The FOS Expert Council’s guidelines issued at the meeting held on 27 July 2023

It is recommended that Financial Ombudsmen when determining approaches to consideration of consumers’ appeals should take into account the following.

1. On the procedure for calculating the time limit for submitting an appeal to the Financial Ombudsman.

1.1 Taking into account the provisions of Part 1 of Article 15 of Federal Law No. 123-FZ, as well as paragraph 89 of the Resolution of the Russian Supreme Court Plenum of 08.11.2022 No. 31 “On Court Application of Legislation on Compulsory Civil Liability Insurance of Motor Vehicle Owners” (hereinafter the Resolution of the Russian Supreme Court Plenum No. 31) recommending the Financial Ombudsman on calculating the time limit for submitting an appeal to the Financial Ombudsman, the Financial Ombudsman is to be guided by the following:

1) if the consumer of financial services did not apply for insurance indemnity under the contract of compulsory insurance of civil liability of owners of motor vehicles (hereinafter CMTPL insurance) within a period of time equal to:

5 working days from the date of the road traffic accident + 20 calendar days (excluding non-working holidays) + 3 years (from the day following the day of expiry of the first two periods),

then the period within which such an injured party has the right to submit an appeal to the Financial Ombudsman shall be calculated from the day following the expiry of the following periods in the aggregate: the period for submitting an application for insurance indemnity (5 working days from the date of the road traffic accident) and the period for the financial institution to consider the consumer’s application for insurance indemnity (20 calendar days excluding non-working holidays);

2) if the consumer of financial services has applied for insurance indemnity under the CMTPL insurance contract within the term specified in subparagraph 1, the term for applying to the Financial Ombudsman shall be calculated from the day on which the injured party learned or should have learned about the insurer’s refusal to pay insurance indemnity, about the payment of insurance indemnity not in full, about the poor quality of repair of the damaged vehicle, or from the day following the day of expiry of the term for the insurer’s consideration of the application for insurance indemnity (direct compensation).

1.2 The approach set out in Clause 1.1 shall not be applied when calculating the time limit for appealing to the Financial Ombudsman with claims for recovery of a penalty for violation of the time limit for insurance indemnity or a financial sanction for failure to comply with the time limit for sending a motivated refusal of insurance indemnity to the injured party.

In the above case, the term for appeal to the Financial Ombudsman shall be calculated separately for each day for which a penalty (financial sanction) has been accrued under Federal Law No. 40-FZ, in terms of the amount of penalty (financial sanction) accrued for the relevant day.

As a consequence, the Financial Ombudsman may consider claims for recovery of the penalty (financial sanction) provided for by Law No. 40-FZ accrued within the three-year period preceding the appeal to the Financial Ombudsman.

2. On reimbursement of the assignee’s expenses on payment of the fee for the appeal consideration by the Financial Ombudsman.

The existing approaches of the Financial Ombudsman to reimbursement of assignee’s expenses on payment for the appeal consideration by the Financial Ombudsman should be retained.

3. Concerning the recovery of monetary payments from insurers under CMTPL insurance contracts in connection with their failure to fulfil their obligation to arrange for the restoration repair of a damaged vehicle (qualifying the sums recovered as insurance indemnity or as losses).

3.1 When considering claims of consumers of financial services to recover monetary funds from the insurer under the CMTPL insurance contract in connection with its failure to fulfil its obligation to arrange for the restoration repair of the damaged vehicle, the provisions of paragraph 56 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 31 of 08.11.2022 should be followed, including the following:

1) the monetary payment corresponding to the cost of restoration repair and subject to recovery in favour of the injured party in case of non-performance (improper performance) by the insurer of the obligation to arrange for the restoration repair of the vehicle is qualified as a loss;

2) in case of non-performance (improper performance) by the insurer of the obligation to arrange for the restoration repair of the motor vehicle, the injured party shall retain the right to recover the penalty provided for by Clause 21 of Article 12 of Law No. 40-FZ. In this case, the base for calculation of this penalty should be considered the proper amount of insurance indemnity, equal to the cost of restoration repair of the vehicle, calculated on the basis of the Unified Methodology for Determining the Amount of Costs of Restoration Repair in respect of a Damaged Vehicle approved by the Regulation of the Bank of Russia of 04.03.2021 № 755-P, without taking into account the depreciation of components (parts, units and assemblies);

3) in case of non-performance (improper performance) by the insurer of the obligation to arrange for the restoration repair of the vehicle, the injured party shall also have the right to make a claim for the recovery of interest provided for by Article 395 of the Russian Civil Code. In this case, the said interest shall, as a general rule, be accrued from the day following the day of the Financial Ombudsman’s decision to satisfy the claim of the injured party for compensation of the losses caused and until the date of compensation of losses by the insurer in the amount established by the Financial Ombudsman;

4) the provisions stipulated in subparagraphs 2, 3 shall be applied taking into account the provisions of Paragraph 1 of Article 24 of Law No. 123-FZ.

3.2 The guidelines issued by the FOS Expert Council on 26.05.2022 on the recovering monetary payments from insurers under CMTPL insurance contracts in connection with their failure to fulfil their obligation to arrange for the restoration repair of a damaged vehicle (qualification of the amounts recovered as insurance compensation or as losses) shall be deemed inapplicable.