BJP Insurance Brokers - Terms

Terms of Business Agreement

Contents:

BJP Insurance Brokers Ltd (referred to as We) are insurance intermediaries arranging insurance for you located at: Southgate House, Wellington Road, Wokingham, Berks RG40 2BJ, Tel: 0118 979 2121, E-mail: info@bjpinsure.com and Website: http://www.bjpinsure.com

Status

We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. Our FSA Firm Reference Number is 305506 and we are permitted to arrange and advise on general insurance policies. You can check this information by visiting the FSA website: www.fsa.gov.uk or by contacting the FSA: 0845 606 1234.

We are also members of the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA), the Institute of Insurance Brokers (IIB) and are an Investor in People (IIP) accredited company.

Ownership and Shareholding

We have no direct, or indirect, holding in any insurer and no insurer has any direct, or indirect, holding in us. We are an independent insurance intermediary who acts as your agent and on your behalf when arranging your insurance.

Products and Services

Our services include advising you on your insurance needs, arranging your insurance cover with insurers to meet your requirements and helping you with any ongoing changes you have to make. As part of our service, we will assist you with any claim you need to make and tell you what your responsibilities are in relation to making claims. If you mislay your policy at any time, we will issue a replacement policy document, if you request it.

Whose products we offer:
We usually offer advice from a range of insurers, representing a fair analysis of the market, however, under certain circumstances we may only deal with a limited panel, or single insurer. We will confirm, for each individual policy we provide you with, the basis of our advice on our initial and renewal reports.

The service we will provide you with:
We will advise and make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your demands and needs. Our advice will be confirmed in a demands & needs and suitability statement, giving reasons for our recommendation. If there are policies where we are unable to provide you with a recommendation, we will make you fully aware of this, so you are able to make your own choice about how to proceed.

When a policy falls due for renewal, we will review the terms offered by your current insurer and if in our opinion and experience, these terms remain competitive, we will not automatically carry out a full market review of your policy. If a full market review is carried out, this will be confirmed to you in writing.

Your Duty to Give Information

It is your responsibility to provide complete and accurate information to insurers when you take out your insurance policy, throughout the life of your policy, and when you renew your insurance. It is important that you ensure that all statements you make on proposal forms, statements of fact, claim forms and other documents are full and accurate.

Under the terms of our agreements with Insurance Companies with whom we place business, we normally receive premiums you pay to us, and claims or return premiums received from the Insurance Companies, as Agent of the Insurer. All these monies are protected in a Statutory Trust Client Account until we pay insurers or you. We do not pay any interest on monies held by us in the course of arranging and administering your insurance. Please note that if you fail to disclose any information, or change in circumstances, to your insurers which could influence the cost, or their decision to accept your insurance, this could invalidate your insurance cover, and could mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid. You should consult us if you are in any doubt on any aspect.

Please note that if you fail to disclose any information, or change in circumstances, to your insurers which could influence the cost, or their decision to accept your insurance, this could invalidate your insurance cover, and could mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid. You should consult us if you are in any doubt on any aspect. 

Awareness of Policy Terms and Conditions

When a Policy is issued you are strongly advised to read it carefully, as it is that document, the schedule and any certificate of insurance that is the basis of the insurance contract you have purchased. If you are in doubt over any of the policy terms or conditions, please seek our advice promptly. You are also advised to keep copies of all documentation sent to or received from us for your own general future protection.

What you will pay for our services

We usually receive a commission from the insurer with whom we place your business and, in addition, we normally make the following charges to cover the administration of your insurance: Arranging new policies: Document Fee (invoices above £500): £10.00 Mid term adjustments: 2% of the premium, with a minimum of: £25.00 Any return premiums are normally refunded NET of commission/fees. Renewals: Document Fee (invoices above £500): £10.00 Payment by Credit Cards: 2% of total invoice Personal lines/Consumer policies cancelled during the ‘Right to Cancel’ period will be subject to the document fee (invoices above £500) of £10.00, in addition to the premium charged by the insurer for the period of cover provided. Occasionally we may arrange a policy on which we earn no commission (a ‘net-premium policy’) and in these cases we will advise you of the arrangement fee before you take the policy out. Specific charges, which apply to individual policies, will be shown on the initial quotation applicable to that policy. The specific charge and purpose of any additional charges will always be advised to you in advance.

Commercial customers are entitled, at any time, to request information regarding any commission, which we may have received as a result of placing your insurance business.

Payment of Premiums

Unless modified by us in exceptional circumstances at our discretion, we require payment of all insurance premiums in full on receipt of invoice at either inception or renewal or mid-term adjustment of cover by cash, guaranteed cheque made payable to BJP Insurance Brokers Ltd or by acceptable debit or credit card.

We may also be able to offer you various instalment payment options either from our own or insurers facilities or from our selected premium finance providers. We will give you full information about your payment options when we discuss your insurance in detail.

Please note: Your policy cover will cease if you fail to keep up payments on an instalment agreement or premium finance facility related to it.

Information on how we treat Payments

Under the terms of our agreements with Insurance Companies with whom we place business, we normally receive premiums you pay to us, and claims or return premiums received from the Insurance Companies, as Agent of the Insurer. You have the additional protection of insurance companies accepting that monies paid to us are treated as being received by them (Risk Transfer). All these monies are protected in an Insurers’ Trust Bank Account until we pay insurers or you. We do not pay any interest on monies held by us in the course of arranging and administering your insurance.

Claims

If you have occasion to claim under any of your policies we arrange on your behalf you must notify us here immediately and we will promptly advise you and, if appropriate, issue you with a claim form and pass all details to your insurer. Any failure to report a claim or incident likely to give rise to a claim to us promptly could result in your claim ultimately being rejected by your insurers for an unacceptably late notification. You should also not admit liability nor agree to any course of action, other than emergency measures carried out to minimise the loss, until you have agreement from your insurer.

Your Right to Cancel

You have a legal right to cancel your policy for any reason, subject to no claims having occurred, within 14 days of receiving the full terms & conditions. You will always be advised where this Right applies. A charge will apply for the period of cover provided and, in addition, we make an administration charge as referred to in the "Charges" section above. NB: This only applies to "consumers" as defined by the FSA

Complaints

We endeavour at all times to provide the highest possible levels of service to our Clients but should you have a cause for complaint about any aspect of our service then please let us know without delay and follow our formal Complaints Procedure as detailed below:

In the first instance please let us know of your complaint by either speaking or writing to your allotted Account Manager as detailed in your Register of Insurances.

Alternatively, please contact our Compliance Officer, directly by; Phone: 0118 979 2121 or Fax: 0118 978 7600 or in writing to our office at; Southgate House, Wellington Road, Wokingham, Berks, RG40 2BJ or by e-mail to: compliance@bjpinsure.com

Thereafter, in accordance with our procedure, we will promptly acknowledge receipt of your complaint, providing you with details of who here you will be dealing with.

We will keep you informed of the progress of your complaint and aim to make a final response to you within eight weeks, or keep you informed as to why this is not possible. In the event that your complaint relates to activities, or services, provided by another party, we will ensure that your complaint is appropriately forwarded in writing, and will track the progress of the complaint and responses of that party.

If we cannot satisfy your complaint you may be entitled to refer it on to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), by telephone: 0845 080 1800, or by writing to: Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9SR. (Only available to consumers and commercial customers with up to 10 employees and a turnover of less than Euros 2 million)

Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)

We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS is the UK's statutory fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms, like us. The FSCS can pay compensation if an authorised firm is unable or likely to be unable to pay claims against it, usually because it has gone out of business or is insolvent.

Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS on www.fscs.org.uk or 0207 892 7300.

Confidentiality

All personal information about you and your insurances are confidential and will only be passed to your insurers. We only use and disclose the information we have about you in the normal course of arranging and administering your insurance and to provide you with information about other products and services that we feel may be appropriate to you.

We will not give anyone else any personal information except on your instructions or authority, or where we are required to do so by law, or by virtue of our regulatory requirements.

We may pass information about you to credit reference agencies for the purpose of arranging payments by instalments and may also pass to them details of your payment record with us.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you have the right to see personal information about you, which we hold in our records. If you have any queries or do not wish to receive marketing information from us please write to us at our above business address.

Law and Jurisdiction

These terms of business shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law and practice, and any disputes arising under it shall be determined in the English Courts.

JT 06/12