We'll treat your complaint in exactly the same way whether we receive the complaint directly from you or from a Claims Management Company (CMC). You don't need to use a CMC and they'll typically charge and upfront fee or take a proportion of any compensation you may be due. By coming directly to us you'll not be disadvantaged.

Please provide us with as much information as possible when making your complaint. This will help us to understand the issue and resolve it quickly. Please include:

• your name and address or the reference number corresponding to your enquiry
• a description of your complaint and how it has affected you (the more detail the better)
• when the issue happened
• a contact number (or other preferred method of contact) and a convenient time to contact you in the event we need any further information from you.

Why do we need this information?

We want to fully understand what's gone wrong. This will mean that we get the right person handling your complaint, so they can investigate and fix the situation as soon as possible. We want to get you back into the position you would have been in had the issue not occurred.

When things go wrong, resolving it as quickly as possible for you is our priority. We’ll do everything we can to address the issues you’re having, but sometimes it may take a bit of time to coordinate a solution as there are a lot of different people involved in a mortgage application.

What we'll do with your complaint

Step 1 Initial Assessment

We'll record your complaint and do everything we can to resolve it quickly.

If we can resolve your complaint within 3 business days following the day we received it, we’ll send you confirmation of this. We’ll also let you know about the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) at this time.

For more complex issues, we may need more time to investigate your concerns. If this is the case:

• We'll send you an acknowledgement letter outlining the next steps and when you can expect to hear from us.
• We'll provide you with a contact point if you need to speak to us.
• If you’ve complained by telephone, (and we’re unable to resolve your complaint immediately), we’ll outline our understanding of your complaint in this communication to ensure that we truly understand where things have gone wrong. If our understanding is incomplete, please let us know.

Step 2 A bit of time to get things right

We always aim to engage with you in a positive and constructive manner when dealing with any complaints and sometimes, when we need clarification on certain points, we’ll call you to ensure we have the full picture.

If we need a bit more time, we'll make sure we keep you up to date with what's happening.

Ok – but how long will I have to wait?

We aim to resolve all complaints as quickly as possible and specific timescales apply to certain types of complaints.

Although we have 56 days to resolve your complaint, we’ll send you our final response as soon as we’ve completed our investigation. Believe us, we want to resolve the issues you’re experiencing just as much as you do.

We’ll also keep you informed in writing along the way so you’ll know when to expect to hear from us.

If we haven’t been able to finalise our investigation within 56 days we’ll send you a letter letting you know and what steps you can take. These will include letting you know you can go to the Financial Ombudsman if you’d prefer not to wait until we’ve finalised our investigation.

Step 3 Our findings

After we've fully investigated your complaint, we’ll send you our final response by post detailing our findings and our decision.

Following our thorough investigation, it’s our hope that you’ll be in agreement with our decision.

However, we fully understand that even though we will do everything in our power to make things right, you may still be unhappy with our efforts. This is where the Financial Ombudsman Service can help.

We're covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), so if you're not happy with our final response, you can ask them to review your complaint for you.

They offer a completely independent review of your complaint when we have been unable to resolve it between ourselves.

There are 2 routes available for you to refer your complaint to them:

• We recommend you contact the FOS directly, as this will save you time. Their website also has an online form: http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm
• If you purchased your product or service with us online and you live in the EU, you can submit your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) via the European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution platform.

To contact the Financial Ombudsman Service:

• Call free on 0800 023 4567
• Visit the website and fill out the online form
• Write to Exchange Tower, Harbour Exchange, London E14 9SR
• Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Although you can refer your complaint to the FOS at any time, they'll ask for our permission to investigate complaints where:

• You haven't complained to us first, to give us the chance to put things right.
• You have complained to us, but we haven’t given you our Final Response yet and we’re still within our timescales.

You'll need to contact them within six months of the date of our summary resolution communication or final response letter.

Please be aware that some complaints are not eligible to be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service (for example – enquiries relating to Buy to Let mortgages) and where this is the case, we will inform you of this when we send you our final response.