FSA Authorised status relinquished - Friday 16 October

Buy House voluntarily relinquished its FSA Interim-Authorised status on 16 October 2009, allowing it to provide a more cost effective service to its customers - focussed on preventing repossessions.

The effort required to maintain FSA Interim-Authorised status was disproportionate to the benefits we were able to pass on to customers. We already hold a Consumer Credit License enabling us to research a customer's situation and list possible options, so we decided for a whole variety of reasons to withdraw our authorised status and partner up with another FSA Interim-Authorised firm.

Customers who call us will be able to benefit from our knowledge of the options available and, if Sale and Rent Back seems to be a possible option, we will pass customers to our FSA Authorised partner for specialist advice and provision of service.

One of the key weaknesses of the FSA's current "Interim-Authorisation" scheme is that customers are not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.  On this basis alone we did not feel that Interim-Authorised status was offering sufficient benefits to our customers when bearing in mind the significant effort required by us under the scheme.

Consumers are certainly better protected even under the "Interim Regime" but, in our opinion, only once the FSA's proper "Final Regime" commences (scheduled for 30 June 2010) might it possibly provide a better and cost-jusitifiable service for consumers and providers.

Buy House is now focussing on its two core activities: helping people prevent repossession, and; helping people sell their house quickly (whatever the reason).  If someone believes that Sale and Rent Back might be the best solution for them then we will make sure they have investigated all the other options available then, if appropriate, pass them seamlessly over to our FSA Authorised partner.