Upheld: General financial advice complaint against Foundation for Credit Counselling trading as Stepchange Debt Charity

Decision detail

Summary

Mr T complained that Stepchange gave him incorrect advice by recommending a debt management plan when he should have been referred to the Business Debt Line due to his rental property income. Stepchange failed to fully explore Mr T's rental property information and incorrectly recorded it as lodgings in their report. Although the ombudsman found Stepchange could have done more to investigate this information, Mr T also failed to correct the inaccuracies when asked and chose to accept the DMP recommendation. The ombudsman upheld the complaint but found no real detriment resulted from the DMP, accepting Stepchange's £50 compensation offer as fair and reasonable.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while Stepchange could have done more to explore Mr T's rental property information, Mr T also had responsibility to ensure the accuracy of information in the report. The ombudsman rejected Mr T's argument that referral to Business Debt Line would have avoided defaults, as creditors have a duty to record accurate information and would likely have reported defaults when accounts were in arrears. Mr T also had a choice to accept or reject the DMP recommendation and could have negotiated with creditors independently. The ombudsman concluded there was no real detriment from the DMP being put in place.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website