The complaint

Mr Y instructed the firm in relation to a house purchase in 2015.

When he went to sell the property in June 2021, he found out that the garage was not on his title plan, nor was it registered in his name. Mr Y was later able to resolve the issue and sold the house and garage to the intended buyer.

Mr Y finished settling into his new house in November 2022. In that same month he complained to the firm that they had failed to ensure that the garage was registered to him.

The firm provided their final response in December 2022. Mr Y did not agree with their response, so in April 2023 he brought the complaint to us.

The outcome

We reviewed Mr Y’s complaints and determined that he had not referred his complaints to us in time.

Our rules say that we’ll look into your complaint if you refer it to us:

• Within one year of the problem happening; or
• Within one year from when you found out about it;
  
  and
  
  
• You refer your complaint to us within six months of your service provider's final response if they warn you about this appropriately.

Although the issue occurred in 2015, Mr Y did not find out about it until 2021 so he could not refer his complaint to us within one year of the problem happening.

This means that Mr Y could only rely on the date he became aware of the issue, which was June 2021. To meet our time limits, Mr Y would have needed to complain to the firm and refer his complaint to us by June 2022 at the latest. But Mr Y did not complain to the firm until November 2022. Mr Y did not refer his complaints to us until April 2023, one year and 10 months after he knew there was a cause for complaint.

We notified Mr Y of this, and he accepted that he had not acted in time and did not have any fair and reasonable circumstances for why he did not do so. Because of this we dismissed Mr Y’s complaints.

There are occasions when we may accept a complaint for investigation even if it is referred to us outside of the one-year time frame. One example would be if Mr Y had complained to the firm as soon as he was aware of the problem, but the time spent completing the firm’s complaints procedure stopped him from bringing the complaint to us in time. In this instance, if Mr Y had then referred his complaint to us promptly, it is possible we would have accepted the complaint for investigation.

Guidance:

Guidance: Scheme Rules FAQ | Legal Ombudsman