If we have not issued our final response letter within 8 weeks of receipt of the complaint or, if you are dissatisfied with our final response, you have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge but you must do so within six months of the date of our final response letter. If you do not refer your complaint in time, the Ombudsman will not have our permission to consider your complaint and so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances. For example, if the Ombudsman believes that the delay was as a result of exceptional circumstances.