How to complain or dispute a claim

If you have a dispute with a Business Transfer Agent then the first step you need to take is to make a formal complaint using the company’s Formal Complaints Process. If you can’t find the process on the company’s web-site then write a letter of complaint anyway – see below.

You OUGHT TO take this step as it is part of the CIVIL PROCEDURE RULES Alternative Dispute Resolution and Mediation procedure. You SHOULD allow the Business Transfer Agent chance to settle a dispute. RTA’s Complaints Handling Policy circa Sept 2011 was found here –RTA_Complaint_Procedure

Detail your complaint in full, in a word-processed letter that you need to send by Recorded Delivery. Ensure that you write BY RECORDED DELIVERY on the letter itself, which should have your correspondence address on the top right, and the current date. Use plain paper, not headed. The letter needs to be addressed to The Legal Department and The Directors, and state the full address of the company you are writing to. The heading should be COMPLAINT and OFFER WITHOUT ADMITTING LIABILITY.  Use the company’s reference number for your property or business. Refer to the date of any letter that the company have written to you. ALL contact needs to be in writing in case you need it for evidence. Please do not rely on e-mails at this stage. ‘Phoning the company tends to be a waste of your time as nothing the company or you say is provable – recordings of calls cannot be used in a Civil court.

If the Agent who visited you when you signed the contract misrepresented the contract, services, or anything else then detail this.  Note any relevant dates of correspondence or telephone calls from the Company to you. Keep safe any reply that you receive and check any facts or ‘points of law’ that the writer gives. Some replies quote only half-truths. Some are rude and call you ‘naive’. As you relied on the word of the Field Salesperson, in fact you acted in Good Faith.

If your business has been on the market for a while and you’ve had absolutely no viewings or feedback, ask for details of all the advertising that has been undertaken. Ask for details of all the people who have been given your business particulars and how they were made aware of your business. If the information is not forthcoming, do a SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST under the DATA PROTECTION ACT.

You should also considering coming to a settlement with your Agent. Ensure that you write that you are willing to pay £x having already paid £y as a Registration Fee. Add the two figures together, and finish the letter : ‘without admitting any liability, I am willing to make a goodwill payment of £z in Full and Final Settlement. Please revert back to me in writing within [insert number] days’