The following update has been provided by the City of London Trading Standards 03.03.2020

City of London Trading Standards is aware that Finest Dental appears to have stopped trading. 

Finest Dental is the trading name of a company called B&A Group Limited (Company number 08432871) with a registered office address of The Retreat, 406 Roding Lane South, Woodford Green, Essex, IG8 8EY.

As far as we know, Finest Dental had nine premises in the UK and two of them were within the City of London at 22-23 Widegate Street, London E1 7HP and 6 Dowgate Hill, London EC4R 2SU. 

There was an expectation that Administrators would be appointed to look at the affairs of B&A Group Limited but, at present, this has not happened.  There are updates being posted on the Finest Dental website which can be found at www.finestdental.co.uk

We understand that for any consumers who are in the middle of a course of treatment, this will be a very difficult time.  At this stage, we do not know if any of the dentists who worked with Finest Dental will be able to contact individuals on a case by case basis to follow through any treatments and we are trying to establish the position with the General Dental Council and the Care Quality Commission.

There is protection for consumers who may have prepaid for treatments using their credit card or who have signed a finance agreement to fund treatments.  Under the provisions of Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, the provider of the credit (such as the bank or finance company) are jointly liable for any breach of contract by a business providing you with goods or services costing more than £100.  This is a clear legal obligation.  If you have paid money in advance for treatments, or you are mid-way through a course of treatment, you must contact your credit card provider or finance company as soon as possible to make a claim and get advice on completing any treatments.  In most cases you will be helped but if your claim is rejected, you must take your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service after you receive a deadlock letter from your credit card company or finance company.  Using the Financial Ombudsman Service is free of charge.

Further advice on dealing with a business that ceases to trade, including Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, can be found by following this link.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/somethings-gone-wrong-with-a-purchase/if-a-company-stops-trading-or-goes-out-of-business/

If payment has been made using a debit card, there is a voluntary scheme in place called ‘charge back’.  Contact your bank to see if they can help you.

If the City of London Trading Standards receive any further useful information, we will email you again and try and keep you updated.  We are unable to deal with individual customers of Finest Dental on a case by case basis but will circulate any information when we have it.

We recommend that you contact the Dental Complaints Service who deal with complaints about private dental practices.  They can be contacted via their website www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk