Page Contents

1. Firm's Identity
2. Whose Products do we Offer?
3. Our service
4. Disclosure
5. Confidentiality and data protection / Access to records by a regulator or complaints resolution body
6. Motor & home insurance anti-fraud registers
7. Motor Insurer Information Centre (MIIC)
8. Use for marketing purposes
9. Claims
10. Complaints
11. Cancellation rights (The mediation contract) - Applicable to Retail Customers only
12. Premiums and financial aspects
13. What you will pay us for our services
14. Commission Withdrawal
15. Disclosure of commission - Commercial Clients
16. Risk Transfer
17. Client money segregation (Non-statutory trust)
18. Earning Interest on Customer Premiums - Retail
19. Quotations
20. Policy Terms, Conditions and Warranties
21. Policy Renewals
22. Customer money passed to another person
23. Financial Services Compensation Scheme
24. Governing law
25. Government Taxes
26. Insurance Checklist

SECTION 1 Firm's Identity

Boshers Ltd
1st Floor 13-15 High Street Bideford Devon EX39 2AA
Registered in England 02946794

Contact Details

Tel No. 01237 429444
Fax. 01237 427996
e-mail: info@boshers.co.uk

Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, our FSA Number is 224623. You can check this on the FSA's Register by visiting the FSA's website or by phoning them on 0845 606 1234. Our permitted business, to which this Terms of Business Notice (TOB) relates, is the advising and arranging of General Insurance products.

Introduction & Definitions

This TOB refers to both Consumers & Commercial Clients. You should be aware that if you are a business with a group annual turnover of £1m or more, a charity with an annual income of £1m or more or trustees of a trust with a net asset value of £1m or more you will not be entitled to refer a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. .

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SECTION 2 Whose Products do we Offer?

For the majority of the products that we offer we deal with a limited number of insurers, from which we select a policy to meet your particular needs. In other circumstances we offer the policy of a single insurer as set out below. We are not contractually obliged to conduct business in this way. For those products where we deal with a range of insurers, our advice to you and the information we give to you is based upon a fair analysis of the market. In these cases, we act on your behalf and accept responsibility for the advice and services we provide in arranging your insurance. A list of the insurers is also available on request.

We offer products from a limited number of insurers for

• Accident & Sickness
• Business Travel
• Commercial Inclusive
• Contractors All Risks
• Directors & Officers
• Engineering
• Fleet Insurance
• Goods In Transit
• Hotel
• Household
• Liabilities
• Marine
• Motor
• Motor Traders
• Private Medical
• Professional Indemnity
• Property Owners
• Second Homes
• Shops, Pubs & Offices

We offer products from a single insurer for

• Agricultural
• Commercially let holiday homes
• Horse
• Legal Expenses
• Mortgage Payment Protection
• Thatch Insurance
• Travel
• Uninsured Loss Recovery

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SECTION 3 Our service

In arranging insurance for our customers, 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. We can also assist you with making a claim. These services will be provided for the duration of any policy and such subsequent period in respect of claims assistance that may be required.

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SECTION 4 Disclosure

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.

It is important for you to 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 that 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 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'.

You are advised to keep copies of any correspondence you send to us or direct to your insurer. If you are in any doubt about whether information is material, you should always disclose it.

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SECTION 5 Confidentiality and data protection / Access to records by a regulator or complaints resolution body

All personal and sensitive information about our customers is treated as Private and Confidential.

We collect your data during our quotation process and with your consent we may collect your data from companies with whom you currently have contracts and insurance policies and your advisers. Your information will be held on computer databases and paper files. We use the data primarily to provide you with financial services and insurance advice and to complete transactions on your behalf. We also like to keep you informed of our products and services so we may use your data to recommend them to you. Unless we are notified of any changes, we shall assume the personal and sensitive data we hold about our customers is correct and will use it to provide quotations when policies fall due for renewal.

We may pass information about you to credit reference agencies for the purposes of arranging payments by instalments, and may also pass to them details of your payment record with us. We may also have to allow access to your records by our auditors and professional advisers, a regulator or a complaints resolution body, or their appointees or representatives, who have been appointed to undertake monitoring or investigatory activities.

In the interests of security and to improve our service, telephone calls you make to us may be monitored and/or recorded.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, individuals have a right to see personal information about them that we hold in our records. A charge will be made for this service. If you wish to exercise this right, or have any other related queries, you should write to us at the above address.

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SECTION 6 Motor & 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.

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SECTION 7 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.

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SECTION 8 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 the above telephone number or write to us at the above address.

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SECTION 9 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. If you are unsure as to the claims procedure you should contact us as soon as possible using our contact details.

When we receive written 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 2 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 and of any request for information, as soon as possible, to establish the nature and extent of a loss.

We will forward any payment cheques received from insurers in respect of any claim, to you, without delay.

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SECTION 10 Complaints

It is our intention to provide you with a high level of customer service at all times. If there are occasions when we do not meet these 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 in writing, advising you who is dealing with the matter. A copy of our full Complaints Handling Procedures is available on request. Following our investigation of your complaint, if you are not satisfied with our decision and you are eligible, you can refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

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SECTION 11 Cancellation rights (The mediation contract) - Applicable to Consumers only

The Mediation Contract is the agreement between you and us for the insurance mediation services that we provide to you in respect of your insurance requirements.

Once you have entered into the Mediation Contract with us, you are entitled to a period of reflection during which you may decide whether to proceed with the purchase of the Mediation Contract. The duration of this cancellation period is 14 days and commences from either:

1. the day of conclusion of the Mediation Contract or
2. the day on which you receive the full terms of the Mediation Contract detailing the full contractual terms, conditions and information of the contract;

whichever is later.

To cancel this Mediation Contract within the cancellation period, please write to us at the above address. If you do cancel this Mediation Contract within the cancellation period, you may be charged a proportion of any of our fees that you have incurred.

Either party in writing can cancel this Mediation Contract at any time by giving 14 days notice. If you wish to give notice of cancellation, please write to us at the above address. If we wish to cancel this Mediation Contract we shall write to you at the last known address we have for you on our records.

If you decide to cancel the Mediation Contract with us at any time other than during the cancellation period, we will retain in full any fees that you have paid.

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SECTION 12 Premiums and financial aspects

In order to be able to offer you credit facilities, we are registered under the Consumer Credit Act and our Licence Number is 497728

We normally accept payment by cash, guaranteed cheque or the following credit/debit cards: Most major credit/debit cards, except American Express & Diners Club. We reserve the right to make the following surcharge for payments by credit card: premiums up to £350, £7.50 up to £500, £10 up to £750, all others at a rate of 1.5%. Debit Cards incur no charge.

You may be able to spread your payments through insurers' instalment schemes, a credit scheme with a third party finance provider, or a facility we have arranged ourselves. We will give you full information about your payment options when we discuss your insurance in detail.

We may keep certain documents, such as your insurance policy documents or Certificate, while we are waiting for full payment of premiums. In these circumstances, we will ensure that you receive full details of your insurance cover and will provide you with any documents that you are required to have by law.

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SECTION 13 What you will pay us for our services

1. Where the insurance provider pays a commission, the firm will retain this.
2. Where the Insurance provider charges a Net Premium and makes no commission payment to the firm a fee of 15% of the Net Premium is charged subject to a minimum fee of £15.
3. New Policies & Renewals £10 fee other than specialist schemes where a £15 certificate fee applies.
4. Lost Certificate replacement & mid-term adjustments and alterations £15 fee.
5. Return Premiums. These arise if your insurance is reduced or cancelled. We repay commission on the amount to your insurer and this will be deducted from the final amount due to you plus our fee of £15. Your refund will be sent as soon as we have received a credit from your insurer; this may take up to 30 working days.
6. Returned cheques & returned Direct Debits a fee of £25.
7. You will receive a quotation, which will tell you about any other fee relating to any particular insurance policy.
8. Where you use an insurer payment scheme any fees incurred will be invoiced separately.

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SECTION 14 Commission Withdrawal

If we receive commission from the premiums that you pay us, we shall only withdraw commission after we have received the premium from you, and in accordance with FSA regulations and agreements that we hold with insurers.

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SECTION 15 Disclosure of commission - Commercial Clients

If you would like to know the amount of commission that we are paid in respect of your insurance contract, this information is available on request.

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SECTION 16 Risk Transfer

By virtue of agreements we hold with certain insurers, we collect premiums and hold refunds 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 collect premiums and hold refunds on behalf of Ace European Group, Allianz, AXA, DA Constable, DAS, Ecclesiastical, Fortis, HCCI, Ink Underwriting (Only policies underwritten by AVIVA, Faraday Reinsurance, Casualty & General, Gable Insurance), MMA, Navigators & General, Norwich Union, NIG, Provident, QBE, Royal & Sun Alliance and Zurich. We collect premiums on behalf of HSB Engineering. Otherwise section 17 applies. Premiums and refunds held on behalf of insurers will be co-mingled with Client Money in the Client Money Bank Account described in section 17.

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SECTION 17 Client money segregation (Non-statutory trust)

Premiums that we collect from you will be segregated into and held in a Client Money Bank Account. We will hold the client money as trustee on your behalf. The Client Money Bank Account is set up as a trust governed by FSA rules. We may agree to extend credit to you and other customers using client money from the Client Money Bank Account. We will have in place, and maintain, systems and controls adequate to ensure that we are able to monitor and manage client money transactions and any credit risk arising from the operation of the account.

If we become insolvent, the terms of the trust dictate that customers will have a prior claim on the client money in the Account according to their respective interests in the client money. The costs relating to the distribution of client money may have to be borne by the trust.

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SECTION 18 Earning Interest on Customer Premiums - Retail

Under FSA Regulations we have to inform you that we may earn interest from the money held in our Client Money Bank Account which may exceed £20 for any one transaction that you make with us. We will retain any interest that we earn.

By accepting these Terms Of Business, you are giving your consent for us to act in the manner described in this section.

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SECTION 19 Quotations

All quotations are subject to change in respect of the amount of premium indicated, and/or the terms and conditions that are applied until they have been confirmed by insurers.

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SECTION 20 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.

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SECTION 21 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 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 renewal date.

Renewal when using a Third Party credit provider such as RBS Finsure 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 required 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 to be sent to you by your credit provider.

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SECTION 22 Customer money passed to another person

In accordance with FSA Regulations we have to inform you that in managing and/or arranging your insurance requirements, we may transfer money that you have paid us, in payment of an insurance premium, to another insurance intermediary. By accepting these Terms of Business, you are giving your consent for us to act in the manner described in this Section.

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SECTION 23 Financial Services Compensation Scheme

We are covered by the FSCS. 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. For non-compulsory classes of insurance, insurance advising and arranging is covered for 100% of the first £2,000 and 90% of the remainder 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.

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SECTION 24 Governing law

The laws of England and Wales shall govern this Agreement and the parties agree herewith that any dispute arising out of it shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.

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SECTION 25 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.

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Insurance Checklist

This is a broad outline of the main classes of insurance that are available in the market, but it is not exhaustive. We are duty bound to advise you that you should insure for all areas of risk. However this decision rests with you, again we must urge you to consider the financial consequences of being uninsured or under insured.

Property

Your buildings and/or contents can be insured against: -

• Fire
• Special Perils of explosion
• earthquake
• aircraft
• riot & malicious damage
• storm
• flood
• escape of water
• impact
• Subsidence
• Theft involving forcible & violent entry or exit
• Other damage of an accidental nature

Other Property Insurances

• Goods In Transit
• Glass breakage including sanitary fittings
• Money, Property away from your premises

Business Interruption

Covers Loss of Trading Profit due to interruption caused by an insured peril for a selected indemnity period - usually minimum 12 months. Various extensions are available, e.g. following damage at the premises of: Suppliers, Customers, Public utilities, or nearby properties restricting access to your premises.

Public Liability

Covers your legal liability for physical injury, damage or loss caused to third parties arising from your business activities - set at a level that that matches your liability.

Products Liability

Covers your legal liability for physical injury, damage or loss arising from goods sold or supplied - set at a level that that matches your liability for all claims, in any one year.

Fidelity Guarantee

Gives the business protection against misappropriation by employees.

Commercial Legal Expenses

An increasingly important insurance, including compensation awards as well as defence costs in employment disputes. Various other costs can be insured e.g. Inland Revenue/VAT investigations, Property disputes, Certain criminal prosecution defence, Data Protection prosecutions, Contractual disputes, Intellectual Property disputes. A legal query helpline is provided, saving you legal costs.

Professional Indemnity

Protects your company's legal liability for claims made against you alleging financial loss following breach of professional duty or negligence.

Directors & Officers

Increasingly, actions are taken against individual directors and officers of corporate bodies - these individuals are not protected by the limited liability available to shareholders. D & O will afford protection up to the requested indemnity levels.

Marine & Aviation

Covering goods exported and/or imported, as well as other marine and aviation risks.

Travel Insurance

For principals and employees. Can be arranged either for specific journeys or on an annual basis.

Personal Accident

Providing capital sums in the event of death or permanent disability and weekly benefits for temporary disability, for principals and employees.

Engineering Insurance

Cover can be arranged to provide more specific insurance for certain types of plant and equipment. Inspection services can also be arranged to provide regular inspections of plant & equipment, particularly where required by statute.

Terrorism

Protection against acts of terrorism where your other insurance excludes or restricts such cover.

Motor

Tailored insurance for all types and numbers of motor vehicles.

Motor Legal Expenses

Covers Legal costs of recovering uninsured losses such as personal injury and loss of income, following motor accidents, with other valuable benefits and a legal helpline.

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