Have you been mis-sold a mortgage?
You could be entitled to substanial compensation
Struggling with repayments?
ABOUT US
Financial Claims Helpline (FCHL)
Financial Claims Helpline (FCHL) are a claims management company specialising in identifying ‘mis-selling’ of regulated financial products and services. We understand the financial and legal complexities involved in these products and how mis-selling may have taken place. Mis-selling means you were given unsuitable advice, the risks were not explained to you or you were not given the information you needed and ended up with a financial product that was not right for you. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) have found widespread mis-selling of financial products and services, especially cases of mortgage mis-selling.
It is our mission to help those who have been unfairly treated or disadvantaged by negligent advisors, brokers or lenders. The financial wellbeing of our clients is paramount, we aim to help you gain access to financial and legal help. We have access to a team of financial and legal experts in our panel solicitor firms who will pursue your claim for compensation (subject to meeting the required criteria and solicitor terms and conditions). If your claim is accepted by a panel solicitor, FCHL will receive a fee from the solicitor for introducing your case. FCHL will not charge you for the assessment and the work it undertakes on your behalf.
You do not have to use the services of FCHL or its nominated solicitor. It is possible to claim yourself for free either by contacting the Mortgage Company directly or if you are not satisfactorily dealt with, to the statutory regulated body the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), who will investigate your complaint.
WHY CHOOSE US?
Think you have been mis-sold a mortgage?
Call us now on:
MIS-SOLD MORTGAGES
The law states that brokers and lenders must ensure that mortgages are affordable throughout the entire mortgage term. If it can be shown that your mortgage was mis-sold then you may be able to claim for losses from the day your mortgage began.
FCHL can help you claim compensation if your advisor, broker, lender acted in breach of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) mortgage rules and regulations.
Examples of mortgage mis-selling:
- Your advisor did not complete an assessment of your financial circumstances and attitude to risk.
- The fees and charges were not explained to you or a secret commission was paid to the advisor which you were not told about.
- Your advisor did not discuss how you would pay the rest of the mortgage at the end of an interest only mortgage.
- You were told that the endowment policy would definitely pay off the mortgage.
- Your endowment policy and mortgage were set up to run into your retirement and your advisor did not ensure you would have the income to continue to make payments.
- Your advisor recommended that you cash in your existing endowment and then sold you another.
- You were advised to remortgage your house as a way of consolidating your debt.
MORTGAGE OVERCHARGING
Have you been overcharged by your lender or mortgage company, have you become a mortgage prisoner?
Due to the complexities of calculating interest the borrower puts their trust in the lender that the payments will be calculated correctly and in accordance with the loan agreement. Unfortunately, many borrowers have made over payments on their loans or mortgages due to miscalculation on the part of their lender(s). Many lenders have mis-allocated payments and applied incorrect interest rates. This has resulted in millions of home owners being overcharged, payments which they may be entitled to have refunded.
You are likely to have been overcharged if:
- You have fallen into arrears with your loan or mortgage.
- The lender paid your broker or advisor a fee that was not agreed.
- You have been charged excessive administration fees or arrears penalties.
- You have become a ‘mortgage prisoner’ trapped in your mortgage and unable to switch to a new one.
SECRET COMMISSIONS
Did you take out a secured loan before 2008 or remortgage before 2004? If so your advisor or broker was almost certainly paid a substantial undisclosed secret commission without your knowledge or authority. The law states you must be repaid that money.
A failure to disclose the existence and value of a commission paid by a lender to a broker places the broker in a conflict of interest. The broker should act for his client and in his clients best interest. A broker paid a commission payment by a lender maybe influenced to send his clients business to the lender paying the highest rate of commission. This is against the law and a breach of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules and regulations.
In order for a borrower to make an informed decision about a commission and whether the loan was right for them the broker should tell the borrower about the payment of a commission and how this would affect the loan. Simply being told a commission maybe payable is not adequate when selling financial products and services. Most borrowers would not be aware of the secret commissions which were added to the loan. Depending on the circumstances of your loan or mortgage it may be possible to have the loan reduced and the interest paid refunded back to you.
If you have taken a loan in the last 20 years and would like FCHL to make an assessment of eligibility involving the following loans, mortgages or services:
- Mortgages entered into before 2014.
- Second Charge loans.
- Insurance sales via a broker.
- Buy to Let mortgages.
- Commercial mortgages.
Think you have been mis-sold a mortgage?
Call us now on:
THE CLAIMS PROCESS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Who are FCHL?
Financial Claims Helpline are a claims management company that specialise in helping people who have been mis-sold a financial product or service. Your claim will be assessed by one of our representatives and if you qualify, you will then be passed to one of our panel solicitors who will dedicate someone to your claim.
What do I need to do?
Simply call us or fill in the application form.
You will be required to provide instructions during the claim process with your solicitor.
Only a small number of cases proceed to court and if this happens, your solicitor will be there every step of the way to guide you through.
Will claiming affect my mortgage?
Your claim will not affect your credit rating and therefore will not show on any referencing agency. In addition your current lender must treat you fairly and the fact that you are making a claim is not reasonable grounds for them altering your current mortgage to less favourable terms.
What do I have to pay?
FCHL will complete the initial assessment without charge to you on a no obligation basis. Once we have established whether you have a valid claim, we will then refer your case to one of our panel solicitors, who will subject to your agreement with them, then pursue your claim for compensation. FCHL will be paid a fee by the solicitor for introducing your case to them. Your case will then be handled exclusively by the appointed solicitor and any obligations to FCHL will cease.
I don’t have my mortgage paperwork, does this matter?
No problem at all, our panel solicitors we will obtain this for you!
All we need to progress your claim is the name of the lender or mortgage provider and when it was taken out. We have a few simple questions about the type of loan or mortgage you have in order to proceed.
What if I no longer own the property I mortgaged?
If you have been forced to sell your home or downsize due to being unable to afford it, there is a strong likelihood that your loan / mortgage was mis-sold.
What if I own it with someone I no longer live with?
Both parties to a mortgage have an equal right to make a claim. We try to make the process as simple as possible for all involved and understand that some people don’t want to be involved day to day. Therefore we will need a signature at the outset from both owners.
Who pays the compensation?
FCHL will not charge you for the work it undertakes on your behalf. Once our in-depth assessment has identified that your claim meets the required criteria you will progress with a chosen solicitor. If your case is successful, the solicitor will charge you for their services by deducting a percentage of your compensation. Typically, this will range between 25-35% + VAT.
If you have any outstanding liabilities (excluding your current mortgage account) with the financial institution or person against who the claim is made, any compensation awarded, may in certain circumstances, be off-set against those outstanding liabilities.
Can I pursue the claim myself?
You do not have to use the services of FCHL or its nominated solicitor. It is possible to claim yourself for free either by contacting the Mortgage Company directly or if you are not satisfactorily dealt with, to the statutory regulated body the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), who will investigate your complaint.
What is After The Event Insurance?
After the Event (“ATE”) Insurance is an insurance policy which covers the legal costs and expenses involved in pursuing a claim. This insurance covers the legal costs claimants must pay to a defendant when a claim is unsuccessful or terminated on the advice of a solicitor. It also covers the legal costs payable to a defendant in the event of an unsuccessful claim. ATE Insurance is purchased after the incident which has caused loss to the claimant, but normally before any significant legal costs or disbursements are incurred, so most ATE Insurance policies are purchased at the point at which a solicitor begins a claim.
Company Policies
Terms and conditions
Terms & Conditions
By using this website, www.fchl.co.uk, you have read our terms and conditions and you have accepted them. If you do not agree to these terms and conditions you are not authorised to use this website.
We reserve the right to change the terms at our discretion by changing them on the website.
Disclaimers & exclusion of liability
We have taken care to ensure that the information on this website is accurate and up-to-date, however we cannot accept any responsibility for mistakes or omissions.
With this website, there are no implied conditions, warranties, terms or representations regarding the quality, accuracy or completeness of the information.
FCHL website pages do not constitute either an offer, or legal or other professional advice and by using this website you confirm that you have not relied on any such content.
We do take measures to ensure our website and its content are free from viruses, but cannot accept responsibility for any viruses that may affect any material you download.
You may not misuse the website so you cannot hack, attempt to gain unauthorised access to the website or any server on which the website is stored, or knowingly introduce viruses, trojans or other harmful material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You may not attack the website via a denial of service (DoS) attack or a distributed denial of service attack.
Legal information
The FCHL website gives information about our services and is provided for general information only, it does not take account of any individual circumstances, reflect any recent changes in the law or constitute legal advice.
Any reliance on material on this website will be at your own risk and specialist advice should be sought before taking any action.
This website is owned and operated by FCHL and offers no warranty of any kind, implied, expressed or statutory, and makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the contents of this website.
Privacy / GDPR Policy
OUR PRIVACY / GDPR POLICY
Our Commitment to Privacy
At Financial Claims Helpline Limited (FCHL), we are committed to respecting and protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy covers information we collect from users and visitors of www.fchl.co.uk. By using our Services or agreeing to this Privacy Policy, you are consenting to the collection, use, disclosure of your information as described below.
If you have any concern about providing information to us or having such information used in any manner permitted in this Privacy Policy, you should not use the Services.
What information do we collect?
We collect information about you when you use our Services in several ways.
Information Provided by You
- We collect information from you when you register your details on our site or subscribe to our informational newsletter.
- When registering on our site, you may be asked to enter your e-mail address. However, you may visit our site anonymously. If you believe that someone has created an unauthorised account depicting you or your likeness, you can request its removal by contacting info@fchl.co.uk
Information Provided by Third Parties
We may collect, process and store your information associated with any social media account (such as happens when you enter a promotion or interact with a social application and agree to allow fchl to access your social media information. It happens also when you, as an Account Holder, upload company information data to use in FCHL financial services).
Automatically Collected Information
FCHL and third parties may use automated means to collect information about you, your computer or other device, and your use of our Services by using technologies such as cookies, web server logs, web beacons and Javascript.
Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognise your browser and remember certain information.
We use cookies to understand and save your preferences for future so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.
In addition, we use your public IP address to detect your location.
What do we use your information for?
FCHL may use the information we collect about you to:
- Establish your account and provide the Services;
- Fulfil your requests and provide customised content to you;
- Improve our Services and provide better customer service
- To develop new features and services.
- Provide our customers’ marketing analytics,
- To send periodic emails newsletters for marketing, and
- To investigate, prevent, or take action regarding unlawful or harmful activities, including potential threats to the physical safety of a person, potential fraud, and any violations of our Terms of Service.
How do we share the Information?
Information about you may be shared for the following purposes:
- When we have your consent or where it is necessary to carry out your instructions;
- As reasonably necessary to provide Services’ features and functionality to you;
- We may share your information with our associates, third-party vendors or business partners who provide services on our behalf, which may include analytics, customer service, marketing, sales, payment processing, and fraud prevention. Occasionally we may also authorise third-party vendors to collect information on our behalf, including as necessary to operate features of our Services.
- When we believe in good faith that sharing is reasonably necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding possible unlawful activities or to comply with legal process or other legal requirements.
- When we deem disclosure appropriate in situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, potential violations of our terms, or claims of violation of the rights of third parties
- When we deem disclosure appropriate to protect the rights, property and safety of us, our employees, users, or another person or entity (the disclosures described here may involve the sharing of your information with, for example, law enforcement, government agencies, legal authorities / courts, or other parties).
Information Access, Correction, and Deletion Options
You have a right to:
- Access, modify, correct, or delete certain of your information regarding your user profile, and
- Close your account. You can also contact us regarding any account information which is not on your profile or readily accessible to you.
If you close your account, your information may be removed or unpublished from the Services within a reasonable amount of time.
Please note that information that others have copied may remain visible and you may not be able to access, correct, or eliminate any information about you that others copied or exported out of www.fchl.co.uk, because this information may not be in our control.
Your information may also be displayed in search engine results indefinitely as this is not under our direct control.
We keep your accurate, complete and up-to-date personal information for as long as your account is active.
For example, we may keep certain information even after you close your account if it is necessary to comply with our legal obligations, meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, prevent fraud and abuse, enforce our agreements or as part of our Website data backup process. We may keep your data in a published or unpublished format on the Services or in backups on servers in the UK and abroad,
How do we protect your information?
We have implemented various technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to protect your information and to prevent unauthorised access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information. These safeguards maybe in the form of software firewalls, hardware firewalls and vary depending on the sensitivity of the information at issue.
Third Party Links and Services
The Services may contain links to third-party websites, applications and services, including social media services such as Facebook, as well as embedded images / videos or other third-party content and features. Your use of these features may result in the collection, processing or sharing of information about you, depending on the features accessed. We are not responsible for the content, features, security or practices of any third parties. The information you choose to provide to or that is collected by these third parties is not covered by our Privacy Policy.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy may be modified from time to time so please review the changes carefully. If you disagree with the Privacy Policy, you must stop using our Services. If you continue to use our Services after we publish an updated privacy policy or communicate a notice about any changes to this Privacy Policy, you are consenting to such changes.
International Users
The Services are hosted in the United Kingdom and are governed by the Laws and Regulations of the United Kingdom. Please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored and processed in the United Kingdom or any other country where our data servers are located.
The data protection and other laws of the United Kingdom might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. By using the Services, you consent to your information being transferred to our facilities and to the facilities of our associates, partners and third parties with whom we share it as described in our Privacy Policy.
Contact Us
If you have any requests, questions, comments, or concerns regarding this privacy policy you may write to us at info@fchl.co.uk
Complaints procedure
Complaints Procedures
We hope that the service and experience provided by Financial Claims Helpline (FCHL ) is satisfactory, however, we do realise that matters don’t always go as planned, and therefore this policy explains how FCHL will deal with any concerns you may have about the service received.
How do I make a complaint?
If you do have a concern or complaint, please contact us as soon as you are aware of the problem by contacting us:
Telephone: 0330 635 1780
Email: info@fchl.co.uk
Post: Victoria House, 37 Anson Road, Manchester, M14 5DA
Please include the following information:
- Your full name
- Reference number
- Contact telephone number
- Contact email address
- Full details of your concern
What happens next?
We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within seven days of our receiving the complaint, enclosing a full copy of the complaints procedure and advising you who will be responding to the complaint. We aim to resolve your complaint fully within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
What happens if I am unhappy with the response?
The matter will be referred to our Compliance Manager, Mr. T. Qureshi, who will consider the complaint further.
Although we aim to resolve complaints within 21 days of acknowledgement, the Legal Ombudsman guidelines allow for 8 weeks from the date we receive your complaint. If we have not been able to resolve the complaint within 8 weeks or following receipt of our final formal response (whichever happens first), you have the option of referring the matter to the Legal Ombudsman.
Legal Ombudsman
There are time limits for submitting a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. Where you have not followed our complaints procedure, you must submit your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within:
- 6 years from the date of the act/omission; or
- 3 years from the date when you should have known you have a complaint to pursue
The Legal Ombudsman will not, however, accept complaints where the act/omission or date of awareness was before 6th October 2010.
Where you have followed our complaints procedure, the time limit for pursuing a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman is no later than 6 months from the date on which you received a definitive response to your complaint from this firm, or from the last day of the 8 week period, whichever is the earlier.
There are exceptions to the 8 week and 6 months rules. For information relating to those exceptions, please refer to the scheme rules on the Legal Ombudsman website.
Legal Ombudsman contact details:
Post: The Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
Telephone number: 0300 555 0333
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk