Ocean Finance PPI 2003 HELP Close to GIVING UP

[Crocoman]

Let's get one thing straight, I am not even at the stage of getting a PPI claim refused, I cannot get anyone to even take responsibilty for the selling of it!

 

Here's the background

 

£20,000 secured taken out back in May 2003, £4900 added as PPI, loan over 15 years, redeemed in September 2004 totalling £25,661. Taken out with Ocean Finance but payments to First Plus.

Tried for the past three years or so to claim PPI was missold but First Plus accept NO responsibilty whatsoever, and refer us to the 'broker' Ocean Finance. They hit us with 'Ocean Finance does not now exist in the same form as in 2003/2004, now known as Ocean Finance & Mortgages. Blah, blah. Basically a solicitors letter stating that they're not liable. Tried First Plus and Ocean finance several times, putting in timescales for them to reply, threatening to escalate my complaint to the appropriate authority etc.

Even tried a claims company in January 2009 but they weren't any help, taking 8 months to tell me that they couldn't go to the FSA as the claim was pre 2005.

 

I contacted the Financial Ombudsman in September who advised me to find out who underwrote the actual PPI policy, as they may be able to take a complaint out against them. Done a Subject to Access request (with First Plus funnily enough), got all the info and found the name of a Jersey based company called Alabaster. They were liquidated years ago, called the FOS back who said there's nothing they can do. I contacted the Jersey Financial regulator who knew of Alabaster - unfortunately same response.

 

What do I do now? I keep seeing on here success stories from yeeeeaaars ago, pre 2005 doesn't matter, persisit, persist, persist etc. But I have NOONE who seems to acknowledge ANY responsibilty.

 

Is there anyone out there who has successfully got anywhere in this same/similar situation.

 

I can't itirate this enough though - writing to First Plus gets me NOWHERE and writing to Ocean Finance gets me NOWHERE! BTW, my wife was actually advised my a rep from Ocean a few weeks ago to contact a Paul Newey directly (the co-founder of Ocean but who isn't now there). Now that just sounds ridiculous.

 

Please, is there anything else I can do - I'm just about ready to shred all paperwork and erase this sorry episode from memory....

[Crocoman]

Can anyone help?

[dj1971]

Crocoman,

 

I can understand your frustations.

 

It is so annoying when these people are so willing to take our money and promise you the earth in the event of anything going wrong. But try to put in a claim and nobody wants to know.

 

I suspect you may now have only 1 option in pursuing your reclaim and it is through the small claims court.

 

Regardless of what Firstplus have told you or their solicitors, they have been collecting the monthly repayments and therefore are liable for any reclaim for mis-selling.

 

I suggest you write a post in the legal forum before taking any action as I am not a qualified legal advisor, but seems to me this may be your only remaining option and it has to be better than giving up and allowing them to keep your money.

 

Good luck

 

DJ

[frettful38]

Both these companies are regulated by the FLA Lending Code. Maybe worth a try making a complaint to them. Also the OFT are handling a supercomplaint against First Plus and have yet to come to a decision, which hopefully is not too long away. Have a look at the links below and I hope you can get some help from them. Good luck.

 

http://www.firstpluscomplaints.co.uk/

 

download the lending code attachment on the right hand side of the page below

 

http://www.fla.org.uk/consumers/The_Lending_Code

[papadak]

Hello how did it go with OF?

 

Let's get one thing straight, I am not even at the stage of getting a PPI claim refused, I cannot get anyone to even take responsibilty for the selling of it!

 

Here's the background

 

£20,000 secured taken out back in May 2003, £4900 added as PPI, loan over 15 years, redeemed in September 2004 totalling £25,661. Taken out with Ocean Finance but payments to First Plus.

Tried for the past three years or so to claim PPI was missold but First Plus accept NO responsibilty whatsoever, and refer us to the 'broker' Ocean Finance. They hit us with 'Ocean Finance does not now exist in the same form as in 2003/2004, now known as Ocean Finance & Mortgages. Blah, blah. Basically a solicitors letter stating that they're not liable. Tried First Plus and Ocean finance several times, putting in timescales for them to reply, threatening to escalate my complaint to the appropriate authority etc.

Even tried a claims company in January 2009 but they weren't any help, taking 8 months to tell me that they couldn't go to the FSA as the claim was pre 2005.

 

I contacted the Financial Ombudsman in September who advised me to find out who underwrote the actual PPI policy, as they may be able to take a complaint out against them. Done a Subject to Access request (with First Plus funnily enough), got all the info and found the name of a Jersey based company called Alabaster. They were liquidated years ago, called the FOS back who said there's nothing they can do. I contacted the Jersey Financial regulator who knew of Alabaster - unfortunately same response.

 

What do I do now? I keep seeing on here success stories from yeeeeaaars ago, pre 2005 doesn't matter, persisit, persist, persist etc. But I have NOONE who seems to acknowledge ANY responsibilty.

 

Is there anyone out there who has successfully got anywhere in this same/similar situation.

 

I can't itirate this enough though - writing to First Plus gets me NOWHERE and writing to Ocean Finance gets me NOWHERE! BTW, my wife was actually advised my a rep from Ocean a few weeks ago to contact a Paul Newey directly (the co-founder of Ocean but who isn't now there). Now that just sounds ridiculous.

 

Please, is there anything else I can do - I'm just about ready to shred all paperwork and erase this sorry episode from memory....

[oidhche]

I'm not sure the Financial Ombudsman is being of any help to you, or to me for that matter. Ocean Finance sold me a loan which was financed by iGroup (now GE Money), so I went to GE Money and they said that because the loan wasn't sold by them they weren't liable. So I contacted the FO and they said I should claim against Ocean Finance since they sold me the loan, which is probably reasonable.

 

I have had the same reply from them as you have - to contact this Paul Newey who is apparently a solicitor, because Ocean Finance and Mortgages Ltd wasn't the name of the company when I took my loan out so they don't feel they are responsible. Is it worth pursuing them? Or just go through the small claims court?