We recommend that you carefully read these Terms that apply to our appointment by you and the services we will provide.
Brown Bevan Insurance Brokers (Arnold)
94 Front Street, Arnold, Nottingham, NG5 7EJ
Telephone: 0115 9161616
Fax: 0115 9161009
Email: paul.chillman@brownbevan.co.uk
Brown Bevan Insurance Brokers (Arnold) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our Firm Reference Number (FRN) is 306546. You can check this on the FCA register by visiting the FCA’s website www.fca.gov.uk or by telephoning the FCA on 0800 111 6768.
We offer a wide range of insurance products and have access to leading insurers in the marketplace. We can act both as agent of insurer, and on behalf of you, the customer. We have in place management controls to deal with any conflicts of interest that might arise. Unless we advise you otherwise, we are acting on your behalf.
We also act on behalf of insurers when collecting premiums under risk transfer (See Terms of Payment section).
Our selection usually involves presenting to a reasonable number of insurance companies that will insure for the risk at hand, and this is called a fair & personal analysis of the market.
For some types of insurance we deal predominantly with a single or limited number of insurers which we have selected as offering value for money and quality service.
We will give you details of these arrangements and the names of the insurers we have approached before you make any commitment on any product we offer you. A full list of the insurers we use is available on request.
We will explain the main features
of the products and services that we offer you including details of the provider, main details of cover and benefits, any unusual restrictions or exclusions, any significant conditions or obligations and the period of cover.
We will make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your needs, or advise you if we are unable to place your insurance. In some circumstances we provide information only and do not therefore make a personal recommendation. The documentation we provide will make it clear whether the sale is provided on an advised or non-advised basis.
Under the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representation) Act 2012 it is your duty as a consumer to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation to an insurer.
Under the act a consumer is defined as an individual who enters into an insurance contract wholly or mainly for purposes unrelated to the individual’s trade, business or profession.
A failure by the consumer to comply with the insurers request to confirm or amend particulars previously given is capable of being a misrepresentation for the purpose of this act.
It is important that you ensure all statements 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.
Under the act an insurer has a remedy against a consumer in respect of qualifying misrepresentations in breach of the consumers’ duty of reasonable care where the insurer deems the misrepresentation to be either deliberate, reckless or careless
If in doubt about any point in relation to your duty to take reasonable care and subsequent qualifying misrepresentations please contact us immediately.
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 all statements 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.
Please also note that 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 note that if you fail to disclose any material information to us and your insurers, this could invalidate your insurance cover and could mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid. You should take particular care to check the accuracy of all information you provide.
If in doubt about any point in relation to material facts please contact us immediately.
Financial Crime
Please be aware that current UK money laundering regulations require us to obtain adequate ‘Know Your Client’ information about you. We are also required to cross check you against the HM Financial Sanctions List as part of the information gathering process.
We are obliged to report to the Serious Organised Crime Agency any evidence or suspicion of financial crime at the first opportunity and we are prohibited from disclosing any such report.
We will not permit our employees or other persons engaged by them to be either influenced or influence others in respect of undue payments or privileges from or to insurers or clients.
Our payment terms are as follows (unless specifically agreed by us in writing to the contrary):
If payment is not received from you in accordance with the above terms, we, or your insurer may be forced to cancel or lapse the relevant policy/policies, which could mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid. You may also be in breach of legally required insurance cover.
When renewal is invited and the policy is paid by monthly direct debit, we will issue a notice to you. To ensure you are not left without cover, the absence of a response to this notice will be deemed as your consent to cover being renewed automatically.
If any direct debit or other payment due in respect of any credit agreement you enter into to pay insurance premiums is not met when presented for payment or if you end the credit agreement we will be informed of such events by the credit provider.
If you do not make other arrangements with us to pay the insurance premiums you acknowledge and agree that we may, at any time after being so informed, instruct on your behalf the relevant insurer to cancel the insurance and to collect any refund of premiums which may be made by the insurer and if any money is owed under your credit agreement pay it to the credit provider or if we have already been debited with the amount outstanding use it to offset our costs.
You will be responsible for paying any time on risk charge and putting in place any alternative insurance and/or payment arrangements you need.
Any payment we receive from you will be held by Brown Bevan Insurance Brokers (Arnold), which pays insurers on your behalf, in a Statutory Client Trust Bank Account held with NatWest. In some cases the payment we receive will be held on behalf of the provider with whom we arrange your policy as their agent. This means that any payment you make to us will be regarded as having been paid to the provider. This is known as risk transfer.
Please make all cheques payable to Brown Bevan Insurance Brokers.
By instructing us to place insurance on your behalf you give your informed consent to these Client Money procedures. By holding your money in these ways, means that in the event that this firm becomes insolvent your money remains protected.
If there are any matters which you do not understand, or do not accept, you should discuss them with us before proceeding.
We may pass the money you pay us to another intermediary. We will only do this where it is a necessary part of the process of arranging cover for you.
Where this includes intermediaries outside the UK, the legal and regulatory regime may be different from that of the UK. In the event of the intermediary failing money may be treated differently than if it was held by an intermediary in the UK. You may notify us if you do not wish your money to be passed to a person in a particular jurisdiction.
No interest will be payable to customers in respect of the client account. Any interest earned will remain in the ownership of Brown Bevan Insurance Brokers.
It is essential to notify us immediately of all incidents that may result in a claim against your insurance policy. You must do so whether you believe you are liable or not. Any letter or claim received by you must be passed to us immediately, without acknowledgement.
Only by providing prompt notification of incidents can your insurance company take steps to protect your interests.
Your policy summary and/or policy document will provide you with details on who to contact to make a claim.
Claims payment will be made in favour of you. If you require a payment to be made to a third party then you must confirm the required payee name and details and provide a brief explanation for your request.
Please contact us for guidance on claiming under your policy.
Your policy document will detail your rights to cancel your insurance once you have taken it out. Depending on the type of policy you have purchased, you may be entitled to cancel within 14 or 30 days of either conclusion of the contract or receiving your policy documentation, whichever occurs later. This is often referred to as a cooling off period.
Where you cancel a policy before renewal you will be responsible for paying a charge to meet the cost of cover provided and administration expenses. Please see the Refunds section.
To enable your insurer to process the cancellation, you will need to return certificates and any official documents to our office within 30 days of your notice to cancel.
Charges/Fees
In addition to the amount charged by insurers we may at our discretion also make charges to cover the administration of your insurance. Any applicable insurance premium tax will be shown on the documentation we provide to you.
| These fees are non refundable | Consumer | Commercial Customer |
|---|---|---|
|
New business |
£30.00 |
£50.00 |
|
Renewal |
£30.00 |
£50.00 |
|
Mid Term Adjustments |
£30.00 |
£50.00 |
|
Lost papers or documents |
£10.00 |
£10.00 |
|
Temporary change |
£30.00 |
£50.00 |
|
Mid Term Cancellation |
£50.00 |
£50.00 |
Where we arrange low or non-commission paying products, we will charge an arrangement fee and will advise you of the actual amount at the time of quotation or renewal.
These fees may be subject to change. Where there are changes, we will confirm this clearly and the actual amount will always be disclosed to you before you commit to purchasing the product.
As insurance brokers our remuneration may be as a fee agreed with you or from commission paid to us by insurers based on the amount they charge you. You are entitled, at any time, to request information regarding any commission which we may have received as a result of placing or renewing your insurance cover.
We take any commission once we receive your payment as cleared funds and upon settlement of the premium to the insurer.
We may occasionally receive additional remuneration from certain insurers for insurance policies we place with them, finance providers claims management services and others. Please ask us should you require further information.
Where you choose to pay your premium by instalments, we may use a scheme operated by your insurer, or we may use a single Finance Provider and we may receive a commission for introducing you to them. This is usually expressed as a percentage of the individual loan and is paid to us directly by the premium finance provider. This means that the amount you pay for credit and the overall cost of arranging your insurance will vary according to the interest charged by the lender and the amount of commission we earn.
Using premium finance makes the overall cost of the insurance more expensive. A full breakdown of the cost of your insurance and the cost of credit will be provided as part of your new business or renewal quotation before you make a decision whether to proceed.
Where a policy is cancelled before renewal, insurers charge to cover their costs, with the balance refunded to you, subject to no claim having been made. Full details will be available in your policy. In the event of an adjustment giving rise to a return of premium the amount may be refunded or held to credit.
Your attention is specifically drawn to the following:-
Where you cancel your policy after the expiry of the cooling off period or where you request a mid-term adjustment which results in a refund of premium, we reserve the right to charge you for our time and costs. This will usually result in us reducing the amount refunded to you by the FULL amount of the commission and fees we would have received had you not cancelled. The reason for this is that the majority of our costs are incurred either in initially finding and setting up your policy or in the annual renewal process when we might check the ongoing suitability of the cover the policy offers. These costs are recovered through the commission we earn. If you cancel, this does not give us an opportunity to recover the costs we incurred and would often result in us making a loss. However, any charge made will not exceed the cost of the commission and fees we would have earned.
For certain commercial insurance policies, insurers will only provide cover where the premium is due in full on inception of the policy. This means that no refund will be paid if the policy is cancelled before renewal. We will advise you if this affects you.
In view of the cost involved in making changes to your policy, we will not issue refunds of less than £10.00.
Our aim is always to provide our customers with a first-class service, however we are aware that, occasionally, it is possible that we may fail to meet your expectations.
If you need to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact us either in writing to: Clive Bevan
or, by telephone / email on Telephone 01158 400 700 or email clive.bevan@brownbevan.co.uk
We will provide you with a copy of our full complaints procedure and respond to you promptly. 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 are unable to resolve the issue to your satisfaction by the end of the third business day following receipt, we will formally investigate the matter. You will receive an acknowledgement of the matter together with a copy of our complaints process promptly and certainly within 5 working days.
After our final response has been issued, if you still cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service, for an independent assessment and opinion.
The FOS Consumer Helpline is on 0800 023 4567( free for people phoning from a "fixed line" (for example, a landline at home) or 0300 123 9 123 (free for mobile-phone users paying monthly charge for calls to No’s starting 01 or 02 and their address is:
Financial Ombudsman
Service
Exchange Tower Harbour Exchange
Square London E14 9SR
www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
We cannot guarantee the solvency of any insurer with which we place business. This means that you may still be liable for any premium due and not be able to recover the premium paid, whether in full or in part, should an insurer become insolvent.
We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and you may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme at www.fscs.org.uk
We will process your data responsibly, fairly and in strict accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018. These regulations require us to inform you of:
As with many organisations, and to ensure customers can easily access details on the areas listed above, we have developed a separate Privacy Notice. This can be found on our website, alternatively you can obtain a copy by writing to us.
It is important to take time to read this document carefully as it contains full details of the basis on which we will process, such as collecting, using, sharing, transferring and storing your information.
It is also your obligation to ensure you show this notice to all parties related to any insurance arrangement. If you have given us information about someone else, you are deemed to have their permission to do so.
If you have any questions, including requesting a copy of the privacy notice, or any further information about our approach to the GDPR and DPA 2018 you can e-mail paul.chillman@brownbeavan.co.uk or write to us at Brown Bevan Insurance Brokers (Arnold), 94 Front Street, Arnold, Nottingham, NG5 7EJ.
In the interests of security and to improve our service, telephone calls you make to us may be monitored and / or recorded for training purposes.
We will issue all documentation to you in a timely manner. Documentation relating to your insurance will confirm the basis of the cover and provide details of the relevant insurers. It is therefore important that the documentation is kept in a safe place, as you may need to refer to it or need it to make a claim.
A new policy/policy booklet is not necessarily provided each year, although a duplicate can be provided at any time upon request.
You should always check the documentation to ensure all the details are correct and if this is not the case you should contact us immediately.
If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable in whole or in part, the validity of the other provisions of these Terms and the remainder of the provision in question will not be affected.
These Terms shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales and the parties agree herewith that any dispute arising out of it shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the relevant court.
These Terms supersede all proposals, prior discussions and representations (whether oral or written) between us relating to our appointment as your agent in connection with the arranging and administration of your insurance. These Terms constitute an offer by us to act on your behalf in the arranging and administration of your insurance. In the absence of any specific acceptance communicated to us by you (whether verbal or written) you are deemed to accept our offer to act for you on the basis of these Terms, by conduct, upon your instructing us to arrange, renew or otherwise act for you in connection with insurance matters.