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Why is it so important to use a fully authorised and regulated FCA company?
In an unregulated industry such as Timeshare, there is a very good reason to use a fully authorised FCA regulated Claims Management company. There is one word that answers the above question ‘accountability’. An FCA authorised and regulated company must be 100% accountable to its clients for every aspect of its work.
Whilst Timeshare is unregulated the financial products used to purchase timeshare are regulated, and as of 31 March 2019 anyone claiming to help you make a compensation claim for mis-sold timeshare or breaches of your timeshare agreement must be authorised and regulated by the FCA.
But not all timeshare companies who are FCA Authorised and regulated are equal
On the 31 March 2019 the FCA took over the regulation of Claims Management companies from the Ministry of Justice (MOJ). Prior to the FCA’s take over of Claims Management, it invited everyone who had an interest in pursuing regulated claims activity into the future to make an application to be authorised by the FCA.
Many timeshare termination and exit companies like ourselves applied to be FCA registered and were initially granted a ‘Temporary Permission’ status pending ‘Full Authorisation’. This was a golden opportunity for timeshare termination companies to prove that they were ‘fit and proper’ and to achieve very high standards of customer service and treating their clients fairly.
It may come as no surprise that out of the hundreds of timeshare termination companies to apply many of those have been refused authorisation by the FCA. To date, we know of only two timeshare termination companies in the UK to have achieved ‘Fully Authorised’ FCA status after passing 11 months of checks and scrutiny of its Directors and business practices. Those companies are;
Mercantile Claims Management Solutions Limited
Check status here >>https://register.fca.org.uk/ShPo_FirmDetailsPage?id=0010X00004LcnV2QAJ
Praetorian Legal Limited
Check status here>> https://register.fca.org.uk/ShPo_FirmDetailsPage?id=0010X00004QOijHQAT
Therefore, as you can now see not all FCA registered timeshare termination companies are equal as many will still have the default ‘Temporary Permission’ status which means after 13 months after applying for authorisation the FCA has still NOT fully authorised them or deemed them to be ‘fit and proper’.
Anyone looking to use the services of a company still on ‘Temporary Permission’ status should exercise caution. Take the guesswork out of your decision and only deal with fully authorised and regulated FCA companies when pursuing a claim for timeshare compensation.
As a fully authorised FCA company, we cannot take or ask for any money upfront from our clients. This also applies to companies on temporary permission too. However, some timeshare companies do not abide strictly by the rules and can be found asking for money upfront regardless.
