Terms of Business

Bricks & Motor Insurance Brokers Ltd, 84 Bolton Street, Bury, Lancashire BL9 0LL.                   

Telephone 0161 763 8222 Company Number 4838284

1. Status
Bricks and Motor Insurance Brokers are an independent insurance broker acting on your behalf as an agent to arrange your insurance cover. We offer a wide range of insurance products, and have access to the leading insurers in the market place. We aim to offer the highest standards of service in establishing appropriate insurance cover against your requirements.

We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Our registration number is 306923. These details can be checked by visiting the FSA website at www.fsa.gov.uk/register or by contacting them on 0845 606 1234.

2. Service
Our service includes: advising you on your insurance needs; arranging insurance cover with insurers to meet your requirements on the basis of a fair analysis of the market; and helping you with any ongoing changes you wish to make. We will make sure, as far as we are able, that the products or services we offer you match your requirements:
- If it is practical, we will identify your needs by getting relevant information from you.
- We will offer you products and services to meet your needs and any requirements you have.
- If we cannot match your requirements, we will explain the differences in the product or service that we can offer you.
- If it is not practical to match all your requirements, we will give you enough information so that you can make an informed decision about your insurance.

We will explain the main features of the products and services that we offer including who the insurer is, all the important details of cover and benefits, any significant or unusual restrictions or exclusions, any significant conditions or obligation which you must meet and the period of cover.
If you want to consider the products or services we have offered you, we will:

confirm how long you have to take up your insurance on the terms we have quoted to you;

give you a written quote if you require one, including all the information you need to make an informed decision; And provide you with a sample policy if you ask for one.

3. Duty of Disclosure
It is your responsibility to provide complete and accurate information to insurers when you take out an insurance policy, throughout the life of the policy, and when you renew your insurance. It is important that you ensure all statements you make on proposal forms, claims forms and other documents are full and accurate. Please note that if you fail to disclose any material information to your insurers, this could invalidate your insurance cover and could mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid. Commercial customers should take particular care to check the accuracy of all information provided.

4. Information on costs
We will provide you with details of the costs of each insurance product or service we are offering. In addition to the premiums charged by insurers, we may also make charges to cover the administration of your insurance. If you are a Private customer, full details of our standard charges can be found in our current Tariff of Charges, a copy of which will be provided to you before you make a commitment to buy your insurance. If you are a Commercial Customer, any specific charge and its purpose will always be advised to you in advance. We may earn additional income from insurers for managing their over all account efficiently and profitably. We may also earn an additional income from the provision of independent premium finance facilities, uninsured loss recovery and risk management services.
For Private Customers, we normally accept payment by cash, or guaranteed cheque. Subject to status, you may also be able to spread your payments through insurers’ instalment schemes or a credit scheme that we have arranged with a finance provider on your behalf. We will give you full information about your payment options when we discuss your insurance in detail. For Commercial Customers, we will agree the method of payment when arranging your insurance.

 

5. Terms of payment
Our payment terms are as follows (unless specifically agreed by us in writing to the contrary):
- New policies: immediate payment on the inception date of the policy.
- Alterations to existing policies: immediate payment on the effective date of the change.
- Renewal: due in full by the renewal date. Unless we receive your instructions to lapse a policy before the renewal date we will assume the renewal is required and you will be liable to make payment to us.
In the event that payment is not received from you in accordance with the above terms, we will take whatever steps we see fit to mitigate our position. This may include cancellation of your policy/policies. This could invalidate your insurance cover and could mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid. 

6. Client Monies

The majority of insurers that we place business with accept risk transfer whereby the insurer accepts at law responsibility for the money held by ourselves. For those insurers who do not accept risk transfer, client monies will be held in a statutory trust account, whereby client money is held on trust in the legal ownership of Bricks and Motor Insurance Brokers Ltd, but remains in the beneficial ownership of the client. Any interest earned on client money held by us will be retained by us for our own use.

7. Notification of Incidents
It is essential that you immediately notify us of all incidents that may result in a claim against your insurance policy. You must do so whether you believe you are liable or not. Any letter of claim received by you must be passed to us immediately, without acknowledgement. Only by providing prompt notification of incidents can your insurance company take steps to protect your interests.

8. Claims
Your policy document will generally give you details on whom to contact in order to make a claim. If this information is not provided, or you require assistance, please contact us. We will then advise you as to what action is required and by whom. You will be required to provide full details of your claim. You will be advised as to how you should do this.

9. Claims Register
Insurers exchange information to help check on the details provided and to prevent fraudulent claims. The police will also have access to this information. This helps insurers to pursue claims following accidents and, more importantly, to detect people who break the law by not taking out insurance.

10.Confidentiality
All information about you will be treated as private and confidential. We will only use and disclose the information we have about you in the normal course of arranging and administering your insurance. We may pass information about you to credit reference agencies for the purpose of arranging payments by instalments and may also pass them details of your payment record with us. We may also use the information we hold about you to provide you with information on other products and services we can offer which we feel may be appropriate to you. If you do not wish to receive marketing information from us or for us to disclose information about you to other parties for marketing purposes please write to us at the above address. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you have the rights of access to any personal information we hold about you in our records. If you have any queries concerning this please contact us at the above address.

11. Complaints
It is our intention to provide you the highest level of customer service at all times. However, if you should feel dissatisfied with your insurance cover in any way, or with the levels of service we have provided, then we operate a comprehensive Complaints Procedure to assist you with your complaint. Should you have a complaint about anything, contact the Customer Satisfaction Manager at Bricks and Motor Insurance Brokers Limited, 84 Bolton Street, Bury, Lancashire, BL9 0LL or telephone 0161 763 8222

In line with our complaint procedure, we will formally log the complaint and refer the matter to a staff member who is independent from the reason for the complaint. All complaints that are not satisfactorily resolved within 24 hours will be acknowledged in writing within 5 business days of receipt and we will do our best to resolve the problem within four weeks. If we cannot, we will let you know when an answer can be expected. If we have not sorted out the situation within eight weeks we will provide you with information about the Financial Ombudsman Service.

12. Are We Covered By The Financial Services Compensation Scheme?

We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). You maybe 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 cover for 100% of  the first £2,000 and 90% of the remainder of the claim without any upper limit.

Further information about the compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS