Terms of Business

For:                       Gothic Insurance Brokers Ltd
Address:                Gothic House, Station Road, Old Harlow, Essex, CM17 0AP
Tel:                        01279 429024 Fax: 01279 433383
Email:                    info@gothicinsurance.com

Our Service

We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our Firm Reference Number is 300031. You can check these details online using the Financial Services Register (accessible from www.fca.org.uk) or by contacting the Financial Conduct Authority Consumer Helpline on 0800 111 6768. We are also authorised by the FCA for consumer credit broking. We act for a number of lenders. In arranging insurance for our clients, we act as an Independent Intermediary. 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 in respect of non-investment policies. We can also assist you with making a claim. We offer a wide range of insurance products and have access to leading insurers in the marketplace. When we arrange you insurance we’ll inform you of the nature of the service we provide. This will usually be one of the following:


(a) a personal recommendation to buy the policy, on the basis of a fair and personal analysis of the market
(b) a personal recommendation to buy a policy we select from one or more insurance undertakings (not on the basis of a fair and personal analysis of the market) in which case we will provide the names of those insurance undertakings
(c) information only about a policy from one or more insurance undertakings without giving you advice or a personal recommendation, in which case we will provide the names of those insurance undertakings

We generally act on your behalf in arranging your insurance, but we’ll make clear at the outset whether we are acting for you or for the insurer in particular circumstances.  Please note our Uninsured Loss Recovery Scheme is not an insurance product and is not covered by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Regulations. We will give you full details of any such arrangements before you make any commitment on any product we offer you.  As insurance brokers we generally act as your agent in advising you, arranging your insurance and assisting you in the event of a claim; we will always act honestly, fairly and professionally ensuring your best interests are our priority. In certain circumstances we may act for and owe duties of care to insurers and/or other parties. Where we become aware of any actual or potential conflict of interest with our duty to you, we will inform you of the situation, the options available to you and obtain your consent before we proceed.

Your Duty of Disclosure

Consumers: 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.
You must take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation to the insurer. This means that all the answers you give and statements you make as part of your insurance application, including at renewal and when an amendment to your policy is required, should be honest and accurate. If you deliberately or carelessly misinform the insurers, this could mean that part of or all of a claim may not be paid.
Commercial customers: Where we arrange insurance wholly or mainly for purposes related to your trade, business or profession, you have a duty under The Insurance Act 2015 to make a fair representation of the risk. This means that you must disclose every material circumstance which you and/or your senior management and/or anyone responsible for arranging your insurance know or ought to know. Alternatively, you must disclose sufficient information which would put the insurer on notice that it needs to make further enquiries for the purpose of revealing those material circumstances. You are expected to carry out a reasonable search in order to make a fair representation of the risk and will be deemed to know what should reasonably have been revealed by the search. Your duty of fair representation applies at the start of the policy, at renewal and when any variation of the policy is arranged. If you fail to make a fair representation, the insurer may refuse to pay your claim or reduce the settlement amount, depending on the circumstances.
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'.

Protecting Your Information

We take your privacy extremely seriously and we will only use your personal details in line with our Privacy Notice. Please read our Privacy Notice carefully https://www.gothicinsurance.com/privacy-policy/ and contact us immediately if you have any queries. Where necessary, for example where we would like to use your data for some marketing purposes, we shall ask for your specific consent to do so. Your personal information includes all of the details you have given us to process your insurance policy (we will not ask for more information than is necessary). We may share your data with Third Parties for the provision and ongoing performance of your insurance policy. Your data may be transferred outside the UK. We will not sell, rent or trade your data under any circumstances. All of the personal information you supply to us will be handled strictly in accordance with the applicable Data Protection regulations and legislation. If you have any queries, please write to Mr D Norris, Managing Director at the above address. We and/or the insurers and/or credit providers may use publicly available data from a variety of sources, including credit reference agencies and other external organisations to verify your identity or creditworthiness, to avoid fraud, and to obtain beneficial quotes and payment options on your behalf. Each of the searches may appear on your credit report whether or not your application proceeds. By agreeing to these terms and conditions you agree to these uses of your information.

Motor and Home insurance Anti-Fraud Registers

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.

Claims

We have no authority to handle 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 insurer direct as soon as possible using the contact details in you policy document. If in doubt about whom you should contact, please contact us on the number above. 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 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 of information required to establish the nature and extent of a loss. If there is any conflict of interest, we shall only handle a claim on your behalf after we have disclosed to you all information you require, to enable you to decide whether to give your informed consent, and you have given that consent for us to handle the claim.

Complaints

It is our intention to provide you with a high level of customer services at all times. If there are occasions 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 them in writing, advising you of who is dealing with the matter. A copy of our full Complaints Handling Procedures is available on request. You may be entitled to refer the matter subsequently to the Financial Ombudsman Service. You can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service by telephone on 0800 0234 567 and further information is available at //www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/. If you do decide to refer any matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service your legal rights will not be affected.

Your Right To Cancel

You may have a statutory right to cancel a policy you take out through us within a short period. Please refer to your policy summary or your policy document for further details. If you cancel within the statutory cancellation period (where this applies) you will receive a pro rata refund of premium from the insurer. Insurers are also entitled to make an administrative charge. In addition, we may keep an amount which reflects the administrative costs of arranging and cancelling the policy. Details of these amounts are given in our tariff of administration charges.
If you wish to cancel outside the statutory cancellation period (where this applies) you may not receive a pro rata refund of premium. In addition, we may also keep an amount that reflects the administrative costs of arranging and cancelling the policy details of these amounts are given in our tariff of administration charges. Your policy may be cancelled at any time by either party in writing by giving 7 days notice. If you wish to give notice of cancellation, please write to us at the above address. If we wish to cancel your policy, we shall write to you at the last known address we have for you on our records.

Protecting Your Money

Prior to your premium being forwarded to the insurer (or forwarded to you in the event of a premium refund) we generally hold your money as an agent of the insurer with which we arrange your insurance. Where we hold premium as the agent of the insurer it is regarded as received by the insurer. If we are not acting as an agent of the insurer when we receive your premium, we shall hold it as client money in trust for you within a client bank account with an approved bank. Our client bank account(s) may contain other clients’ money and money we hold as an agent of insurers. In line with strict FCA rules, our client bank account(s) is/are rigorously monitored in order to segregate and safeguard client money. We reserve the right to retain interest earned on our client bank accounts.
We are permitted to advance credit to other customers from monies we hold in a non-statutory trust client bank account. A copy of the trust deed under which our non-statutory client bank account has been established is available on request. You must notify us if you do not wish your money to be handled in this way.
We may transfer your premiums to the insurer through another party, such as a broker or underwriting agent for the purposes of effecting a transaction.
By accepting this Terms of Business Agreement, you are giving your consent for us to treat your money in this way. Please notify us immediately if you have any objection or query.

Disclosure of Commission

When we sell you a policy the insurer pays us a percentage commission from the total premium that you are charged with. If the type of policy we sell reaches specific profit targets the insurer may also pay us an additional bonus.  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 or arranging premium finance.  Please be assured that at no time will the way in which we are remunerated conflict with our responsibilities to meet your needs and treat you fairly.

Tariff of Charges

We make the following charges to cover the administration of your insurance: -

Arranging New Policies

£25*

Mid-term Adjustments*

£25

Mid-term Cancellations

£30

Renewals

£25*

Duplicate Documentation

£15

*This is the standard charge, we reserve the right to increase this figure but only to an amount reasonable to the time involved in arranging or amending policies or in lieu of reduced commissions. The above fees/charges are Non-refundable. Any additional charges and/or other taxes or costs, that may exist in relation to the products and services offered by us which are not paid through, nor imposed, by us, will be advised to you in advance.  If you pay your premium by instalments we shall inform you of any additional fees, charges or interest as part of your credit arrangements.

Return Premiums (usually arising if an insurance risk is reduced or policy 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. If the policy is cancelled, we will refund any return premium due (after deduction of commission and our charge). No return of premium will be given if a claim has arisen during the period of cover.

Quotations

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

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. You are advised to keep copies of all correspondence you send or receive in respect of your insurance policy.

Premium finance

Gothic Insurance Brokers Ltd is a credit broker and not a lender.
If you decide to pay by premium finance, the finance provider will pay us for the insurance policy and you must repay the premium finance provider the amount borrowed plus interest and any charges.
The premium finance is provided by Close Brothers Premium Finance, who will send you further information and a credit agreement to sign. The finance provider will take monthly instalments directly from your bank account by Direct Debit. To remain on cover, you must make these payments.
You will have an initial cancellation period in which to cancel the finance agreement, this period is 14 days. If you chose to cancel in this time, you will be charged £30 (insert break down of costs as applicable). You will be required to find an alternative method to pay for your insurance policy within 7 days, if not the insurance policy will be cancelled.
In the event that instalment payments are missed or not made, Close Brothers premium Finance may cancel your credit agreement and without an alternative method of payment, your insurance policy will also be cancelled. In the event of cancellation there may be a sum outstanding that you will need to pay, this will be offset by any refund provided by the Insurer, if applicable.

We earn commission for setting up your finance agreement with Close Brothers Premium Finance, this is set at a percentage of the total cost of credit. Gothic have discretion to decide what interest rate is most applicable to your circumstances, as such we need to make you aware that we have an influence to the total amount you pay and the commission we earn. We will always endeavour to ensure our actions are consistent with your needs and treat you fairly.

Renewal premiums paid by instalments

In good time before the renewal of you policy, we shall contact you with the renewal premium and terms for the coming year.  If you have not contacted us before the renewal date, we shall renew the policy as soon as possible. If you do NOT wish to renew the policy, please let us know prior to renewal date, you can opt to cancel auto-renewal at any time during the term of the policy by calling or emailing us using the contact details above. We should advise you to cancel your direct debiting instruction with your bank if you pay by instalments.

Governing Law

This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales and the parties agree herewith that any disputes arising out of it shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts. This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of Scotland and the parties agree herewith that any disputes arising out of it shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Scottish Courts.

Compensation Arrangements

We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the 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, also without any upper limit. The scheme does not apply to consumer credit. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS on 0800 678 1100 or 020 7741 4100 or by visiting http://www.fscs.org.uk/

Insurer security

The insurers we use are regulated and are required to have adequate capital resources. However, we cannot guarantee the solvency of any insurer we place business with. An insolvent insurer may be unable to pay claims or may be unable to pay them in full and you may have to pay a further premium to pay for alternative insurance cover