Terms of Business

 

The Financial Conduct Authority

The Financial Conduct Authority is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. It requires us to give you these Terms of Business details. Please use this information to decide if our services meet your needs. Walmsleys Commercial Insurance Brokers Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Our permitted business is to sell and administer general insurance. Our Registration number is 307247 and you can check this information on the Financial Conduct Authority by visiting www.fca.org.uk or by contacting the Financial Conduct Authority on 0800 111 6768

Walmsleys Commercial Insurance Brokers Ltd also trades as Brewcover; Craftcover; Fleetcover; Garagecover; Partscover; PMIcover and WCIB.

 

Our service

In arranging insurance on your behalf, we act as an insurance intermediary, and not an insurer. Our service includes – Where we are making a personal recommendation based on a fair and personal analysis, we will examine sufficient insurance contracts, based upon cover, premiums and service. In all other areas for example, when we conduct a limited search or offer a single insurer, or offer no advice or personal recommendation, or where we are contractually bound to offer a particular insurer, we will supply you with a list of the insurers we may and do conduct business with.

We offer a wide range of insurance products and have access to leading insurers in the market place. A full list of insurers is available upon request. For certain classes of insurance we may elect to use just one insurer. We will send you documents confirming the full details of your cover and the insurer, and details of the premium(s) you have paid.

Where a sale is completed on line, we do not give advice or make recommendation.

AS an insurance intermediary we normally act as your agent, we are subject to the laws of agency and will always act in your best interests.

For Brewcover the insurers have given us authority to act for them with delegated authority. If this presents us with a conflict of interest we will manage the conflict so you are not disadvantaged, in these circumstances, we act as agent of the insurer.

 

Your contract of Insurance – information and changes we need to know about

You must take reasonable care to provide complete and accurate answers to the questions we ask when you take out, make changes to and renew your policy. If you are in doubt please contact us.

If the information provided by you is not complete and accurate:

The insurer may cancel your policy and refuse to pay any claims

The insurer may not pay any claim in full, or

Your premium may be revised and/or change the compulsory excess, or

The extent of the cover may be affected

Premiums may not be returned

The policy may be voided.

 

Commercial Customers – Fair Representation

In addition, if you are taking out insurance related to your business, you now have a duty to make a fair presentation when taking out a policy, making a change or renewing your policy. The duty of fair presentation means you also have to make any disclosures in a way that is clear and substantially correct.

If the information provided by you is not a fair representation insurers could:-

If Deliberate/Reckless – Avoid your policy, refuse to pay claims and retain your premium.

Not Deliberate/ Reckless – Proportionate Remedy will be applied

You are reminded that it is an offence under the Road Traffic Act to make any false statements or withhold any relevant information to obtain a Certificate of Motor Insurance.

Please note that under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 you are not required to disclose convictions regarded as “Spent”.

You are advised to keep copies of any correspondence you send to us or direct to your insurer. If you are in any doubt about whether information is material, you should disclose it.

 

Premiums and financial aspects

We are a credit broker and not a lender.

We hold your premium payment in a statutory trust client money bank account. This means we keep client money separate from our own money by paying it into a client money trust account. We may only use the money held in trust on behalf of a customer for paying that customer’s premium to an insurance company and to pay premium refunds or claims we receive from the insurance company to that customer, once the money has been received from the insurance company. We are not allowed to use that customer’s money to pay another customer’s premium or refund and any interest earned on client money held by us will be retained by us for our own use.

We normally accept payment by guaranteed cheque or credit/debit cards and our standard Credit Terms are 14 days.

You may be able to spread your payments through insurers’ instalment schemes, a credit scheme with a third party finance provider, or a facility we have arranged ourselves. We will give you full information about your payment options when we discuss your insurance in detail.

We may keep certain documents, such as your insurance policy documents or Certificate, while we are waiting for full payment of premiums. In these circumstances, we will ensure that you receive full details of your insurance cover and will provide you with any documents that you are required to have by law.

 

Commission and Charges

As Independent Brokers, we are remunerated by commission from your premium and paid to us by your insurer, or fees for professional services, or a combination of both, details of which are available on request. We may also receive additional remuneration from insurers by way of growth agreements, from third party finance providers and claims management companies. We may also make the following charges to cover the administration of your insurances:-

Arranging new policies £35
Mid term adjustments £35
Mid term cancellations £35
Renewals £35
Replacement/duplicate Certificates
or cover notes
£15
Populating MID on your behalf 10% of policy premium

The specific charge and purpose of any additional charges will always be advised to you in advance.

 

Return premiums (usually arising if an insurance risk is reduced or a policy cancelled)

When a return premium is made, we repay commission on that amount to your insurer and this will be deducted from the final amount due to you.

In view of the costs involved, we will not issue any return premium that is less than £10 (after deducting reclaimed commission). An amount less than £10 will be held to your credit and can be utilised against any future insurance policy with us.

Return premiums can only be allowed once the appropriate credit has been made to our account by the insurer, and their account reconciled.

 

Cancellation

Cancelling a policy may work out expensive for you – please speak to us first. In some cases, there may be very little refund and in fact you may have to carry on paying your instalments. Our charges and those of the insurers are not refundable and we do not refund the commission paid to us for arranging the policy.

 

Applying to all non-commercial policies

Cancellation within the “cooling off” period

All consumers have the statutory right to cancel within 14 days of inception, renewal or upon receipt of the policy documentation, whichever is the later and provided there have been no claims. Any policy documentation and in particular any legal document, for example a certificate of insurance, should be returned to us with your written instruction to cancel.

You will only be charged for the period of cover you have had by the insurer plus any administration fee they may charge.

 

Cancellation after the “cooling off” period

After 14 days any right to cancel will be in accordance with the terms of your policy. Some polices do not contain any refund at all after 14 days and this will be indicated in the policy document.

 

Claims

When we receive notification of an incident that might give rise to a claim under your policy, we will inform the insurer without delay and, in any event, within three working days.

We will advise you promptly of insurers’ requirements concerning claims, including the provision, as soon as possible, of information required to establish the nature and extent of a loss.

We will forward any payments received from insurers in respect of any claim, to you, without delay.

We will notify you of any request for information we receive from your insurers.

 

Customer Protection information and Complaints

It is our intention to provide you with a high level of customer service at all times. If there are occasions when we do not meet your standards, please contact the member of staff you were dealing with, either verbally or in writing. They will make every attempt to resolve the situation to your satisfaction but if they are unable to do so by close of business on the third working day, we will then acknowledge in writing, advising you of who is dealing with the matter and attempt to address this within 5 working days. If our investigations take longer, we will provide our final response within 8 weeks, or explain our position and provide timescales for a full response.

By making a complaint, you do not prejudice your rights to any legal proceedings. The parties to a contract of insurance covering a risk situated in the United Kingdom are permitted to choose the law applicable to the contract. English Law will govern your insurance.

If we are unable to satisfy your complaint you may be entitled to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service who can be contacted via their website (http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk) or by phone on 0845 080 1800.

Certain classes of insurance are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Further information is available from the FSCS who can be contacted on 020 7892 7300 or via their website (http://www.fscs.org.uk).

 

Confidentiality and Data Protection

We act as a Data Controller in respect of your data. (Defined in the Data Protection Act, and in General Data Protection Regulation)

Any information we process will be stored securely and only used for the purposes of the contract between us.

We will cooperate with you with any request for correction or deletion of data, data access of complaints.

We will keep information confidential unless we are required to disclose by law or regulation.

A copy of our privacy notice can be found below.

In the interests of security and to improve our service, telephone calls you make to us may be monitored and/or recorded.

 

The Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register

Insurers share information with each other via the Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register, and the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register, to aid the prevention of fraudulent claims.

In the event of a claim, the information you supply on the claim form, together with any other information relating to the claim, will be put on the Registers.

 

Motor Insurer Information Centre (MIIC)

Insurers are legally required to provide and maintain details of motor insurance policies to the Motor Insurance Database to which the police and others have access. This helps the pursuance of claims following accidents and aids detection of those who are in contravention of the law by not taking out insurance.

 

Use for marketing purposes

We may use information held about you, to provide you information about other products and services which we offer, and which we feel may be appropriate to you, by email, telephone, post or other means.

You may exercise your right to give notice to stop data being processed for marketing purposes by contacting us at any time. Please call us on 01942 765333 or write to us at the address shown overleaf.

 

Policy terms and conditions and warranties

You should read through all policy terms, conditions and warranties shown on your policy documentation. Please ensure you understand them and are able to follow their requirements exactly. If not, please advise us immediately, as a breach of any terms, conditions or warranties may enable your insurer to terminate your policy from the date of that breach, and/or repudiate a claim under your policy.

 

Privacy Notice

Data Controller: Philip Wall

Contact for queries: 01942 765306

 

How we will use the information you give us

We will only use your information on the basis that it is necessary to administer your insurance contract or help you make a claim. Where we need to pass information to other firms, it will only be for that purpose. These firms will be Insurers, other insurance brokers, price comparison sites and firms handling claims. It includes finance providers and firms that process or administer our records.

When we contact you, it will either be for the above reason, or because we have a legitimate interest in marketing related products. For any other marketing it will only be with your consent and you will be able to withdraw your consent or unsubscribe easily at any time.

If we have to transfer information to a third country outside the EU, we will only do so if a similar level of protection applies. If we need to obtain information which is by nature sensitive, we will only do so on the basis that it is in the public interest – for example to fight crime, prevent fraud or to make sure insurance is available.

 

What type of personal information do we need?

We may need personal details which might include details of members of your family, lifestyle, finances, business or education.

We will only collect what is necessary and will only keep it for as long as we are required to do in line with our data retention policy. You can ask us for a copy.

 

What other types of information do we need?

Under certain circumstances we may also need to obtain information about Race or Origin, Gender, Religion, Health, Politics, Genetics, Trade Union Membership, Sex or Sexual Orientation.

We might also need details of criminal convictions.

We will only collect what is necessary and protect it with appropriate security measures.

 

How do we obtain your information?

We may gather it from information you submit to a website, by telephone, face to face or by email.

We may receive it from insurers, other insurance brokers, price comparison sites and firms handling claims. It includes finance providers and firms that process or store our records.

 

What are my legal rights?

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner at www.ico.org.uk, Tel 0303 123 11132.

You can obtain a copy of your personal information from us without charge by contacting us at the address above. This may include the right to transfer information to other providers.

You have the right to ask us to correct information.

You have the right to ask us to delete your information or stop using it, unless it is necessary for us to retain it for insurance or financial purposes as set out in our document retention policy.

You may have the right to object if decisions about you are made solely by a computer.