Our Work
Complaints policies and guidance
2024/25
Consultation response on ECB approach to Complaints Handling and Sanctions
Overview
A key aspect of delivering our mission is ensuring that when people believe they haven’t been treated fairly, they are able to complain easily and to have their complaint dealt with, quickly and equitably.
We want to ensure that enforcement firms are offering a consistently good first tier complaints handling service and are also providing a route to escalate unresolved complaints to the ECB, which will provide independent determination of complaints.
On this page, you will find more information about why we have done this and what this means in practice.
Background
The existing process for complaining about an enforcement agent can be complex and hard to navigate.
This is further complicated by the fact that different types of debt and creditors have different complaints processes and appeals routes.
That’s why we have prioritised a review of current complaints procedures. Our aim was to create a simple, consistent and accessible way for people to complain.
We have done this in two ways:
1: Improving the way ECB accredited firms handle complaints through our standards. The standards set clear expectations for firms’ complaints procedures, including:
- Welcoming complaints and reassuring people about how they and their complaint will be treated;
- Improving the accessibility of the complaints handling process;
- Streamlining firms complaints handling processes, while at the same setting out clear expectations in terms of the complaint investigation and remedy;
- Having a culture of continuous improvement where there is senior level oversight of the complaints function and the learning from complaints is embedded.
2: Establishing a new, independent complaints handling service. We have also established our own second tier complaints handing service, so if people feel the firm hasn’t dealt with their complaint fairly they can refer their complaint to the ECB.
Our complaints function
ECB Complaints handling process
ECB Guide to Remedy
Our complaints handling function will launch in January 2025 and will consider complaints about enforcement action that has taken place on or after 1 January 2025.
From January, we will consider any new complaint about the conduct of an enforcement agent or firm where a person feels their complaint to the firm in question hasn’t been dealt with fairly or in a timely way.
You can read our complaints policies here and further guidance on how to complain will be published soon.
Where we find breaches of our standards, or that the firm has provided a poor service, we will recommend appropriate redress for the person complaining. Implementing our recommendations on redress will be a requirement of ECB accreditation. Further information about our approach to remedy can be found above.
Our focus will be on continuous improvement. We will be looking for opportunities to share the learning from complaints, both positive and negative, and making recommendations to prevent a recurrence of any issues that we have seen.
This will be a new system and approach to handling complaints and we want to ensure all our decisions are evidence based. We will make decisions based on whether the enforcement agent or firm has acted in line with our standards and met the usual standards of good service.
Our decision review process
Decision review process
Any complaints raised with us will be handled fairly and transparently.
However, if a person who has used our service believes that we have made any errors , they can request a review.
A review can only be requested by parties involved in the original complaint and all requests must be submitted within one month of the original decision via form, phone, or email.
If the complainant does not feel able to submit the review request themselves and feels they need support to do so, they can ask a free, impartial advice organisation or a family friend or representative for help. The decision review process is not an appeal process and there is no automatic right to a decision review. The process will only be taken forward where the requester has provided new information or pointed to information that has been overlooked that would have affected our decision.
Once a review has been accepted, a senior, independent reviewer will assess the new or overlooked information and decide whether to uphold our original decision or change it in some way. We will aim to complete this review within one month of acceptance.
For more details, refer to the full policy here.