Terms Of Business

BRUFORD & VALLANCE INSURANCE SERVICES LIMITED – TERMS OF BUSINESS

SECTION 1 Firms Identity

Bruford & Vallance Insurance Services Ltd 45 St James Street, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 1JR

Registered in England 4540484

CONTACT DETAILS

Tel No: 01823 277188

Fax: 01823 256411

E-Mail: info@bruford.co.uk

Website: www.bruford.co.uk

FINANCIAL CONDUCT  AUTHORITY – From  the  1st April 2013   The  Financial  Conduct  Authority  is the  independent  watchdog  that  regulates  financial services.  Bruford & Vallance Insurance Services Limited (“we”, “us”, “our”) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.  Our FCA registration number is 300117. You can check our status at www.fca.org.uk/firms/systems-reporting/register   or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768.  Our permitted business is advising on and arranging non-investment insurance contracts.

INTRODUCTION & DEFINITIONS – This Terms of Business (TOB) refers to both Consumers & Commercial Customers. A Consumer is any natural person who is acting for the purposes which are outside his trade or profession. A Commercial Customer is a customer who is not a consumer.

SECTION 2 Our Service – We are an independent insurance intermediary who acts on our customers, behalf in arranging insurance. 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. 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.

SECTION 3 Whose products do we offer? – We offer  products from  a range of insurers  for Private Car, Household and Commercial Vehicle, and  from  a limited  number of insurers  for Caravan, Commercial  Combined,   Directors  & Officers,  Let & Unoccupied Properties,  Liabilities,  Motorcycle,  Motor  Breakdown  Recovery,  Motor Traders, Offices, Property Owners, Travel and Legal Expenses.

To make  sure you get  the  best offer from your insurers, now or at any  time and  to protect  their customers from fraud and  to verify your identity, insurance companies  may   use  publicly  available  data   which  they   obtain  from  a  variety  of  sources,  including  a  credit  reference  agency  and   other   external organisations.  Their search will appear on your credit report whether or not your applications proceed.  As well as these searches insurance companies may use a credit check to ascertain the most appropriate payment options for you.  This credit check will also appear on your credit report whether or not your applications proceed. Please  contact us if you  do  NOT consent to a  credit  check  being  undertaken,  however this  may  affect  our  ability  to offer  certain products and  instalment  facilities to you. In relation to the provision of credit, we offer only the facilities provided by insurers, or those of Creation Consumer Finance Ltd.

SECTION 4 Confidentiality and data protection – All personal and sensitive information about our customers is treated as Private and Confidential.

We are a data controller for the information you provide to us including individual, identification and financial details, policy history and special category data (such as medical or criminal history).

Details of our legal basis for processing your information, along with details of any third party recipient whom it may be necessary to share your personal data with in order to fulfil the contract, retention period for data held, security of your data, your rights under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) including the right to complain can be found in our full ‘Privacy Notice’ attached to these terms of business.

SECTION 5 Important information (consumer customers only) – Under the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representation) Act 2012 it is your duty as a consumer to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation to an insurer.  Under the Act a consumer is defined as an individual who enters into an insurance contract wholly or mainly for purposes unrelated to the individual’s trade, business or profession.  A failure by the consumer to comply with the insurers request to confirm or amend particulars previously given is capable of being a misrepresentation for the purpose of this Act.

It is important that you ensure all statements you make on proposal forms, claim forms and other documents are full and accurate and we recommend that you keep a copy of all correspondence in relation to the arrangement of your insurance.

Under the Act an insurer has a remedy against a consumer in respect of qualifying misrepresentations in breach of the consumers’ duty of reasonable care where the insurer deems the misrepresentation to be either deliberate, reckless or careless.

If in doubt about any point in relation to your duty to take reasonable care and subsequent qualifying misrepresentations, please contact us immediately. 

SECTION 6 The Duty of Fair Presentation (non-consumer customers only) – It is your responsibility to provide a fair presentation of the insurance risk based on you conducting a reasonable search for information.  This could require you to obtain information from senior managers within your organization or other parties to which the insurance relates or who carry out outsource functions for your business.

You must disclose every material circumstance which you know or ought to know, or failing that disclose sufficient information to put your insurer on notice that it needs to make further enquiries.  You must ensure that any information you provide is correct to the best of your knowledge and representations that you make in expectation or belief must be made in good faith.

If you fail to make a fair presentation of the risk this may result in additional terms or warranties being applied from inception of the policy or any claim payment being proportionately reduced.  In some cases, this could result in your policy being declared void by an insurer and your premiums being returned.  Any deliberate or reckless breach of the duty of fair presentation could result in your policy being declared void by an insurer with no refund of premium. 

SECTION 7 Claims – We have no authority to settle claims on behalf of insurers. In the event  of an incident  occurring,  which may  give rise to a claim under your policy,  you should  notify  the  insurers  as laid out  in the  claims  procedure  shown in your policy  document or in the  case of a motor  accident  and  you have  legal  expenses cover,  use the  claim number provided.  If you are unsure as to the claims procedure you should contact us as soon as possible using our contact details.

When we receive notification of an incident that might give rise to a claim under your policy, we will inform the insurer without delay. We shall use our best endeavours  when  acting  on  your  behalf  in  relation  to a  claim,  to handle  all  elements  of the  claim  with  due  care, skill  and  diligence.  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.

SECTION 8 Complaints – It is our intention to provide you with the highest possible level of customer service at all times.  However, we recognize that things can go wrong occasionally and if this occurs we are committed to resolving matters promptly and fairly.  Should you wish to complain, you may do so:

  • In writing to the Complaints Manager Mr Jason Mayled
  • By telephone on 01823 277188 or By Fax on 01823 256411 or By email at jason@bruford.co.uk
  • In person by visiting our office (see above for full address)

Should you not be satisfied with our final response, you may be entitled to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).  More information is available on request or on their website www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk  Further details will be supplied at the time of responding to your complaint.

SECTION 9 Payment options – In order to be able to offer you credit facilities, we hold Interim Permission as a Credit Broker (OFT Licence Number 529004). Bruford & Vallance Insurance Services Ltd does not charge any fees to customers in relation to Credit Broking activities.

We  normally  accept payment by  cash, bank  transfer,  cheque and  most major  credit/debit  cards, except American  Express & Diners  Club.  Credit card and Debit card payments incur no charge. You may  be  able to spread your payments through  insurers’ instalment  schemes or a credit  scheme with a third  party  finance  provider  for who we act  as an  agent, however rates and  acceptance may  be  subject  to a credit  check.  We will give you full information about your payment options when we discuss your insurance in detail.  Your policy cover will cease if you fail to keep up payments on an instalment agreement or premium finance facility related to it, and your credit rating may be affected.

SECTION 10 What you will pay us for our services –

  1. Where the insurance provider pays a commission, the firm will retain this.
  2. Policies excluding household and commercial – £16.00 fee.
  3. Legal Expenses and Travel Policies – No fee
  4. Transferring insurer – £16.00 fee.
  5. Household policy charges. Premium up to £299 – £16.00; £300 to £599 – £21.00; £600 to £899 – £26.00; £900+ – £31.00.
  6. Adjustments – £11.00 fee.
  7. Return premiums £11.00 or the amount of commission repaid to your insurer, whichever is the greater
  8. Policy Cancellation – £21.00 fee
  9. The specific charge and purpose of any additional charges will be advised to you in advance.

SECTION 11 Risk transfer – Premiums that we collect from you are held in an insurance broking bank account specifically used for the purpose of holding client 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 agreements with insurers.

SECTION 12  Policy terms,  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.

SECTION 13 Policy renewals – We shall contact you in good  time before  the due  date  with the renewal  premium  and  terms for the coming  year,  provided that you have  furnished us with all relevant pre-renewal information that we have  requested.

Renewal by insurers  instalment plan – If there  have  been no changes in the risk and  your circumstances,  and  it is your intention  to renew  the policy, the policy  will  renew   automatically  without  any  action  required  from  you.  We  shall  send  your  new  documentation   or  certificate  of  insurance  to  you,  if appropriate.  If you do not wish to renew the policy please let us know as soon as possible.  We would also advise you to cancel your direct debit mandate (DDM) with your bank prior to the renewal date.

Renewal when using  PremFina Ltd  – If there  have  been no  changes in  the  risk and  your  circumstances,  and  it is  your  intention  to renew  the  policy, we will make  arrangements  for the  policy to renew  without any  action from you.  We shall send your new documentation or certificate of insurance to you, if appropriate.  We  will make  arrangements  for the  renewal  premium  to be  added to your  credit  plan  and  a  new  schedule  of monthly payments will be sent by PremFina  Ltd.  If you do not wish to renew the policy please let us know as soon as possible.  We would also advise you to cancel your direct debit mandate (DDM) with your bank prior to the renewal date. Finance will be subject to possible credit checks by PremFina Ltd.

SECTION 14 Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) – We are covered by the FSCS. You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if  we  cannot  meet   our  obligations.  If  you  are  not  a  private  individual  this  depends  on  the  type  of business  and  the  circumstances  of the  claim.  For non-compulsory classes of insurance, insurance advising and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim. For compulsory classes of insurance, insurance advising and   arranging is covered for 100%   of the claim, without any   upper   limit.  Further   information about   eligibility and   compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS. Their website address is www.fscs.org.uk

SECTION 15 Governing law – 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 and this agreement shall be subject to English Law

SECTION 16 Government taxes – We have no control over taxes such as Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) or Value Added Tax (VAT). Either or both of these may be chargeable in relation to the products and services offered by us and will be levied at the appropriate rate when due.

SECTION 17  Motor  and home insurance  anti-fraud registers  – Insurers  share information  with  each other  via the  Claims  and  Underwriting  Exchange Register (CUE), Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register to aid the prevention of fraudulent claims

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

SECTION 18  Motor  Insurer Information Centre (MIIC)  – Insurers  are  legally  required  to provide  details  of motor  insurance  policies  to the  MIIC. The information  describing  your  insurance  cover  will be  added to the  Motor  Insurance  Database (MID), to which  the  police  and  other  government  agencies 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.

SECTION 19 Motor Insurance – Driving Licences – It is your responsibility to ensure that you and all named drivers hold a valid driving licence(s) for the insured vehicle(s).  Failure to hold a valid licence may invalidate your insurance.  Drink/Drugs clause – A number of insurers will repudiate a claim if, at the time of an accident, the vehicle is being driven by a person under the influence of alcohol or any other substance that would adversely affect a persons ability to drive.  Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) – Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) means that your vehicle must be continuously insured, or a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) sent to the DVLA.  If your vehicle is not on the MID database (which can be checked at www.askmid.com) you could be liable for a fine, prosecution, and your vehicle could be clamped or seized.  Further information is available at www.direct.gov.uk/en/motoring

(Version 16 effective 1 April 2024)