We discuss the extraction of heavy-light pseudo-scalar to light pseudo-scalar decay form factors from finite time correlation functions. We place particular emphasis on the contamination from excited states employing summed ratios and input from chiral perturbation theory. The analysis is performed on four CLS ensembles with $N_f = 2+1$ flavours of $\mbox{O}(a)$-improved Wilson fermions (presently) at the $\mathrm{SU}(3)$-symmetric point with relativistic heavy-quark masses in the charm region and above. The study presented here is part of the analysis aimed at the computation of the $B \to \pi \ell \nu$ and $B_s \to K \ell \nu$ semileptonic form factors, combining the continuum-limit relativistic results with static-limit calculations.