When she contacted the business, it told her the cash wasn't available and it didn't know when it would be.
What happened
Several years after Bridey invested in a property fund, she decided to withdraw her money and invest elsewhere. She downloaded a withdrawal form from the business's website, followed the instructions for completing it, and sent it off.
A week later, she received a letter telling her it was “not possible at present” for her to withdraw her funds. The business explained that it had added a deferral – or waiting – period of up to six months for all withdrawals from the property fund. It had done this the day after Bridey had downloaded the withdrawal form.
Bridey rang the business to say she was worried because she couldn’t access her money immediately. The member of staff she spoke to said her request would be processed “as soon as cash is available in the fund”. The business couldn’t tell her when that would be though.
She wrote to the business to complain. She said that before downloading the withdrawal form, she’d read all the information about withdrawals on its website. She hadn’t seen any warning that she might have to wait up to six months before she got her money.
She thought the business had behaved in a misleading manner by not sharing a warning about the deferral period. Unhappy with the business’s response, Bridey brought her complaint to us.
What we said
The property fund's terms and conditions allowed the business to apply a deferral period. This was clearly stated in the information the business gave Bridey when she first invested in the fund.
The business provided proof that it had applied the deferral period the day after Bridey downloaded the withdrawal form.
The business explained that it never made an advance announcement that a deferral period was coming into effect. That’s because such an announcement might encourage investors to withdraw their money.
We accepted that the timing of this deferral period had been unfortunate for Bridey. However, the business didn't act unfairly or in a misleading manner, so we didn’t uphold the complaint.