Making a complaint

How to make a complaint against an IFA member

Before submitting your complaint, please review all information on this webpage to ensure that it is a complaint that the IFA can take forward.

Please be aware that the IFA has no power to award compensation or any other monetary settlement.

If you wish to make a complaint against a member the IFA, you can:

1) Check if they are a member;

Please note that the IFA cannot take disciplinary action against someone who is not a member of the IFA. If you need to check whether someone is an IFA member before you make your complaint, please contact our membership department at membership@ifa.org.uk giving the accountant's full name and address.

2) complete the complaints form online;

3) Send all supporting evidence for your complaint to complaint@ifa.org.uk

Your complaint is unlikely to proceed if there is little or no evidence to support it.

As a condition of membership all IFA members are subject to the IFA’s investigation and disciplinary process for alleged breaches of the IFA Bye-laws, Regulations and professional and ethical standards.

How we deal with complaints

Before making your complaint, you should read the IFA’s complaints process and policy The IFA Complaint Policy.  The IFA will not take forward all complaints. 

You must first inform the member of your complaint before submitting a complaint to the IFA. This is because the member has an obligation to consider the complaint under their complaints handling process. If the member does not resolve your complaint satisfactorily, you have the right to refer the complaint to the IFA.

The IFA has no power to award compensation or any other monetary settlement. The IFA does not have power to investigate complaints relating to fees, commercial disputes, partnership or landlord/tenant disputes. This is because the IFA does not investigate complaints which should be dealt with via other mechanisms.  Issues relating to law and related areas lie within the jurisdiction of the courts or other tribunals.

When we receive a complaint:

1) We will assess the complaint and consider whether it is a matter requiring further investigation and that it is adequately evidenced.

2) If it does require further explanations, we may send copies of the complaint and supporting documentation to the member and ask for comments.

3) We may ask you and/or the member for further information, as appropriate.

It can take many months to deal with a complaint, especially if it is complicated, voluminous or technical. We will endeavour to ask everyone involved to respond to our letters or emails within 10-15 working days.

Once this process is at an end we will consider whether the matter requires further investigation or whether the matter can be resolved using some other process.

The IFA is not obligated to consider complaints which do not fall under these areas of the Disciplinary Regulations. If we reject your complaint, you will be advised of the reasons.

If we determine that there is a potential liability to disciplinary action, your complaint, together with a case report and the supporting documentation, will either be passed to the IFA's independent Investigations Committee or if it is considered so serious, and in the public interest, we may refer the matter to the Disciplinary Committee for hearing. You may be asked to attend as a witness to give evidence.

Where a finding is made by a Conduct Committee, we will publish a summary of the outline details (including the member’s name and town). The written decisions of the Conduct Committees are confidential to those involved and are not for wider circulation.

Evidence

The IFA acts in the public interest and we are obliged to use our resources efficiently and effectively to achieve those aims.

We need to assess your complaint as accurately as possible. To do so you are required to provide adequate supporting evidence. You should provide evidence at the time you submit a complaint as you may not be provided an additional opportunity to provide information. Complaints submitted without evidence will likely be rejected on the basis they are not supported unless the conduct is in the public interest. This includes in circumstances where evidence is described as available on request but not provided at the outset.

To avoid unnecessary delays please state clearly how the evidence you have provided relates to the separate areas of your complaint.

The IFA aims to be transparent in its handling of complaints against members. This means that the IFA usually shares evidence and information provided by the complainant and member. However, there are occasions when this is not possible.

We also share documents, at times, within the IFA disciplinary team, the Conduct Committees and, where appropriate, with other regulators and external third parties.

As a complainant you are asked to give us positive consent to share your documents in order for the IFA to effectively follow our complaints process.  A complainant’s failure to consent to the circulation of evidence will, in most cases, prevent the investigation of their complaint. Similarly, the IFA is typically unable to consider anonymous complaints, as the circulation of evidence is likely to identify the complainant.

Where to complain if the IFA cannot resolve your complaint

Whilst we can take disciplinary action where there is sufficient evidence of a failure to observe the standards expected of our members, this will not necessarily resolve every dispute or problem you might have with the member.

In addition, there are certain types of complaint we cannot take forward. We have outlined below the types of cases we are unable to take forward; however, this is not an exhaustive list.

Further, we cannot provide you with advice as to whether you have a valid complaint, or whether you have a valid claim in law against a member.

What can I do if my accountant is not an IFA Member?

If you wish to make a complaint against an accountant who is not a member of the IFA we recommend you contact their professional body to take this forward. If they are not a member of any professional body we suggest you seek legal advice. 

I need help submitting a complaint

Please contact the IFA if you require additional support submitting a complaint.

If you are unable to complete the complaints form online, you can complete the hard copy version of the complaints form. This can be posted with supporting evidence to:

Disciplinary Case Manager
Institute of Financial Accountants
502 Clerkenwell Workshops
27-31 Clerkenwell Close
London EC1R 0AT