terms of business

our service

In arranging insurance for our clients, we act as an independent broker. Our service includes: advising you on your insurance needs; arranging your insurance cover with insurers to meet your requirements; and helping you with any ongoing changes you have to make.

We can also issue policies on behalf of certain insurers.

We act on your behalf in arranging your insurance.

We offer a wide range of insurance products and have access to leading insurers in the market place. As your broker, we are authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. (FSA) You can check the FSA’s Register by visiting their website www.fsa.gov.uk/register or by contacting the FSA on 0845 606 1234.

Please note that our Uninsured Loss Recovery Service is not an insurance product and is not covered by FSA regulations. We will give you full details of any such arrangements before you make any commitment on any product we offer you.

We will send you documents confirming the full details of your cover and the insurer, and details of the premium(s) you have paid.

disclosure

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. Failure to disclose information pertaining to your insurance, or any inaccuracies in information given, could result in your insurance policy being invalid or cover not operating fully.

It is important that you ensure 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 must check that the answers shown to any questions are true and accurate before signing the document.

You are reminded that it is an offence under the Road Traffic Act to make any false statements or withhold any relevant information to obtain a Certificate of Motor Insurance.

Please note that under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 you are not required to disclose convictions regarded as “Spent”.

You are advised to keep copies of any correspondence you send to us or direct to your insurer. If you are in any doubt about whether information is material, you should disclose it.

premiums and financial aspects

In order to be able to offer you credit facilities, we are registered under the Consumer Credit Act and our Licence Number is 214293.

We normally accept payment by guaranteed cheque or various credit/debit cards.

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. Policies on direct debit will automatically be renewed unless otherwise advised.

We may keep certain documents, such as your insurance policy documents or certificate, whilst we are awaiting the full payment of the 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.

risk transfer

Premiums that we collect from you are held in an insurance broking bank account specifically used for the purpose of holding clients premiums. By virtue of agreements we hold with insurers, we collect premiums as agent of the insurer. Therefore, once we have collected premiums from you, under the terms of our agreements with insurers, those premiums are treated as having been paid to the insurer. We will remit the premiums to insurers, after deduction of our commission, in accordance with the terms of our agreement with insurers.

client money segregation

Premiums that we collect from you will be segregated into and held in a Client Money Bank Account. The client money will be held by us as trustee on your behalf. The Client Money Bank Account is set up as a trust governed by FSA rules. This means that once the client money is segregated into the Client Money Bank Account, it falls into our legal ownership but remains in the beneficial ownership of the customers whose premiums are deposited in the Account. If we become insolvent, the terms of the trust dictate that customers will have a prior claim on the client money in the Account according to their respective interests in the client money. The costs relating to the distribution of client money may have to be borne by the trust.

earning interest on customer premium

Under FSA Regulations we have to inform you that we may earn interest from the money held in our Client Money Bank Account. No interest earned by us in respect of each transaction will be remitted to you.

charges

As brokers, we are paid commission by your insurance company.
We normally also make the following charges to cover the administration of your insurances:-
Mid term adjustments £15.00
Mid term cancellations £15.00
Renewals £15.00
Replacement/Duplicate Certificate £15.00

Return Premiums (Usually arising if an insurance risk is reduced or a policy is cancelled)

On a return premium, we repay commission on the 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 £15 (after deducting reclaimed commission). An amount less than £30 will be held to your credit and can be utilised against any future insurance policy with us.

quotations

All quotations are subject to change in respect of the amount of premium indicated, and/or the terms and conditions that are applied.

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.

Complaints

It is our intention to provide you with a high level of customer service at all times. If there is an occasion when we do not meet your standards, please contact the member of staff you were dealing with, either verbally or in writing. They will take details of your concerns and we will then acknowledge or in writing. They will take details of your concerns and 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 a full response within 20 working days, or explain our position and provide timescales for a full response.

If you remain dissatisfied, please ask to speak to one of the directors of the business.

If we find that your compliant is valid, we will agree with you a mutually acceptable form of redress.

Compensation Arrangements

Should you feel the problem has still not been resolved, then you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service, further information is available at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

We are members of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available at www.fscs.org.uk.

If your complaint relates to a contract of insurance, please direct your complaint to the Chief Executive of the authorised insurer, as stated in your policy document.

Confidentiality and Data Protection

All personal and sensitive information about our customers is treated as Private and Confidential.

We will only use and disclose the information we have about private individuals in the normal course of arranging and administering their insurances, and will not disclose any information to any other parties without their written consent. Unless we are notified of any changes, we shall assume the personal and sensitive data we hold about our customers is correct, and shall use it to provide quotations when policies fall due for renewal.

In the interests of security and to improve our service, telephone calls you make to us may be monitored and/or recorded.

We may pass information about you to credit reference agencies for the purposes of arranging payments by instalments, and may also pass to them details of your payment record with us. As part of the FSA’s duties, we may be asked to provide them with access to customer records in order that they may carry out a review of our activities.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, private customers have a right to see personal information about them that we hold in our records. A charge may be made for this service. If you wish to exercise this right, or have any other related queries, you should write to us at:-

Shene (Insurance) Limited
457 Upper Richmond Road West
London
SW14 7PR

The Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register

Insurers share information with each other via the Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register, and the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register, to aid the prevention of Fraudulent claims.

In the event of a claim, the information you supply on the claim form, together with any other information relating to the claim, will be put on the Registers.

Motor Insurer Information Centre (MIIC)

Insurers are legally required to provide and maintain details of motor insurance policies to the Motor Insurance Database (MID) to which the police and others have access. This helps the pursuance of claims following accidents and aids detection of those who are in contravention of the law by not taking out insurance.

Use for marketing purposes

We may use information held about you, to provide you information about other products and services which we offer, and which we feel may be appropriate to you, by email, telephone or other means.

You may exercise your right to give notice to stop data being processed for marketing purposes by contacting us at any time.
Please call us on 020 8878 7822 or write to us at:

Shene (Insurance) Limited
457 Upper Richmond Road West
London
SW14 7PR

Policy terms and conditions and warranties

You should read through all policy terms, conditions and warranties shown on your policy documentation. Please ensure you understand them and are able to follow their requirements exactly. If not, please advise us immediately, as a breach of any terms, conditions or warranties may enable your insurer to terminate your policy from the date of that breach, and/or repudiate a claim under your policy.