FINEST DENTAL PATIENTS – WHAT TO DO NEXT?

June 2, 2020

As some of you may know, B & A Group, the holding company for the 9 Finest Dental Practices entered liquidation on 1^st April 2020.

This situation has left many patients either having paid for dental treatment that they are not now going to receive or wondering when and even where, treatment that is ongoing will be completed.

The 9 practices concerned are: –

London, Liverpool Street
London, Cannon Street
Potters Bar
Wokingham
Brentwood
Milton Keynes
Leicester
Birmingham
Winchester

If you were a patient of any of the above practices and now in a situation where your dental treatment has not yet started or you are part-way through it, you may have some financial recourse.

1. BANK TRANSFER/DEBIT CARD

With regards to a bank transfer you could use the Chargeback system to try and claw back your money.

Chargeback is a transaction reversal made to dispute a card transaction and secure a refund for the purchase.

Chargeback works by the bank withdrawing funds that were previously deposited into the recipient’s bank account and putting them back into your account.

The recipient can dispute a chargeback with the bank if it can prove the chargeback is invalid.

Chargeback is not enshrined in law but is part of Scheme Rules, which participating banks subscribe to. It applies to all debit cards goods, although exact rules may vary between the Visa, Maestro and American Express networks.

You can ask your card provider to try to claw back the money you paid, or part of it.

Chargeback does not mean there is joint liability on the card company. Claims must be addressed to the bank that provides your debit card, which in turn will put in a request to the merchant’s bank.

As a result, you could get your money back from the merchant’s bank if the money is there to be recovered. There are however, no guarantees your bank will be able to recover the money through chargeback, or that the trader will accept that you were justified in taking the money back.

The main requirement for getting your money back through chargeback is evidence that there has been a breach of contract.

There is a time limit on chargeback claims – typically 120 days from the transaction processing date, or from when you expected to receive the dental treatment, although with Covid 19, this period will more than likely be extended.

The fact that Finest Dental have now gone into liquidation may impact upon your chances of a successful chargeback claim. You should speak with your Bank first but still pursue a claim with the liquidator.

2. CREDIT CARD/FINANCE

Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, the credit card company is jointly and severally liable for any breach of contract or misrepresentation by the retailer or trader.

This means that the credit card company is just as responsible as the retailer or trader for the goods or service supplied, allowing you to also put your claim to them. We can make a claim to both the retailer and company simultaneously, although you cannot recover your losses from both.

If you do not get any satisfaction from the company, we can make a claim to the Financial Ombudsman Service – www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

3. HOW CAN WE HELP

The above is a bit of a minefield and requires your negotiating around the system.

If you would like Prosperity Law to act on your behalf to pursue your claim, we are prepared to do so on a flexible basis at no cost to you if we do not recover your money.

Our terms would be as follows: –

There would be no fee for considering your papers;
If there is a valid claim, we would enter into a Damages Based Agreement with you under which we would retain 25% of any damages recovered. Should we not recover any damages, we would not charge you.
We would ask you to complete a Proof Of Debt form just in case the liquidation extends to the individual practices. One is attached at the bottom for you to complete.

If you wish to proceed we would ask you to complete the attached form of authority and provide us with proof of your ID (a passport or driving licence) and verification of your home address (a utility bill no more than 3 months old; a council tax bill or bank statement).

Please contact Jonathan Jacobs at Prosperity Law at jonathan.jacobs@prosperitylaw.com or on 0161 667 3686 to see if you have a claim.