These Terms of Business shall be governed by the Laws of England and Wales unless you are based in Scotland in which case the Law of Scotland shall apply.
The Regulator
UK Special Risks Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for non-investment insurance business and credit broking. Our Firms Reference Number (FRN) is 300289. You can check this on the FCA Register at www.fca.org.uk or by telephoning the FCA on 0800 111 6768
Our Service
We are independent insurance brokers acting on your behalf in arranging insurance.
• We offer a wide range of insurance products from across the marketplace.
• We have developed unique and exclusive products specifically designed to meet the needs of certain industries including contractors, designers and the medical/health industry. A list of the Insurers used is available upon request.
• For some types of insurance (for instance legal expenses) we deal exclusively with a single insurer.
• For Claims Management we use the services of Complete Response, which has a close link to UK Special Risks Ltd.
• We will make a recommendation to you after we have assessed your needs and will explain the features and benefits of the products and services we offer. Quotations are usually valid for 30 days.
Terms of Payment
Unless specifically agreed otherwise, full payment is due before inception, prior to renewal or before the date of any change.
We normally accept payment by cheque, Debit Card or by Premium Finance agreement and are registered under the Consumer Credit Act for Credit Broking.
In the event that you default in paying the premiums due, for whatever reason, you acknowledge and agree that we reserve the right to instruct your Insurers to cancel your insurance and recover any refund of premiums from the Insurer. If any monies are owed under a credit agreement we may pay it to the credit provider or, if we have already been debited with the amount outstanding, use it to offset our costs. If any balance or premium is not paid on demand we may appoint a debt collection agency to collect the outstanding balance on our behalf. Any additional charges or costs incurred including those of the agency and any associated Court costs will be added to the debt.
If you wish to pay your premiums by instalments, we will introduce you to Premium Credit Ltd. We will inform you if competitive credit terms are available through your Insurer and you have the option of sourcing your own credit facilities. Ordinarily we apply no more than 2% to the standard premium finance interest rate.
Remuneration
As insurance brokers we earn our income predominantly from commission paid to us by Insurers based upon the amount they charge you. Some Insurers may pay additional amounts to us, normally at the end of an accounting period, in recognition of the profitability of a book of business we place with them and not in respect of any one policy. You are entitled, at any time, to request information on the earnings we may have received as a result of arranging your insurance. Please direct your enquiry to the Compliance Officer at our normal address.
Charges
Dependent upon the type of policy and the work involved we will charge a Broker fee and if this is a policy we have underwritten we will also charge an underwriting fee. We will advise you of the actual amount at the time of quotation or renewal. Other taxes, costs or both may exist in respect of products and services that we offer which are not paid through or imposed by us.
Your Duty to Disclose Information
It is your responsibility to provide complete and accurate information to Insurers when you take out an insurance policy, throughout the life of the policy and when you renew your insurance. It is important that you ensure that all statements that you make on proposal forms, claim forms and other documents are full and accurate and we recommend that you keep a copy of all correspondence in relation to the arrangement of your insurance. If a form is completed on your behalf, you should check that the answers given to any questions are true and accurate before signing the document.
Fair Presentation
It is your duty to abide by the duty of fair presentation which means it is your responsibility to disclose all material facts and circumstances. The insurer may have further enquiries and may request further information from you in order to underwrite the risk.
Please note that if you fail to disclose any material information to your insurers this could invalidate your insurance cover and could mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid. If you are in any doubt about whether information is material, you should disclose it. Any renewal of insurance will be made in reliance upon the information provided by you in connection with your previous insurance policy – we will assume that such information remains correct unless you tell us otherwise. Please be aware that instructions given to us by you will not be deemed to be in force until you receive an acknowledgement either from ourselves or the insurer.
Limitation of Liability – Important, Your Attention is Drawn to the Following
Our liability to you for any direct or indirect losses, damages or costs incurred by you as a result of, or in connection with, any service we provide to you, unless arising directly from our negligence, wilful default or fraud shall not exceed £3m. In no circumstances will we have any liability for consequential loss howsoever arising. Nor will we be liable for any loss or damage suffered by you arising from any fraudulent or negligent act or omission on your part, or on the part of any third party acting on your behalf. This limitation of liability clause does not limit our liability for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence. Nor does it exclude our specific statutory or regulatory obligations owed to you.
Solvency of Insurers
We endeavour to place business with Insurers who demonstrate an adequate level of financial solvency and although their Regulator requires them to maintain a minimum level of capital, we cannot guarantee the solvency of any Insurer. We do not monitor Insurer solvency on an ongoing basis and shall not be liable for losses suffered by you in the event of insolvency of an Insurer. This means that you may still be liable for any premium due and may not be able to recover premiums already paid, whether in full or in part, should an Insurer become insolvent.
Client money (general)
We deal with client money using one or more of the following methods:
By signing the document you acknowledge that the information contained therein is fully accurate and complete.
Please note that if you fail to disclose any material information to your insurers this could invalidate your insurance cover and could mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid. If you are in any doubt about whether information is material, you should disclose it. Any renewal of insurance will be made in reliance upon the information provided by you in connection with your previous insurance policy – we will assume that such information remains correct unless you tell us otherwise. Please be aware that instructions given to us by you will not be deemed to be in force until you receive an acknowledgement either from ourselves or the insurer.
Limitation of Liability – Important, Your Attention is Drawn to the Following
Our liability to you for any direct or indirect losses, damages or costs incurred by you as a result of, or in connection with, any service we provide to you, unless arising directly from our negligence, wilful default or fraud shall not exceed £3m. In no circumstances will we have any liability for consequential loss howsoever arising. Nor will we be liable for any loss or damage suffered by you arising from any fraudulent or negligent act or omission on your part, or on the part of any third party acting on your behalf. This limitation of liability clause does not limit our liability for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence. Nor does it exclude our specific statutory or regulatory obligations owed to you.
Solvency of Insurers
We endeavour to place business with Insurers who demonstrate an adequate level of financial solvency and although their Regulator requires them to maintain a minimum level of capital, we cannot guarantee the solvency of any Insurer. We do not monitor Insurer solvency on an ongoing basis and shall not be liable for losses suffered by you in the event of insolvency of an Insurer. This means that you may still be liable for any premium due and may not be able to recover premiums already paid, whether in full or in part, should an Insurer become insolvent.
Client money (general)
We deal with client money using one or more of the following methods:
- Risk Transfer
Premiums that we collect from you and refunds of premiums are held in a client money bank account. By virtue of Agreements we hold with Insurers we collect premiums and make refunds as their agent. Therefore, once we have collected premiums from you, those premiums are treated as having been paid to the Insurer. Refunds of premiums are treated as received by you when they are paid over to you. We settle premiums to Insurers after deduction of our commission and in accordance with the terms of our Agreements with those Insurers but we will not withdraw our commission until we have received the premium from you.
2. Client Money Segregation (Non-Statutory Trust)
On those occasions when we do not act as the Insurer’s agent for the receipt of premium payments, your payments will be segregated into a non-statutory trust client bank account and held by us as trustees on your behalf subject to FCA Rules. We may extend credit to other customers using client money. We maintain systems and controls to ensure that we monitor and manage client money transactions and any credit risk arising from the operation of the trust arrangement.
We may pass client money to another broker who we use to arrange cover for you. Interest earned on monies held in the client bank account will be retained by us.
Complaints
It is our intention to provide you with a high standard of customer service at all times. However, we recognise that things can go wrong occasionally and if this occurs we are committed to resolving matters promptly and fairly. Should you need to make a complaint you may do so:
- In writing to Martin Bell
- By telephone on 01634 868444 or fax on 01634 862425 By email to info@ukspecialrisks.co.uk
- In person at our office address
Should you remain dissatisfied with our final response, you may be entitled to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
Further details will be supplied at the time we respond to your complaint. Information about the FOS is available at www.fos.org.uk or by telephone to 0300 123 9123
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)
We are covered by the FSCS. Where eligible, you may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends upon the type of business and the circumstances of the claim. Further information about the scheme arrangements and FSCS eligibility criteria is available from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme at www.fscs.org.uk or by telephone to 0207 741 4100
Cancellation
Your policy document will contain details of any cancellation rights. Where a cancellation period is applicable to your policy this will usually start from the date the policy starts or when you receive the policy documentation, whichever occurs later. If you cancel your policy within this period and the terms of the policy allow, you may receive a refund of your premium. Usually, the Insurer will make a charge for the time the policy was ‘on risk’ however, in some instances a full years premium will be payable and there will be no refund. You will need to return the insurance certificate and any other official documents with your written instructions to cancel the policy.
Refunds
Where a policy is cancelled mid-term Insurers charge to cover their costs with the balance (if applicable) refunded to you, subject to no claim having been made. Any return of premium may be refunded to you or held to credit. Insurers reclaim commission paid to us when you cancel a policy or where there is a mid-term alteration resulting in a refund of premium. We will deduct this amount of commission from any return premium owing to you. We will not issue refunds of less than £50.
Confidentiality and Data Protection
All information about you of a sensitive nature will be treated as private and confidential. Information we hold about you may, however, be used in the normal course of arranging, placing and administering your insurance. This may involve passing information about you to Insurers, other intermediaries, risk management assessors, uninsured loss recovery agencies and other third parties involved (directly or indirectly) in your insurance. We may also pass information about you to credit reference agencies and premium finance providers in connection with the assessment of your financial standing and, in particular, where you have requested a premium installment plan. We may pass information about you to our Regulator so that monitoring or investigatory activities can be undertaken. From time to time, we may provide you with information about other insurance related products or services that we feel may be appropriate. Our full privacy notice can be found at: – https://ukspecialrisks.co.uk/privacy-policy/
In the absence of any other specific instructions, by conducting business with us you are indicating your acceptance of these terms and conditions.