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Secured Business Lending is a trading name of Bonington Loans Ltd.

Complaints procedure

As a borrower, we aim to provide you with a simple, fair and transparent service. If you have any complaints with regards to your experience with us and would like to register a complaint, please follow the below procedures.

Complaints handling procedure — dispute resolution

We consider a complaint to be: any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction, whether justified or not, from, or on behalf of, a person about the provision of, or failure to provide, a financial service, which alleges that the complainant has suffered (or may suffer) financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience; and relates to an activity of our firm which is subject to the jurisdiction of the FOS.

We will provide a copy of this documented process on request and when acknowledging a complaint. There will be no charge for this.

A complaint can be made and received via any reasonable means, including letter, telephone (at standard rates), email, or in person.

Making a complaint

We do not make a charge for handling a complaint. If you wish to make a complaint, please contact us:

Acknowledging your complaint

If your complaint cannot be resolved within 72 hours following its receipt, we will promptly send you a written acknowledgment of your complaint. If you make an oral complaint, our written acknowledgment will set out our understanding of your complaint.

Reviewing your complaint

Your complaint will be investigated diligently and will be assessed fairly, consistently and promptly. We may ask you to submit copies of documentation and may request further information from you to assist us with our investigation. We will take into account any documents and information you may provide in relation to your complaint.

Keeping you informed

If your complaint cannot be resolved within 72 hours following its receipt, we will ensure that you are regularly kept informed of our progress with regards to the investigation into your complaint.

We will undertake a thorough and timely investigation of your complaint. However, in the event that we are unable to conclude our enquiries within 56 days, we will write to you and let you know when we expect to be in a position to issue our Final Response letter.

We will also provide you with details of your right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FOS can be contacted as follows:

Resolving your complaint

When we have finalised our investigation into your complaint, we will issue our Final Response letter. Our Final Response letter will:

If you are unhappy with our decision and wish to take it further, you can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to look at your complaint. This is a free, independent service for resolving disputes. If you decide to refer your complaint after we have issued our Final Response, you should do so within 6 months of the date on our Final Response letter.

Although you can refer your complaint to the FOS at any time, they will require our consent to investigate complaints where we have not had the chance to put things right, or we have not exceeded the 56-day timescale and have not yet issued our Final Response letter.

Who can use the Financial Ombudsman Service

Not every customer is eligible to refer a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Individuals can. Businesses can where they are small enough to qualify — broadly, a business with an annual turnover of less than £6.5 million and either fewer than 50 employees or a balance sheet total of less than £5 million. Certain charities and trusts are also eligible, and a guarantor may be eligible in their own right.

Larger businesses fall outside the Ombudsman's jurisdiction. That does not affect your right to complain to us, and we will investigate your complaint under this procedure in exactly the same way. We will tell you in our Final Response whether we believe your complaint is one the Ombudsman can consider, and the Ombudsman will confirm their own view if you refer it to them.

If your complaint can be resolved within 72 hours (3 working days), we will send you a Summary Resolution Communication Letter to advise you how we have resolved the complaint, any further actions we are to take or the appropriate level of redress (or both), and again we will refer you to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are not satisfied with our handling of the complaint. An explanatory FOS leaflet will be provided.

Rates and representative example

For business purposes only. Secured against property or land. We do not offer personal loans or consumer credit. Terms from 6 to 18 months.

Representative example: borrow £250,000 over 18 months at 1.75% per month (fixed; 21% per annum), secured against commercial property. A 10% arrangement fee of £25,000 is added to the loan, making a total facility of £275,000. Pay 18 monthly interest-only payments of £4,812.50, plus £275,000 capital at the end of the term. Total interest: £86,625. Total amount repayable: £361,625. Representative APR: 32.6% APR.

Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a loan secured against it. Think carefully before securing other debts against your home.

Rates start from 1.75% per month and depend on the amount borrowed, security and assessment. This example is not an offer of credit. Your actual rate, fees and total cost will be confirmed in writing before you enter into any agreement.