Terms and Conditions
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
The FCA is the Independent watchdog that regulates financial services. It requires us to provide you with information. Please read the terms and conditions to decide if our services are right for you.
Who regulates us?
Marsh Down Insurance Brokers is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our FCA Register number is 302373.
Our permitted business is:
Advising customers on non-investment contracts
This includes recommending a specific insurance policy.
Arranging (bringing about) deals in non-investment insurance contracts
This covers a range of activities including introducing a customer to an insurer, helping a customer to complete a proposal form and sending this to an insurer.
Making arrangements with a view to transactions in non-investment insurance contracts
This includes helping a potential policyholder to complete a proposal form or introducing a customer to another intermediary, either for advice or to help arrange an insurance policy.
Dealing as agent in non-investment insurance contracts
This includes entering into a contract of insurance with a customer on behalf of an insurer (for example, issuing a cover note)
Assisting in the administration and performance of a non-investment insurance contract
This includes notifying an insurance claim to the Insurer and negotiating settlement on behalf of the customer.
You can check the above on FCAs register by visiting their website www.fca.gov.uk/register or by contacting them on 0845 6061234
Our Service
We act as an Independent Broker on your behalf and 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 will also assist you with making a claim under your policy.
Products that we offer
We sell and advise on a wide range of both personal and commercial insurance products and provide advice or information on the basis of a fair analysis of the market from a wide range of insurers.
For Motor Legal Expenses Insurances we deal exclusively with AIM Legal Expenses Insurance.
Our Charges
As Independent insurance brokers we are paid by commission by insurers. We normally make a charge of up to £10.00 to cover the administration of insurance policies in respect of mid term adjustments, cancellations and renewals plus replacement or duplicate documents or unpaid cheques.
For return premiums (usually arising if an insurance risk is reduced or the policy is cancelled) we repay commission on the refund to your insurer and this amount will be deducted from the final amount refunded to you. In view of the costs involved we will not issue any return premium that is less than £10.00 after deducting reclaimed commission. An amount less than £10.00 will be held to credit and can be utilised against any future insurance with us. If a policy is cancelled, we will refund any return premium due after deduction of the commission and our £10.00 charge.
Premiums and Financial Aspects
Our Client Bank Account has been set up under strict rules laid down by the FCA.
We are the Agent of Insurers for the purpose of collection of certain premiums.
In arranging your insurances 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.
Please note, we retain interest on client money held in our client account and by accepting these Terms of Business you give your consent for us to retain such interest.
In order to be able to offer you credit facilities, we are registered under the Consumer Credit Act and our licence number is 336922.
We normally accept payment by guaranteed cheque, cash or any of the major credit/debit cards.
You may be able to spread your payments through insurers instalment schemes or a credit scheme that we have arranged with a third party finance provider. We will give you full information about your payment options and details of the interest payable when we discuss your insurance in detail.
For certain types of insurance we may ask you to sign a form granting us authority to retain documents such as Motor Certificates until full payment has been received. In these circumstances we will provide you with any documents that you are required to have by law.
Disclosure
It is your responsibility to provide compete 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 being invalid or cover not operating fully.
It is important that you ensure 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 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 withold any relevent information to obtain an insurance Certificate.
You are advised to keep copies of any correspondence you send to us or direct to your insurer.
If you are in any doubt as to whether any information is material, you should disclose it.
Claims
It is essential that you notify us immediately of any incidents which may result in a claim under your insurance policy whether you believe you are liable or not. Any letter or claim received by you must be passed to us immediately.
When we receive notification of an incident that might give rise to a claim under your policy, we will inform the insurers without delay and, in any event within three working days.
Complaints
It is our intention to provide you with a high level of customer service at all times. However, if at any time you are dissatisfied with the service we provide, we have a formal complaints procedure. You should therefore, take the following course of action:
In the first instance you should discuss your complaint with the member of staff with whom you have been dealing.
If you remain dissatisfied, please write to or telephone Mr Keith Marsh at Marsh Down Insurance Brokers, P.O.Box 854, Gillingham, Kent ME8 1ES or 01634 400325. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and advise you who is conducting the investigation into the matters which you have raised. We will provide a formal response within 20 working days from initial receipt of the complaint. If the complaint cannot be resolved within this timescale we will explain why and specify the likely timescale for resolution.
If we cannot settle your complaint, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. We will advise you if you are able to refer any complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.
Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)
We are covered by the FSCS. You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet your obligations. This depends on the type of business and circumstances of the claim.
Insurance advising and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim, without any upper limit. For compulsory classes of insurance, insurance advising and arranging is covered for 100% of the claim, without any upper limit.
Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS.
Confidentiality
All personal information about our customers is treated as Private and Confidential.
We will only disclose the information we have about private individuals in the normal course of arranging and administering their insurance and will not disclose any information to any other parties without their written consent unless required by law or public interest.
We may use the information we hold about our customers to provide them with information about other products and services which we feel may be appropriate to them.
Under the Data Protection Act 1988, private customers have a right to see the personal information about them that we hold in our records. If you wish to exercise this right, or have other related queries, you should write to Mr J Marsh at Marsh Down Insurance Brokers, P.O.Box 854, Gillingham, Kent ME8 1ES.
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 Ltd 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 the Motor Insurance Bureau to identify relevant policy information. Other insurance related databases may also be added in the future.
Commission
Details of the amount of commission that we are paid in respect of your insurance contract is available on request.
Other Taxes and Costs
Other taxes or costs may be payable in respect of the products and services offered by us which are not paid through or imposed by us
Applicable Law
This Terms of Business document is subject to English Law
Use for marketing purposes
We may use information held about you, to provide you with information about other products and services which we offer, and which we feel may be appropriate to you, by email, telephone, post 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 contact us on 01634 400325 or write to us at Marsh Down Insurance Brokers, P.O.Box 854, Gillingham, Kent ME8 1ES