Timesharing: Misrepresentation

(asked on 27th February 2024) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department has taken to ensure the Financial Ombudsman Service tackle mis-sold timeshare complaints between 2014 and 2021.


Answered by
Bim Afolami Portrait
Bim Afolami
Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 5th March 2024

In cases where a consumer took out a regulated financial product to purchase a timeshare, they may be able to make a compensation claim to the loan provider and may have recourse to Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) if the product was mis-sold.

The FOS is an independent non-governmental body established to provide consumers and small businesses with a free, independent service that enables the proportionate, prompt and informal resolution of disputes with financial services firms. Although the Treasury sets the legal framework for the regulation of financial services, it has no investigative powers of its own and cannot intervene in individual cases.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Handbook, which sets out the rules on how the FOS should handle complaints, states that ‘the ombudsman will attempt to resolve complaints at the earliest possible stage’.  Ensuring timely outcomes is one of the FOS’s main priorities for 2024-25 and it has set itself the target of resolving 90 per cent of cases within 5 months.

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