Terms of Business

The purpose of this agreement is to set out our professional relationship and detail the services we will provide to you. Please read this document carefully as it sets out the terms and conditions on which we agree to act for you, contains details of our responsibilities together with your responsibilities both to us, to insurers and to other third party providers. Please contact us immediately if there is anything in this document that you do not understand/or with which you disagree.

Who we are
Fogartys Insurance Services Ltd is an independent insurance intermediary; authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Our Financial Services Register number is 307763.

These details can be checked on the Financial Services Register by visiting the FCA’s website https://register.fca.org.uk/ or by contacting the FCA on 0300 500 8082.

Permissions
We are permitted to arrange, advice on, deal as an agent of insurers, assist in claims handling, help with ongoing changes, introduce to an insurer/premium finance provider(s) and arrange lending facilities in respect of general insurance policies on behalf of our clients.

Our Service
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 will ask questions to assess your insurance requirements, this may include checking information that we already hold about you and your existing insurance arrangements with us and other parties. We will provide you with advice and guidance, after assessing what you want and need and recommend a suitable policy based on our experience of dealing with similar risks. We will confirm to you the level of service we are providing as part of our sales process. In all cases our service will include arranging and administering your insurance, including helping you with on-going changes and assisting you if you need to make a claim, or where we outsource claims handling facilities to give you an enhanced service. If we use the services of another intermediary to place your insurance we will advise you of the name of the intermediary we use and the name of the insurer. If you mislay your policy at any time, we will arrange a replacement policy document, if you request it.

Confidentiality and Data Protection
We will exchange the information that you provide to us with insurance companies and other brokers or agents for the purposes of obtaining quotations, arranging cover and providing finance, this
may result in a credit check to confirm your identity and minimise the risk of fraud. Their search will appear on your credit report even if application does not proceed. By using our services, you consent to us, and our partners, retaining your personal information, we will retain any personal information only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the business purpose for which it was collected.

We will treat all information as private and confidential as required under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018 and UK Data Protection Act 2018, individuals have the right to ask for a copy of any personal information about themselves that we hold on our records. For further information on your rights under the General Data Protection Regulations please refer to the Information Commissioners Office – www.ico.org.uk. Where you have given us consent we may use the data we hold about you to provide you with a renewal quotation and information about products and services we consider may be appropriate. Contact may include SMS text, post, telephone or e-mail. If you do not want us to use your information in this way, please let us know.

Our Fees, Commission and Charges
Consumer policies cancelled during the ‘Right to Cancel’ period will not be subject to a cancellation charge, but will be charged by the insurer for the period of cover provided.

We usually receive a commission from the insurance provider and from a finance company when arranging finance for you. The individual agreements we have with each insurance provider will determine which of the two methods above is used to make this transfer of commission. We may also receive a commission or fee for passing introductions to other professional firms. 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 advised to you prior to the commencement of  each contract applicable to that policy. The specific charge and purpose of any additional charges will always be advised to you in advance, please feel free to ask us for any further information. Some insurers do not provide a refund if a policy is cancelled before renewal, however, the client will always be advised before conclusion of contract. No refund of less than £10.00 will be refunded.

Commission will also be retained for all policies if the cancellation reason is for non disclosure orfailure to provide information or payment.

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 into 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 only use Premium Credit Limited for the provision of premium finance facilities.

You must provide the premium due in cleared funds in accordance with the amounts and dates specified in our payments options schedule. Failure to meet the payment date may lead to insurers cancelling your policy.

Consumer Customers Duty of Disclosure
You must take reasonable care to provide complete, accurate and honest answers to the questions we ask when you take out, make changes to and renew your policy. Please also tell us if there are any changes to the information set out in your policy documentation. If any of the information changes after you purchase or renew your policy and during the period of your policy please provide us with details.

If any of the information provided by you is not complete and accurate; your insurer may cancel your policy and treat it as if it never existed, refuse to pay any claim, revise the premium and/or change the compulsory excess or the extent of the cover may be affected. You should keep a record (including copies of letters) of all information provided for future reference. In respect of motor policies, it is an offence under the Road Traffic Acts to provide incomplete or inaccurate information to the questions asked in their application for the purpose of obtaining a certificate of motor insurance. Consumers informed that insurers recommend they keep a record (including copies of letters) of all information provided to them or us for their future reference. A copy of the completed application form (if applicable) will be supplied on request within a period of three months after its completion.

Commercial Customers Duty of Disclosure
You must, at all times act with utmost good faith towards your insurer. This means that before your policy is placed, at renewal, when varying or extending the policy (and also during the policy period if your policy contains a particular clause stating that any change in circumstances must be advised to your insurer), you must disclose to us all information, facts and circumstances which are, or ought to be, known to you and which are material to the risk. When providing information or completing a proposal form or otherwise confirming any information to us, you should take care to ensure that the details provided are complete and accurate. You should note that your duty of disclosure is not confined to answering specific questions asked by us or your insurers and that all material circumstances should be disclosed to us whether or not we or your insurer has asked for the information. Circumstances which may be considered material are: special or unusual facts relating to the risk; any particular concerns which led you to seek insurance cover; anything which would generally be understood as being something that should be disclosed for the type of risk in question. If you are unsure whether a fact or circumstance should be disclosed, or whether the duty of disclosure information continues throughout the period of your policy you should disclose the information anyway as failure to do so may lead your insurer to reduce its claim payment, apply additional terms or even avoid your policy. You should keep a record (including copies of letters) of all information provided for future reference.

Notification of Claims or Incidents
Many insurers provide a 24 hour helpline in respect of claims. Please refer to your policy documents for contact details. Please ensure that you report all incidents that could give rise to a claim as soon as you become aware of them either by contacting your insurer or ourselves. If you receive correspondence from a third party about your claim please pass it to us or your insurer immediately and unanswered. If you require any assistance with a claim or incident please contact us.

Money
We hold all client money which includes money collected for onward transmission to insurers and refund payments to clients, in a client bank account with an approved bank under a statutory trust arrangement in accordance with Financial Conduct Authority rules. In some circumstances we may need to use another intermediary to arrange your insurance and as a result we pass money through other authorised intermediaries before finally paying it to the insurer. Any monies held when acting as agent of the insurer is deemed as having been received by the insurer. This money is also held in the same client account. It is our policy to retain any interest that may be earned on monies held in our client account.

Renewal of Contract
We write to you in good time before your renewal date, offering you renewal terms or in situations where we are not inviting renewal, we will advise you. Renewal of the contract is based on the information you supplied when we arranged your current contract along with any amendments you have made during the period of cover. It is vital that you advise us of any changes to your requirements. We will not automatically renew your policy and will only renew when instructed to do so either by person, phone, or email.

Your Right to Cancel
Please contact us if you wish to cancel any policy that we have arranged for you. Customers acting outside their trade or profession (Consumers) have a legal right to cancel policies for any reason, subject to no claims having occurred, policy term being over 30 days & within 14 days of receiving the full terms & conditions. For commercial customers & (consumers outside the 14 days) a charge may apply for the period of cover provided and in addition, an administration charge will apply as shown in the fees, commission & charges section. Cancellation under this right must be in writing & policy documents must be returned prior to expiry of the cancellation period, to our usual office address.

Complaints
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 for any reason we have not met your expectations, let us know as soon as possible, by calling our main office telephone 01254 723088, or write to Richard Fogarty, Fogartys Insurance Services Ltd, 384 Preston Old Road, Blackburn, Lancashire, BB2 5LL or email richard@fogartysinsurance.co.uk.

If we are unable to resolve the issue to your satisfaction within 3 business days, you will receive an acknowledgement of the matter together with a copy of our complaints procedure promptly and certainly within 5 working days. We will then aim to investigate and provide a resolution as quickly as possible and a final response, with our decision, will be provided in writing within 8 weeks of receiving the complaint. If you are not happy with our response, or the position after a period of 8 weeks, you may be eligible to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) free of charge for an independent assessment and opinion.

The FOS Consumer Helpline is 0800 023 4567 (free on mobile phones and landlines) or 0300 123 9123 (cost no more than calls to numbers starting 01 or 02). Alternatively you can contact them at Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR or complaint.info@ financial-ombudsman.org.uk

www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)
We do not guarantee the solvency of any insurer we place business with. We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) for insurance mediation only; this does not extend to consumer credit lending. The FSCS is the UK’s compensation fund of last resort for clients of authorised financial services firms. You may be entitled to compensation from the FSCS if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and circumstances of the claim. Insurance advising and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim with no upper limit, although compulsory insurance is protected in full. Further details about the FSCS can be found on their website www.fscs.org.uk.

Conflicts of Interest
Our company ethics and culture towards customer service means that we never deliberately put ourselves in a position where our interests or our duty to another party prevents us from discharging our duty to you. Where we become aware of any actual or potential conflict of interest we will tell you about the situation, the options available to you and we will ask for your consent to proceed.

Termination of Agreement
Our agreement may be terminated by either one of us giving 14 days’ notice in writing to the other. You will be liable to pay for any outstanding transactions or adjustments prior to termination without
any penalty fee as long as these are settled immediately on termination. We will be entitled to retain any fees or commission payable in relation to business transacted prior to date of the termination.

Bribery and Corruption
We have no tolerance for bribery and corruption and this policy extends throughout the company for all of its dealings and transactions in all countries in which we operate. Our anti bribery policy is updated in line with the changes in law, changes in our business and our reputational demands. All employees are required to comply with this policy.

Law and Jurisdiction
These Terms of Business which form our agreement with you, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts unless we agree with you otherwise.