The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
The FCA is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. It requires us to give you this document. Please use this information to decide if our services are right for you.
Our Service
We are an Independent Insurance Intermediary and we will act on your behalf in:
a) Arranging your insurance cover with insurers to meet with your requirements and provide advice on the basis of a fair analysis of the market, to offer you enough information to enable you to make an informed decision;
b) Helping you with any changes that you need to make to your insurance during the policy period;
c) Telling you when you need to renew your policy in time to allow you to consider and arrange any continuing cover.
Who regulates us
CRK Commercial Insurance Services Ltd, 12 Midland Court, Lutterworth, Leicestershire, LE17 4PN is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our FCA number is 306144.
Our permitted business is advising on, arranging, transacting and administering general insurance contracts. You can check this on the FCA’s Register by visiting the FCA’s website: fca.org.uk or by contacting the FCA on 08001116768.
Information on Costs
In addition to the premiums charged by insurers, we may charge a professional fee to cover the placing and ongoing handling of your insurance. The specific amount and purpose of any professional fee and administration charges will always be advised to you in advance. We earn the entirety of our commission and/or fees when your risk is successfully placed and take our commission and/or fees immediately upon receipt of payment unless agreed otherwise with your insurer.
Our Remuneration
When we place insurances or insurance related services on your behalf, we are ordinarily remunerated by your insurer or insurance service provider. Commission may be paid on individual policies and or on a whole account basis. If we need to charge a fee payable by you then we will specify the amount of that fee and explain the nature of the fee before we commence work on your behalf.
You are entitled, at any time, to request information regarding any commission which we may have received as a result of placing your insurance.
In respect of any mid-term transaction we reserve the right to make a charge of £35
Should you choose to cancel a policy of insurance after giving instructions to place cover or if you wish to terminate our appointment as your broker before policies have expired then the commission and/or fee will be deemed to have been earned in full and no refund will be paid in this respect. A refund of the premium element net of our remuneration may be made by insurers. In this event, any refund will be returned to you without unreasonable delay.
Your Instructions
We will act in accordance with your reasonable instructions to the best of our abilities. If we are not substantially able to achieve what you want us to achieve or if it is not possible to achieve what you want, then we will tell you. We will tell you what we can achieve.
You may instruct us by fax, by e-mail, by telephone or during face-to- face meetings. We cannot guarantee that your instructions have been received unless we have acknowledged them in writing. We reserve the right to refuse instructions, but if we do, we will inform you.
Communications using the Internet are not completely secure, and may spread harmful viruses. If you would prefer us not to use e-mails, you must inform us.
Please note that Office Hours are Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.00pm. The office is not open for business on statutory (“Bank”) holidays. There may be a delay in responding to instructions, if they are received outside of Office Hours.
We do not ordinarily issue receipts or acknowledgements unless specifically requested by you in writing.
Mid-term adjustments or cancellations:
In the event of an adjustment that results in a return of premium or cancellation mid-term we will refund the premium due net of our full commission and any charge made by insurers. Where the premium is being paid by instalments we will claim our full commission along with any charge made by the insurers in the calculation of any outstanding monies.
You may have a statutory right to cancel this policy within a short period. Please refer to your policy summary or your policy document
for further details, if you cancel you will receive under certain circumstances, you may receive a pro rata refund of premium from the insurer as long as the policy is not on a minimum and deposit basis. Insurers are also entitled to make an administrative charge. We also may keep an amount that reflects the administrative costs of arranging and cancelling the policy.
If you wish to cancel outside this period, you may not receive a pro rata refund of premium and those with a minimum and deposit premium will receive no refund. We will also retain full commission and any administration fee or charge.
In the event of an agreed policy not being taken up we reserve the right to claim an amount that reflects our administration costs and any commission or fees that we would otherwise have earned.
Payment Terms
We normally accept payment by guaranteed cheque or credit card or the bankers automated clearing system (BACS). We require full payment of the premium within 14 days of cover being effected. You may be able to spread your payments through a credit scheme and we will give you full information about your payment options and details of the interest payable at the time we provide you with a quotation.
How we will handle your money
Our client bank account has been set up in accordance with the strict rules laid down by the Financial Conduct Authority. Prior to your premium being forwarded to the insurer, and for your protection, we either hold your premium as an agent of the insurer (in which case your policy is treated as being paid for) or we hold it in our client bank account in trust for you. In arranging your insurance, we may employ the services of other intermediaries who are regulated by the FCA and your premium may be passed to these intermediaries for payment to insurers.
Payment Options
We will provide you with full details of all the payment options available to you when we provide you with your insurance premium.
If you choose to enter in a finance arrangement, this will be subject to interest charges that we will confirm to you when providing the full details. Importantly, the arrangement you will enter into will be with the finance company not us. It is an entirely separate contract irrespective of the insurance contract. In the event of your failure to meet with the contractual obligations regarding payment the finance provider could approach the insurer to seek a termination of the insurance contract to recoup their outstanding finance arrears. You will be liable to pay their costs and charges if you do not keep up your repayments and cover is cancelled under your policy. This is because the agreement is between you, the policyholder and the finance company direct, not us or the insurer.
Please note that we use Close Brothers Premium Finance or Premium Credit for the provision of premium finance facilities. We will advise which is the most suitable for your circumstances prior to inception or renewal,
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.
Your duty to disclose 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 all statements you make on proposal forms, claim forms and other documents are full and accurate. If a form is completed on your behalf, you should check that the answers shown to any of the questions are true and accurate before signing the document. Failure to disclose any material information to your insurers could invalidate your insurance cover and mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid.
If you are in any doubt as to whether information is material, you should disclose it.
Claims
As part of our service we can assist you with any claim you need to make. When you first become a customer we will give you details of how you can make a claim and tell you what your responsibilities are in relation to making claims. If you are ever in any doubt as to what action to take in the event of a claim, please contact us at the address given below.
Compensation arrangements
We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim. Most Insurance contracts are covered for 90% of the claim, without any upper limit. Compulsory insurances (for
example, motor insurance and employers’ liability insurance), are covered for 100% of the claim, without an upper limit. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS.
Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS on 020 7892 7300 or by visiting http://www.fscs.org.uk/
Limitation of Liability
In the event of any breach of these terms and or in the event of any representation, statement or tortuous act or omission including negligence arising under or in connection with all contracts between us then the following provisions set out our entire financial liability (including any liability for the acts or omissions of our employees, agents and sub-contractors) to you. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by the Company’s negligence, fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation or regulatory obligation. We shall not be liable to you for any indirect or consequential loss or damage, these may be losses that are not reasonably foreseeable, (whether for loss of profit, loss of business, depletion of goodwill or otherwise), costs, expenses or other claims for consequential compensation whatsoever (howsoever caused) which arise out of or in connection with the services we provide to you.
Our total liability in contract, tort (including negligence or breach of statutory duty), misrepresentation or otherwise, arising in connection with the performance or contemplated performance of our services to you (“Claim”) shall be limited to £5,000,000 (five million pounds).
If you are not a Retail Customer (as defined by the FCA) and our professional indemnity insurers refuse to indemnify us for any claim made by or on behalf of you then our total liability in relation to that claim shall be limited to £1,000,000 (one million pounds).
Solvency
We do not guarantee the solvency of any insurer we place business with. We do not accept liability for any losses you may incur arising directly or indirectly from the financial failure or insolvency of any insurer.
You may have a liability for the premium, whether in full or pro-rata where a participating insurer becomes insolvent.
Common Shareholding
Our Director may from time to time hold shareholdings in other Insurance undertakings for example Managing General Agents (MGA’s) who we place business with. If you feel that this results in a conflict of interest CRK Commercial Insurance Services Ltd will upon request exclude these from the panel of insurers we approach for a particular risk or risks.
Confidentiality
All personal information about you will be treated as private and confidential. We will only use and disclose information we have about you in the normal course of arranging and administering your insurance. We may pass information about you to credit reference agencies for the purpose of arranging payments via instalments and may also pass to them details of your payment record with us. We will not disclose any information to any other parties without your consent, unless required to do so because we are authorised by the FCA, it is in the public interest, or we have to by law. We may, however, use the information we hold about you to provide information to you about other products and services which we feel may be appropriate to you. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you have a right to see personal information about you that we hold in our records. If you have any queries in this regard please write to us.
If you do not wish to receive marketing information from us please let us know by contacting us at the address below.
Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register and Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud Register
Insurers pass information to the Claims and Underwriting exchange register operated by Database Services Limited and the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud Register compiled by the Association of British Insurers. The objective is to check information provided and to prevent fraudulent claims. Motor insurance details are also added to the Motor Insurance Database operated by the Motor Insurers’ Information Centre (MIIC), which has been formed to help identify uninsured drivers and may be accessed by the police to help confirm who is insured to drive. In the event of an accident, this database may be used by insurers,
MIIC and your motor insurer to identify relevant policy information. Other insurance related databases may also be added in the future.
Complaints
It is our intention to provide a high level of service at all times. However if you have reason to make a complaint about our service you should contact the partners at the above address or ring 02476 471 450. You may be entitled to refer it subsequently to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Further information is available at http://www.financial- ombudsman.org.uk/ 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 9123 (free for mobile-phone users paying monthly charge for calls to No’s starting 01 or 02). Alternatively you can contact them at Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, Harbour Exchange Square, London, E14 9SR. www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk A full copy of our complaints procedure is available on request
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.
Applicable Law
This Terms of Business document is subject to English Law.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries with regards to any points mentioned in our Terms of Business.