Timelimit for Judicial Review application re an ombudsman decision

[Guest]

I complaint to the FOS in March 2016. In August, after coming into possession of new evidence, I complained again. The FOS found against me in the first complaint and refused to investigate my second complaint, which they said was the same as the March complaint. The final decision was on 27 September 2016. I was given until 27 October to accept or decline their decision. I declined to accept.

The ombudsman's final decision says "I can decide not to look at a complaint and dismiss it without considering the merits, if we've previously considered the issue- unless new evidence has been provided that's likely to affect the outcome". The new evidence was that the insurance company had manipulated an expert report by withholding significant evidence.

Am I too late for a Judicial Review application?

[charitynjw]

Re: Timelimit for Judicial Review application re an ombudsman decision

Hi justace

You may want to take a look at this
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...rules_a11.html

[Guest]

Re: Timelimit for Judicial Review application re an ombudsman decision

The information in the link that "a judicial review will generally focus on the way in which an ombudsman arrived at the decision" is invaluable and gives rise to a reasonable assumption that the FOS adjudicator deliberately caused a situation wherein my second complaint would be set aside without investigation and that there has been a lack of fairness and impartiality.

Thank you for showing me the link. I had been coming at this from the wrong angle and this makes a difference.

[EXC]

Re: Timelimit for Judicial Review application re an ombudsman decision

Generally the time limit is 3 months from when the grounds of the claim first arose, so you'd be out of time. Do you have any idea how expensive Judicial Review proceedings are?

[Guest]

Re: Timelimit for Judicial Review application re an ombudsman decision

Clearly I do know the costs likely to be involved. Given that the insurers have left me with an unsellable house to which their agents have caused significantly more damage than existed at the time of the claim, I am in despair of ever getting this resolved.

Basically, all evidence points to fraud on the part of the insurance company and the charted surveyors who prepared reports (one instructed by me, the other by the insurance company) and determined efforts by an FOS adjudicator to prevent investigation of my complaints about the insurers. There is evidence. All but the first of my four complaints to the FOS ( Sept 2007, Feb 2010, March 2016, August 2016) have been "investigated" by the same adjudicator. The police won't get involved because they say it is a matter for the FOS.

[wales01man]

Re: Timelimit for Judicial Review application re an ombudsman decision

Why would your surveyor and the insures one commit fraud surely they were independent of each other

[Guest]

Re: Timelimit for Judicial Review application re an ombudsman decision

Yes, they were independent of each other and their reports were produced at different times. I can't explain why my own surveyor would have done this other than the possibility that he may have intended to protect a builder he may have known from a negligence claim.

My surveyor identified the cause of subsidence as being a leaking drain under the garage and organised reconstruction of drains in 2011. His report failed to disclose that the original garage had been substantially reconstructed in 2009 because of damage caused during "remedial" works in 2007 and that his report referred to the reconstructed garage and not the garage that existed at the time of the remedial works. When I raised the anomaly over the garage, he answered that he would discuss the rebuilt garage in court if asked.

There is photographic evidence that drains were extensively reconstructed from the kitchen outlet pipe via two new manholes to a reconstructed manhole some distance away. He misrepresented the facts about the drains reconstruction and withheld evidence. When I attempted to discuss this and other errors with him, he responded that it would be best if any future contact is with another member of his firm.

[Guest]

Re: Timelimit for Judicial Review application re an ombudsman decision

Why would your surveyor and the insures one commit fraud

I think the answer is that the insurance firm would want to prevent disclosure of the fact that their loss adjusters installed piled raft foundations without knowing the cause of the subsidence, that there was consequently further substantial damage to my property, that their builders worked on my property without investigating the cause of damage including that to concrete floors and the cause of water coming into my house through walls and up through the floors, and that my own surveyor found - in 2011, FOUR YEARS after the subsidence remedial work and two years after builders had supposedly repaired my property - that the subsidence was caused by a drain that was leaking under my garage, had been leaking at least since I made the claim in 1999, had been made worse by the piling in 2007, continued to leak whilst builders "repaired" the damage caused to my property in 2009/10, and that, on the basis of available evidence, the piling had caused further drains damage elsewhere that was the cause of water coming through the walls and up through concrete floors. As well there is the financial aspect - having spent in the region of £50,000 "repairing" damage to my property, they would be faced with an even more expensive thorough investigation of the damage their people caused, not to mention the cost of restoring my property to the condition it was in when I first made the claim, and having to compensate me and my family for the distress they have caused and the fact that we intended to downsize in 2003 and I have been forced to live in a property that I cannot afford to live in and which has eaten up most of my savings.

I cannot explain any collusion by my own surveyor.