Bernadette O’Hare Insurance Services - Terms of Business
13 St Colman’s Park, Newry, BT34 2BX
Tel No: (028) 30264319
FCA Register No: 306487 Email: info@bernieohareins.com
Terms of Business Agreement
The Financial Conduct Authority
The Financial Conduct Authority is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. Bernadette O’Hare Insurance Services is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our FCA Register number is 306487 and you can check our status at www.fca.org.uk/register or by contacting the FCA on 08001116768
Our permitted business includes advising, arranging, dealing in and assisting with the placing and administration of all types of General Insurance policies.
Our Service
We are an independent insurance intermediary, who acts on our customers’ behalf in arranging insurance we will advise you separately prior to the commencement of each contract if this alters. Our services include: recommending 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. As part of our service, we will assist you with any claim you need to make and tell you what your responsibilities are in relation to making claims.
If you mislay your policy at any time, we will issue a replacement policy document, if you request it.
Whose products we offer
We usually offer recommendations from a range of insurers, representing a fair analysis of the market, however, under certain circumstances we may only deal with a limited panel, or single insurer. We will confirm, for each individual policy we provide you with, the basis of our advice. In certain circumstances we will use the services of another intermediary to place your insurance and in these circumstances we will state the name of the intermediary we use and the name of the risk carrier in the form of “underwritten by”
The service we will provide you with
We will advise and make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your demands and needs. Our r will be confirmed in a demands & needs and suitability statement, giving reasons for our recommendation. In respect of Legal Expenses/Motor Breakdown policies you will not receive advice or a recommendation from us and you will then need to make your own choice about how to proceed.
What you will pay for our services
Personal Insurance Charges - The remuneration we receive for our services is a percentage of the Insurance Premium (known as brokerage or commission). Commission, brokerage and fees are earned for the policy period and we will be entitled to retain all commission, brokerage and fees for the full policy period in respect of any policies which are cancelled mid-term, or policies made void from inception by insurers and where refunds are allowed for reduction in cover. We reserve the right to charge a fee in addition to the Insurance Premium for the arrangement, amendment, renewal or cancellation of any Policy. These fees are in respect of Personal Insurance only and are as follows:
Arranging new policies £20.00
Mid term adjustments £20.00
Mid term cancellations and other refunds are refunded NET of commission. We may, in addition, charge a £ 20 administration fee.
Renewals £20.00
Replacement/duplicate certificates or cover notes £20.00
Consumer policies cancelled during the ‘Right to Cancel’ period will be subject to an administration charge of £30, in addition to the premium charged by the insurer for the period of cover provided.
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.
Prior to the conclusion of each insurance contract, or upon renewal, we will remind you of your right to be advised of the level of commission which we receive from underwriters. You are entitled, at any time, to request information regarding any commission which we may have received as a result of placing your insurance business.
Commercial Insurance Commission and Charges
Our remuneration is mainly by commission paid by the insurers. However we may offer services which require a higher level of remuneration than the commission which some insurers pay or we may have to place your insurances through an insurer or underwriting agency or Lloyd’s broker who will only pay us a percentage of the insurer’s commission or no commission at all. In such circumstances we reserve the right to make charges in addition to any insurance premiums, for the arranging, amending, renewing and cancellation of any policy of insurance. We will advise you in writing of these charges before you purchase the insurance and the charges will be clearly shown in our letter advising you of the insurer’s terms and on any invoice. Commission, brokerage and fees are earned for the policy period and we will be entitled to retain all commission, brokerage and fees for the full policy period in respect of any policies which are cancelled mid-term or policies made
void from inception by Insurers.
What to do if you have a complaint
Our aim is to provide a first class service, however, if you wish to register a complaint, please contact us by writing to Complaints Manager, Bernadette O’Hare Insurance Services, 13 St Colman’s Park, Newry. BT34 2BX, or, by phone Telephone 028 3026 4319, by fax 028 3026 0833.
We will provide you with a copy of our full complaints procedure and respond to you promptly, and always within 5 working days. We will 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.
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 and their address is:
Financial Ombudsman Service
Exchange Tower
London
E14 9SR
Your Right to Cancel (Applicable to Consumers/Retail Customers Only)
You have a legal right to cancel your policy for any reason, subject to no claims having occurred, within 14 days of receiving the full terms & conditions. You will always be advised where this Right applies. A charge will apply for the period of cover provided and, in addition, we make an administration charge as detailed above.
If you wish to cancel a policy you must advise us in writing, prior to expiry of the 14-day cancellation period, to our usual office address.
Are we covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)?
We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). You may be entitled to compensation from the FSCS if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim. Full details and further information are available from the FSCS. The FSCS is the UK’s statutory fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms, like us. The FSCS can pay compensation if an authorised firm is unable or likely to be unable to pay claims against it, usually because it has gone out of business or is insolvent.
Insurance advising and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim, without an upper limit. For compulsory insurances (for example, motor insurance and employers’ liability insurance), insurance advising and arranging is covered for 100% of the claim, without an upper limit. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS.
Payment Options
We normally accept payment by guaranteed cheque or cash
You may be able to pay by credit/debit cards – Visa, MasterCard, direct to Insurers You may also be able to spread your payments through insurers’ instalment schemes or a credit scheme, which we have arranged through Keys Premium Finance Limited (please note we act as a broker, not a lender, in connection with premium finance).We will give you full information about your payment options and the appropriate finance agreement when we discuss your insurance in detail.
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.
Language Used
The English language will be used for all communications, the contractual terms and conditions, and any information we are required to supply to you, before and during the duration of the contract.
Applicable Law
This Terms of Business is subject to English Law and the jurisdiction of the English Courts
Information on how we treat Payments You make to Us
Under the terms of our agreements with the Insurance companies with whom we place business, we normally receive premiums you pay to us as Agent of the Insurer. In certain
circumstances you may have the additional protection of insurance companies accepting that monies paid to us are treated as being received by them (Risk Transfer) Please ask for details. All insurance premiums you pay to us are protected in a Statutory Trust Client Account until we pay insurers. We do not pay any interest on premiums held by us in the course of arranging and administering your insurance. 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.
Your Duty to give information – Consumer
When applying for or amending your insurance policy, we and/or your insurer will ask a number of questions to assess the risk prior to agreeing cover. It is your duty to ensure that you answer all questions raised by insurers honestly and reasonably. These questions are designed to enable us or the insurer to obtain a comprehensive picture of the nature of the risk to be insured, and only by asking such questions and receiving answers which are given honestly and with reasonable care, can we or the insurer be in a position to offer terms which are designed to meet your demands and needs.
The reason why this vital and extremely important is that if you fail to tell us or the insurer something when asked, or, if you answer carelessly or act deliberately or recklessly in making misrepresentations when answering questions, your policy may leave you with no insurance protection: insurers may not pay or part of all of your claim and may cancel your policy. You may find it difficult to re-arrange cover
because you did not tell the insurer everything when asked, and you will have to disclose this fact when you reapply for insurance.
Your Duty to give information – Commercial Customers
It is important that you understand your duty to provide all materially important information, fully, completely and accurately to us and your insurers not only when you take out your insurance, but also throughout the life of your agreement, at the annual renewal or at any other time when changes occur.
Materially important information is any information that could influence an insurer’s decision to accept your risk including the cost of your insurance. For example, details of previous insurance claims that you have made, or reported. Personal information about you, such as criminal convictions (you have a duty to give this information even when the insurance relates to business and not you), general information about the risk, such as the construction of a building. (for example, concrete floor, timber frame with brick, stone, and a slate roof).
If you are not sure how much information to provide or do not understand the question please ask.
The reason why this is vital and extremely important is that if you fail to tell us something, your policy will leave you with no insurance protection: insurers will not pay any claims and will cancel your policy.
You will find it difficult to re-arrange cover because you did not tell an insurer everything, and you will have to disclose this fact when you reapply for insurance.
INSURANCE ACT 2015 – Applicable to Commercial Policyholders – additional obligations Fair Presentation of Risk to the Insurer.
The objective of a fair presentation is to give the Insurer all the information they might need to quote a premium and decide what terms to offer you . Answer questions carefully and tell things that will increase the risk of a loss’ your plans for the business; any unusual processes or system that are not normal for the trade; why you are changing insurers if that is the case). Consider all he Insurers will want to know about the firm to include convictions, bad debts, court judgements, censure or accusations by authority, investigations authority etc. The point about the fair presentation is that it is far better to get everything out at the time of quotation than to let the Insurers find things out at the time of a claim. A Reasonable Search- to discipline created by the Act is a good one in that you are required to make enquiries of anyone who might be able to give material information This will include Directors, Senior Management , Shop floor Managers and agent of the firm such as solicitors or accountants
CONSEQUENCES TO ALL – CONSUMERS AND COMMERCIAL CUSTOMERS-
Failure to act as described may leave you with no insurance protection, Insurers may not pay a part or all of your claim, and may cancel your policy. You may find it difficult to re-arrange cover because you did not
tell an Insurer everything*, and you will have to disclose this fact when you reapply for insurance (*Consumers- this applies to everything asked) .
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation 2018)
How we collect and handle your personal information
Bernadette O’Hare Insurance Services will use your personal information for the provision of insurance services such as providing a quotation, underwriting a policy and handling claims under an insurance contract. We will also use your data for other related matters such as complaint handling, prevention and detection of fraud, reinsurance and statistical analysis.
When looking for a quote for a product from us, you will need to provide us with information relating to what you wish to be covered by the insurance (e.g. car make and model etc.). When buying certain products, we will on occasion need to collect special categories of data (e.g. medical history for motor insurance and convictions history (e.g. driving offences)).
We will need to process your payment information (e.g. direct debit, credit and debit card information, etc.) in order to provide your cover. To service your policy, we may
communicate with you via your intermediary, if applicable, and via our website, emails telephone calls or post. Calls with Bernadette O’Hare Insurance Services may be recorded for training and verification purposes.
If you need to claim against your insurance policy, we normally need to collect information that evidences what happened in the incident. If other people are involved in the incident, we may also need to collect additional information related to them (including children) which can include special categories of data (e.g. injury and medical data, etc.).
Data Protection laws require us to meet certain conditions before we are allowed to use your personal information in the manner described in this Notice. We take our responsibilities under data protection laws very seriously, including meeting these conditions.