other words, a complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction about the provision of the Firms claims management activities, whether justified or not.

Submitting a Complaint

Complaints may be made in writing, by email, by telephone or in any other form in respect of a claims management service that Stratus Legal Solutions Ltd have provided. If you are making a complaint, please use the following contact details:

Telephone: 0333 344 5324

Address: 13 Swindells Street, Hyde, England, SK14 4TP

Email: complaints@stratuslegalsolutions.co.uk

The following complaints procedure is made available to every client upon request, will be supplied upon receipt of a complaint and is published on the company’s website.

We strive to ensure that there should be no time that you should have any cause for complaint in relation to the service we provide to you. In the unlikely event that you wish to raise a complaint or have any other concerns with regard to any service we have provided you may submit a formal complaint. This procedure sets out the process which should be followed.

We will always attempt to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible. We will aim to do this by close of business on the third working day following receipt of your complaint. If we are able to agree a resolution with you within this time frame, we will write to you by letter or email, to confirm this and explain your next steps.

Acknowledgement

There may be occasions when we need more time to resolve a complaint. If this is the case, we will send a written or electronic acknowledgement of your complaint within 5 business days, which outlines our understanding of your complaint points and identifies the individual handling your complaint.

Wherever possible, that person will not have been directly involved in the matter, which is the subject of the complaint, and will have authority to settle the complaint.

Complaints investigation

We will endeavour to issue a final written response to the complaint within 8 weeks of initial receipt.

Stratus Legal Solutions Ltd ‘final response’, being a written response from the respondent which:

(a) accepts the complaint and, where appropriate, offers redress or remedial action (Appropriate redress will not always involve financial redress).; or

(b) offers redress or remedial action without accepting the complaint; or

(c) rejects the complaint and gives reasons for doing so

and which:

(d)informs you that if you are not satisfied with our response then you may refer your complaint to the Claims Management Ombudsman by letter, email or telephone.

The Claims Management Ombudsman (CMO) can investigate complaints up to six years from the date of the problem happening or within three years of when you found out about the problem. If you wish to refer your complaint to the Claims Management Ombudsman this must be done within six months of our final response to your complaint.

If a complaint is not resolved after eight weeks we will explain why we are not in a position to make a final response and indicate when we expect to be able to provide one or if you are dissatisfied with our final response you can refer your complaint to the Claims Management Ombudsman. 

Their contact details are:

Claims Management Ombudsman
Exchange Tower
London
E14 9SR
Tel: 0800 023 4567
Web: cmc.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

N.B. Please note you have 6 months from the date of our final decision to approach the Claims Management Ombudsman