Upheld: failure to engage with debt advice body; breach of FCA CONC rules; direct contact with customer without consent complaint against BW Legal Services Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Ms S engaged a debt charity to help manage her debts and requested a medical write-off due to poor mental health and minimal income. The charity wrote to BW Legal (the debt collector) on 27 August 2024 with proper authority but received no response to multiple follow-up letters. BW Legal then emailed Ms S directly on 19 November 2024 stating the account had been returned to their client. The ombudsman found BW Legal breached FCA CONC 7.12.2 rules by refusing to engage with the not-for-profit debt advice body and by contacting Ms S directly without consent, particularly given her disclosed vulnerability. The complaint was upheld and BW Legal was ordered to pay £200 compensation.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

BW Legal breached FCA CONC 7.12.2 rules by refusing to deal with the not-for-profit debt advice body without objectively justifiable reason and by contacting Ms S directly without her consent. Although BW Legal could not make the debt write-off decision themselves, they should have passed the request to their client and informed C of this action. The failure to respond to multiple letters from C, combined with the direct contact to Ms S who had disclosed poor mental health, caused distress and anxiety in breach of regulatory requirements.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website