Not upheld: section 75 claim handling and debtor-creditor-supplier agreement requirements complaint against Creation Financial Services Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr R purchased a solar panel system for approximately £9,000 using a Creation credit card in March 2019, with the contract held by E Ltd but payments made to S Ltd. When the system's batteries failed in March 2022, Mr R raised a section 75 claim with Creation, which initially declined but allowed a repair attempt. After the replacement batteries subsequently failed, Mr R requested a full refund. Creation declined the claim in August 2025, stating that the necessary conditions for a section 75 claim did not exist because the debtor-creditor-supplier agreement was not established, as Mr R had not provided sufficient evidence that E Ltd and S Ltd were associates under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. The ombudsman upheld Creation's decision as fair and reasonable, finding that Creation was not supplied with adequate evidence to establish the statutory requirements for a section 75 claim.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Creation had valid concerns about whether a debtor-creditor-supplier agreement existed under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. The critical issue was that while Mr R contracted with E Ltd, his payments were made to S Ltd. Under section 187 of the CCA, a DCS agreement would only exist if E Ltd and S Ltd were associates as defined in section 184. Although Mr R stated they were connected, he did not provide sufficient evidence that they met the statutory definition of associates (controlled by the same people or related people). The ombudsman concluded that Creation was not supplied with enough evidence to establish the necessary conditions for a section 75 claim, and therefore Creation's decision was fair and reasonable.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website