Complaints
Complaints policy
How to complain, what we will do about it, how long each stage takes, and where to take it if we cannot put it right.
Last updated 27 September 2026
1. How to complain
1.1 What to include
- Your name, and how you would prefer us to reach you.
- What happened, and roughly when.
- The page, the enquiry or the property concerned, if it relates to something on this site.
- What outcome you are looking for, which saves a round of correspondence guessing at it.
- Anything you have already been told about it, and by whom.
1.2 You can also write to us
Simply Quote Comparison Ltd, Sentinel House, Ancells Business Park, Harvest Crescent, Fleet, Hampshire, GU51 2UZ. Mark it for the attention of the complaints manager.
1.3 You do not have to use the word complaint
If you tell us you are unhappy with something we have done, we treat it as a complaint and log it as one. You do not have to label it, quote a rule, or use any particular form of words to trigger this procedure.
1.4 If you would like help making it
Someone else can complain on your behalf, whether that is a family member, a solicitor, a letting agent or a trade body, and we will deal with them if you tell us they are authorised. If you need us to communicate in a particular way, or need more time at any stage because of a disability, an illness or a difficult personal situation, tell us and we will adjust how we handle it. That is a standing offer and you do not need to justify asking.
2. What happens next
| When | What | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Straight away | We try to sort it out | If we can put it right on the spot we will, and we will confirm in writing what we have done. A complaint resolved by the end of the third business day is closed with a short written summary rather than a full investigation. |
| Within 48 hours | Written acknowledgement | If it cannot be settled straight away, we acknowledge it in writing within 48 hours and pass it to a manager to investigate, with a name and a way of reaching them. |
| Within 14 days | A detailed response | The manager reviews everything involved and responds in detail. If it is going to take longer, we tell you that and why, rather than letting it go quiet. |
| A further 14 days | Escalation, if you want it | If our response does not satisfy you, you can ask for it to go to a senior manager, who reviews the case afresh and gives a final decision. |
| Eight weeks at the outside | The regulatory backstop | The FCA allows a firm up to eight weeks from receiving a complaint to issue a final response. That is the limit rather than the plan, and our own timescales are considerably shorter. |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
2.1 How we investigate
The complaint goes to someone who was not the subject of it. They look at what we hold, at what was said and when, and at what should have happened. Where the answer depends on something the panel operator or a provider did, we ask that firm rather than guessing on its behalf.
2.2 What our response will tell you
Whether we are upholding the complaint, in whole or in part, and why. What we are putting right, and how. Where we are not upholding it, the reasoning, so you can judge whether it holds up. And where the complaint falls within the Ombudsman's scope, your right to take it there, together with how and by when.
2.3 If it is going to take longer
We tell you, and we say why and when to expect an answer. A complaint going quiet is itself a failure of this procedure. If we have not been able to give you a final response within eight weeks, we will write to explain why and to tell you that you do not have to keep waiting for us before taking it further.
2.4 Keep the final response
The Financial Ombudsman Service will ask to see it, and the six month clock for going to it runs from its date. If you have had no response at all by the time eight weeks are up, you can go to the Ombudsman without one.
3. Whose complaint is it: ours, the panel's, or the provider's
| If your complaint is about | It goes to |
|---|---|
| Something on this website, the guidance, or how your enquiry was handled here | Us |
| Marketing from us, or how we have used your data | Us, and then the Information Commissioner's Office if you wish |
| The quote system itself, or which providers were approached | Seopa Ltd, which operates the panel. Tell us and we will point you to it |
| A price, a policy wording, a renewal, a cancellation or a claim | The insurer or broker that sold you the policy |
3.1 Why a policy complaint cannot come to us
We introduce you to a quotation service. We do not sell, administer or underwrite insurance. The contract, the price, the terms and any claim sit with the insurer or broker you bought from, and that firm has its own complaints procedure it is required to follow. We have no access to your policy and no authority to make a decision under it, so a complaint sent here would only be forwarded and delayed.
3.2 Where to find their procedure
It will be in your policy documents, usually under complaints or how to contact us. If you cannot find it, ask them for it: they have to provide it. If you are not sure which firm sold you the policy, ask us and we will tell you which firms your enquiry was passed to.
3.3 If you send it to the wrong one of us
We will not simply tell you that you have come to the wrong place. We will say who can deal with it and, where we can, give you the route to them. If part of a complaint is ours and part is not, we will answer our part and say so.
4. Complaints about our part in it
4.1 What that means for your complaint
The FCA's position is that an appointed representative carries on regulated activity under the responsibility of its principal. So where a complaint concerns the introduction itself, Seopa Ltd may be involved in answering it, and we will tell you if that is the case rather than leave you to work out who is replying.
4.2 What we will not tell you
That a route is closed to you. Whether a particular complaint falls within the Financial Ombudsman Service's jurisdiction is the Ombudsman's decision, not ours, and it would not be right for the firm being complained about to rule on it. If you want to ask the Ombudsman, ask it.
5. The Financial Ombudsman Service
5.1 What it is
A statutory scheme set up to settle disputes between financial firms and their customers without going to court. It can look at the evidence from both sides, decide what is fair and reasonable, and make an award that binds the firm. You do not need a solicitor and there is no charge to you.
5.2 The time limits
Two apply, and both matter. You normally have six months from the date of our final response to refer the complaint. Separately, the complaint must usually reach the Ombudsman within six years of the event complained about, or within three years of when you knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that you had cause to complain. Leave it longer and the Ombudsman may not be able to consider it.
5.3 Who can use it
Not everyone can, and this is worth checking if you let property through a company. The scheme is open to consumers and to smaller businesses, charities and trusts, measured at the time you complained to the firm.
| Who | The size test |
|---|---|
| An individual acting outside a business | Always eligible as a consumer |
| A micro-enterprise | Fewer than 10 employees, and turnover or balance sheet total not more than EUR 2 million |
| A small business | Annual turnover under GBP 6.5 million, and either a balance sheet total under GBP 5 million or fewer than 50 employees |
| A charity | Annual income under GBP 6.5 million |
| A trust | Net asset value under GBP 5 million |
These are the Ombudsman's own thresholds and it applies them, not us. A portfolio landlord operating through a company can sit either side of them, so if you are near a limit, ask the Ombudsman rather than assume.
5.4 How to reach them
- Online: financial-ombudsman.org.uk, which sets out what it can help with and how to bring a complaint
- Telephone: 0800 023 4567, or 0300 123 9 123
- From outside the UK: +44 20 7964 0500
- By post: Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR
5.5 What it will want from you
A description of what happened, our final response, and any correspondence between us. It will contact us for our file, and we will provide it. We will not ask you to withdraw a complaint or discourage you from making one, and doing so would itself be a serious failing.
6. Complaints about your data
6.1 To us first, if you are willing
Email complaints@landlordinsuranceuk.com and it goes through the procedure on this page. Our privacy policy sets out what we hold, why, and the eight rights you have over it.
6.2 To the regulator whenever you like
You do not need to come to us first and you do not need our permission. The Information Commissioner's Office can be reached at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113, and its postal address is in our privacy policy. Data protection complaints go there rather than to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
7. What we do with complaints afterwards
7.1 The records we keep
What was complained about, when, what we decided and why, and what we did. We keep complaint files for six years from the final response, because a complaint can reach the Ombudsman long after we have closed it and the file is the evidence. That is set out in our privacy policy along with every other retention period.
7.2 What we do with the pattern
Complaints are reviewed for what they have in common, not just one at a time. If two people misread the same page, the page is the problem. If a guide is generating complaints, it gets rewritten rather than defended.
7.3 Complaining will not count against you
It has no effect on any quote, on how an enquiry is handled, or on how you are dealt with afterwards. We would rather know.
7.4 This version
Version 2026-09-27.1, published for LandlordQuote, a trading style of Simply Quote Comparison Ltd.