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 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.
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.
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 up to £250
Mid term adjustments up to £45
Renewals up to £250
Populating MID on your behalf £30
Claim Service Fleet £15 per Vehicle
Claim Service Motor Trade £15 per Social Domestic & Pleasure Driver
Motor Fleet Declarations £50
In sourcing and negotiating your insurance, some insurance providers may require that we accept a lower amount of commission or ask that we share the commission. For policies where the commission paid to us is less than the usual rate for the insurance product, we may charge an additional fee in lieu of this reduction up to a maximum of 10% of the 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).