What is The Motor Ombudsman’s remit?

We can only consider a complaint against a business that is accredited to one or more of our Codes of Practice and have failed to uphold their commitments.

We currently only cover businesses based in the UK – however, as long as the transaction you are complaining about happening in the UK, you do not need to be a UK resident to use our service.

The areas we cover are new vehicle warranties, extended warranties, vehicle sales and service and repair.

We will be unable to consider a complaint if:

• It concerns physical injury, illness, stress/nervous shock or their consequences, criminal activity or claims of negligence;
• The award would exceed £10,000 and/or, where appropriate, the value of the vehicle; and
• A legally-binding judgement has already been made, although we may record details for monitoring purposes

We may be unable to consider a complaint if:

• I has been more than six years since the event occurred orit has been more than 12 months since you either complained to the business or received their final response;
• It has already been investigated by another ombudsman scheme or provider of alternative dispute resolution;
• You have accepted an offer in full and final settlement;
• There are no demonstrable financial losses;
• The vehicle was bought in or is registered in the name of a business, or is primarily used for business purposes; and
• We believe the complaint raises an important or novel point of law and therefore the complaint would be better considered by a court, taking into account: whether the point of law is key to the outcome of the case; the significance of the complaint for consumers and the industry; the amount at stake and possible remedies.

You can find more information about how to check if a business is accredited to one of our four codes of practice here.