Complaints Policy

A complaint tells us something useful about the client experience, our communication, the scope we agreed, our delivery, the quality of our work, our professional judgement or a weakness in our process. We would rather know.

Every complaint is handled fairly, promptly, in proportion to what has happened, and with a written record.

Nobody at Blue Haven treats a client as difficult for raising a concern. Complaining is a reasonable thing to do when something has not gone as it should.

This policy applies to complaints from clients, from people at a client, and from anyone else we deal with in the course of our work.

A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction with Blue Haven or with our work. It may concern:

1. the quality of our service or of a Deliverable;
2. a delay, or the timetable slipping;
3. how we have communicated, or a failure to keep you informed;
4. the scope of the work, or something you expected which was not included;
5. a recommendation we made, or advice you consider wrong;
6. the conduct of someone at Blue Haven;
7. confidentiality, or how we have handled information;
8. fees or an invoice;
9. a specialist we introduced or coordinated; or
10. an allegation that our work was inaccurate, went outside our competence, or caused you loss.

You do not need to use the word complaint. A statement that you are unhappy with how a piece of work has been handled, or that you think our advice has caused a problem, is treated as a possible complaint and recorded as one.

A complaint can be made by any route and by anyone at your business. It does not have to come from the person who signed the Engagement Document.

Some contact is ordinary business rather than a complaint. That includes a routine question, a request for clarification, a request for a copy of a document, an ordinary change to scope, a billing query answered on the spot, and general feedback about how the work is going.

The distinction is dissatisfaction. If you remain unhappy after the answer, or the same issue comes back, it is treated as a complaint and logged.

This clause exists to keep the record proportionate. It is not a route for avoiding a genuine complaint, and where there is any doubt we log it.

Raise it in whichever way suits you:

1. email team@bluehavenadvisory.co.uk, which is the quickest route;
2. write to us at the registered office in clause 29;
3. telephone us; or
4. raise it in conversation with the person you deal with at Blue Haven.

There is no form to complete, and no route is mandatory. A complaint raised in conversation counts as a complaint.

Where a complaint is made verbally, we write down what we understood, send it to you and ask you to correct anything we have misunderstood. We do not wait for that confirmation before carrying out any immediate step required by clauses 9 to 13, including the risk assessment, preserving records, a privacy response and any insurance or escalation step. Our substantive findings wait until the complaint has been clarified where clarification is needed.

If you would rather not raise it with the person you have been dealing with, say so, or send it to the complaints address. It is then picked up by the other Active Founder where there is one, and otherwise handled under clause 7.3.

The following helps, although we can start without all of it:

1. your name and business, and the engagement reference if you have it;
2. what happened, in your own words;
3. the dates involved;
4. who was involved;
5. what outcome you are looking for; and
6. any document, email or report which is relevant.

If some of that is not available, tell us what you can and we will work with it. We may come back with questions.

We aim to acknowledge a complaint within two business days of receiving it. That target is our own service standard rather than a legal requirement.

The acknowledgement confirms that we have received the complaint, who is handling it, what happens next, when you can expect a substantive response, and anything we need from you to get started.

Where a complaint arrives verbally, the acknowledgement includes our written summary of what we understood, as clause 4.3 describes.

Where Amy Wootton and Wayne Scott-Fox are both Active Founders, the complaint is normally handled by the Founder who did not lead the work complained about, wherever that is practical.

Both Active Founders have visibility of a complaint rated amber or red under clause 9. Where only one Active Founder remains, that Founder holds it and clause 7.3 applies, and a person who has ceased to be an Active Founder has no complaint-handling role.

Where only one Active Founder remains, that Founder handles the complaint or escalates it, and obtains independent professional input where a conflict or the seriousness of the complaint requires it.

A person whose work is complained about does not act as the sole reviewer of that work where an independent review is reasonably possible.

Neither Founder is senior to the other, and this clause allocates work rather than authority.

Where the person who would ordinarily handle the complaint delivered the work in question, has a personal interest, is the subject of the allegation, or has already taken a firm position on the issue, someone else reviews it where that is practical.

The reviewer may be the other Active Founder, an external solicitor, an independent specialist in the field concerned, or the insurer or broker where the complaint is claim-related.

We do not bring in an external professional for a minor complaint. The response is proportionate to what has happened.

Every complaint is rated when it arrives, and the rating is reviewed as more becomes known.

The rating is an internal working tool. It is not a judgement on whether the complaint is justified, and a green complaint is taken as seriously as any other.

A complaint is escalated immediately, on the day it is identified, where it involves a threatened or actual claim, a demand for compensation, an allegation of negligence, a regulatory issue, a concern about the insurance or financial services boundary, a serious health and safety allegation, a confidentiality issue, a data breach, dishonesty or fraud, a possible professional indemnity notification, or legal proceedings.

Escalation may involve the other Active Founder, the privacy contact, the insurance broker, the professional indemnity insurer, a solicitor or a specialist, depending on the issue.

Not every complaint goes to the insurer. Clause 12 explains when the insurance position is engaged.

This clause is applied consistently with clauses 19 and 20 of the Blue Haven Professional Liability and Service Boundary Standard.

We can be sorry that something has caused you concern without accepting legal responsibility for it, and we say so plainly when that is the position.

Where a complaint may lead to a claim, we listen, acknowledge the concern, gather the facts, and apologise for a poor experience where an apology is due.

Until the position has been properly reviewed we do not admit legal liability, agree that we were at fault, promise compensation or speculate about what happened.

That is not evasion. It is the difference between empathy and a legal admission, and taking a position too early would not help either of us.

Where a complaint may amount to a claim, or to a circumstance which could give rise to a claim, or to something reportable under our professional indemnity insurance, we preserve the records, avoid any admission, and notify the broker or insurer in accordance with the policy requirements.

We follow the insurer's instructions on handling the complaint where the policy requires it, and we tell you if that affects how or when we can respond.

This clause is applied consistently with clause 16 of the Professional Liability and Service Boundary Standard.

Where a complaint concerns personal data, the privacy contact is told and the Blue Haven Internal Data Protection Policy applies alongside this policy.

We assess whether the complaint is also a request to exercise a right, and whether a personal data breach has occurred. A complaint can be all three at once, and each is handled properly rather than folded into the others.

Relevant records are preserved, and any notification is decided under clauses 24 and 25 of the Internal Data Protection Policy.

Where the complaint concerns how we have handled personal data, you may also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, as clause 21 explains.

Where a complaint concerns a specialist, we first establish whether the specialist contracted directly with you, whether we subcontracted them, whether the complaint concerns the introduction itself, and whether anything we did contributed to the problem.

Where the specialist contracted directly with you, they remain responsible for their own advice and work. We help route the complaint to them where that is reasonable, and we still investigate any complaint about our selection, introduction or coordination.

Where we subcontracted the specialist to deliver part of our own scope, we remain responsible to you for that part, in accordance with clause 10 of the Client Terms of Business.

We do not overstate or understate our position. We tell you which of those situations applies and why.

A complaint is investigated in proportion to what has been raised. The steps below are the full set, and a straightforward complaint will not need all of them.

1. Record the complaint and give it a reference.
2. Acknowledge it under clause 6.
3. Identify the complaint owner under clause 7 and check for a conflict under clause 8.
4. Rate the risk under clause 9 and escalate where clause 10 applies.
5. Preserve the relevant records and suspend any routine deletion.
6. Review the Engagement Document and the scope agreed.
7. Review the version of the Client Terms of Business which applied.
8. Review the correspondence and the sign-off record.
9. Review the evidence relied on for the work in question.
10. Speak to the people involved at Blue Haven.
11. Obtain specialist, insurance or legal input where the complaint needs it.
12. Identify the findings and whether the complaint is upheld.
13. Identify any corrective action, for the engagement and for our process.
14. Prepare the response under clause 18.
15. Sign off the response under clause 7 and record the outcome.

We speak to people in a way which does not lead them or alter what they remember, and we keep the original records rather than working from a summary.

Our service targets are:

1. acknowledgement within two business days;
2. a substantive response within ten business days where that is reasonably possible; and
3. a final response within twenty business days where that is reasonably possible.

These are our own targets, not statutory deadlines. Where a complaint is complex, involves a specialist or needs insurance or legal input, it may take longer.

Where more time is needed, we tell you why, what remains outstanding and when you will next hear from us.

If we ever provide a service which is subject to mandatory complaint timescales, this policy is updated before that service begins.

You should not be left wondering what is happening. For anything which will take more than a couple of weeks, we give you a reasonable update as the investigation progresses.

We explain a delay rather than letting a date pass in silence.

We do not speculate about the outcome or promise a conclusion before the review is finished.

The final response sets out:

1. what we understood the complaint to be;
2. what we reviewed;
3. what we found;
4. whether the complaint is upheld, partly upheld or not upheld, and why;
5. any corrective action we are taking;
6. any remedy we are offering under clause 19;
7. what happens next, including the second review in clause 20; and
8. any external route genuinely available to you, as clause 21 explains.

The response is written in plain language. Where we do not uphold a complaint we explain the reasoning rather than simply rejecting it.

Where we got something wrong, we say so.

Depending on what we find, a remedy may be an explanation, an apology, a correction, re-performance of the work, an updated Deliverable, a change to our process, an adjustment to a fee, a refund, a contribution towards a reasonable loss, or another resolution agreed with you.

A remedy is not automatic. It follows from what the investigation found.

A financial remedy needs the approval of both Active Founders, or of the remaining Active Founder, and where the complaint is claim-related it also needs input from the insurer or a solicitor before anything is offered.

Any remedy is without prejudice to the liability position in clause 25 of the Client Terms of Business.

If you are not satisfied with our final response, you can ask for it to be reviewed.

Where both Founders are Active Founders, the review is carried out by the Founder who was not materially involved in the original response or in the work complained about.

Where that would not give you an independent review, we consider an external professional review for a serious complaint, and we tell you what we have decided and why.

A second review is a genuine second look at the same complaint. It is not a fresh investigation of new issues, which would be treated as a new complaint, and there is no further internal stage beyond it.

Our business advisory service is not currently subject to a general ombudsman or to a sector-specific complaints scheme, so there is no standard referral route of that kind for a service complaint about us. We do not have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service or to a Financial Conduct Authority complaints route, and we do not suggest otherwise. That does not affect any legal, regulatory, contractual or voluntarily agreed route which genuinely applies in a particular situation.

You keep your legal rights in full. Using this process does not remove or restrict them, and it is not a precondition to exercising them unless a contract or the law expressly says otherwise. Using this process does not by itself stop, suspend or extend a statutory or contractual limitation period, a court deadline or any other legal time limit, so please take your own legal advice where the timing of a claim could be relevant.

If we ever provide a service which does have a statutory or regulatory complaints route, we tell you and this policy is updated. This clause is consistent with clause 27 of the Client Terms of Business.

We may manage how and how often contact takes place where behaviour towards our people becomes abusive, threatening, harassing or discriminatory, or where the same complaint is repeated after a final response and a second review without any new information.

Disagreeing with us is not unreasonable behaviour. A complaint is not unreasonable because it is strongly worded, persistent or inconvenient for us.

Where genuinely new evidence is provided, we consider it, whatever has happened before.

Where we restrict a channel or the frequency of contact, we tell you in writing, we explain why, we keep one route open for you to reach us, and we review the restriction.

Information about a complaint is shared only with the people who need it to deal with it.

That may include the Founders, a member of staff or an associate involved in the work, the specialist concerned, a solicitor, the broker or insurer, a regulator where required, and our accountant where a fee is involved.

Client confidentiality under clause 18 of the Client Terms of Business continues to apply throughout, and a complaint does not widen who may see your information.

A complaint usually contains personal data, including the names of the people involved.

That information is handled under the Privacy Policy, the Internal Data Protection Policy and the Data Retention Schedule. Those documents are not repeated here.

Access to a complaint file is restricted to the people handling it.

We keep a complaints record containing the reference, the date received, the client and engagement, a summary, the risk rating, the owner, the investigation steps, the evidence considered, the outcome, any remedy, any insurance, legal or privacy notification, the closure date and the lessons or actions arising.

Complaint records are retained under section D of Schedule 1 to the Blue Haven Data Retention Schedule.

A complaint record is not deleted while the complaint is open, while it could be relevant to a claim, or while it is within the scope of a hold under clause 13 of the Data Retention Schedule.

After a material complaint we ask what happened, why it happened, whether a policy or process failed, whether training or a change to a template or to our methodology is needed, whether any other client could be affected, and whether a wider corrective action is required.

The answer is written down and the action is tracked to completion.

Not every complaint needs a full review. A minor complaint gets a proportionate look, and the point is to fix the cause rather than to produce paperwork.

At least once a year the Active Founders review the number of complaints, the themes, how many were upheld, partly upheld or not upheld, any repeated issue, anything still open, any insurance notification made, the corrective actions taken and any action overdue.

The review is recorded. It is kept proportionate to the size of the business and does not generate reporting for its own sake.

This policy is reviewed at the same time, and also whenever the Client Terms of Business change, the insurance position changes, or a service is introduced which has its own complaint requirements.

Clause 27 of the Client Terms of Business directs complaints to this policy, and this policy sets out the process.

Where a point is governed by the Client Terms of Business, that document applies and this policy does not create a competing term. In that document, liability sits at clause 25, specialist referrals at clause 10, fees at clause 15, data protection at clause 19, suspension at clause 28, termination at clause 29 and dispute resolution at clause 32.

Where this policy and the Client Terms of Business appear to differ, the Client Terms of Business prevail.

Company

Blue Haven Business Advisory Ltd

Registered office

Office 1, Izabella House, 24–26 Regent Place, Birmingham, B1 3NJ

Company number

17456245

Complaints contact

team@bluehavenadvisory.co.uk · 0121 728 2352

If you are unsure who to contact, use the general address and we will pass it to the right person on the day it arrives.