Boshers Ltd | Specialist Insurance Solutions
14 Habat Enterprise Park, Clovelly Road Industrial Estate, Bideford, Devon, EX39 3HN
Registered in England 02946794
Tel No. 01237 429444
Fax. 01237 459390
e-mail: info@boshers.co.uk
Financial Conduct Authority
From the 1st April 2013 the Financial Conduct Authority is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. Boshers Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our FCA registration number is 224623. You can check our status on the financial services register on the FCA website or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768. Our permitted business, to which this Terms of Business Notice (TOB) relates, is the advising, arranging, dealing in and assisting with the placing and administration of General Insurance policies.
This terms of business (TOB) refers to both Consumers & Commercial Customers. A Consumer is any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his trade or profession. A Commercial Customer is a customer who is not a consumer.
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.
We usually offer advice from 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.
To make sure you get the best offer from insurers, now or at any renewal 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 instalment facilities to you. In relation to the provision of credit, we offer only the facilities provided by insurers, or those of Close Premium Finance Ltd.
We offer products from a limited number of insurers for:
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 insurance advice and to complete transactions on your behalf.
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 will not give anyone else any personal information except on your instructions or authority, or where we are required to do so by law, or by virtue of our regulatory requirements.
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.
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, you have the right to see personal information about you that we hold in our records. If you wish to exercise this right, or have any other related queries, you should write to us at the above address.
You must take reasonable care to answer all questions honestly and to the best of your knowledge, and if you volunteer any other information, you must ensure that the information is not misleading. If any information that you have provided to us changes before you take out your insurance, during the life of the policy or at renewal, you must inform us of the change. If you deliberately, recklessly or carelessly misrepresent any information in relation to this insurance then your policy may be cancelled, or treated as if it never existed, or your claim rejected or not fully paid.
You have a legal right to cancel your policy or credit agreement for any reason, subject to no claims having occurred, within 14 days of receiving the full terms & conditions. You will always be advised where this Right applies. A charge will apply for the period of cover provided and, in addition, we make an administration charge as detailed below. If you cancel a credit agreement you will need to repay any sums provided in full and make alternative arrangements to pay your premium. If you wish to cancel a policy you must advise us in writing, prior to expiry of the 14-day cancellation period, to our usual office address.
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. It is important that you ensure that all statements you make on proposal forms, statements of fact, 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. Failure to disclose any information or change in circumstances to your insurers which could influence the cost, or their decision to accept your insurance, could invalidate your insurance cover, and mean that a claim may not be paid.
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.
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. 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.
Our aim is to provide you with a first class service , however, if you wish to register a complaint, please contact us:
We regard a complaint or an expression of dissatisfaction which is capable of becoming a complaint to be any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction, either orally or in writing; whether justified or not, from, or on behalf of, a person about the provision of, or failure to provide, a financial service, which alleges that the complainant has suffered (or may suffer) financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience, which could not be resolved by an apology by close of business on the day following notification.
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 (FOS) for an independent assessment and opinion. Complaints can be brought to the FOS by, or on behalf of, customers (or potential customers) who are private individuals or “micro-enterprises”. “Micro-enterprises” (an EU term covering smaller businesses) can bring complaints to the ombudsman as long as they have an annual turnover of less than two million euros and fewer than ten employees.
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, bank credit, cheque and Most major credit/debit cards, except American Express & Diners Club. Credit Card payments incur a charge of 1.5% of the transaction amount. Debit Cards 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 whom we act as 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.
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 our specialist Holiday Home Insurance Scheme, where a £15 admin 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.
Under the terms of the agreements we hold with certain insurers and their agents, we collect premiums and hold refunds as agent of the insurer in an Insurer Trust Account for the benefit of those insurers. 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. We collect premiums and hold refunds on behalf of Ace European Group, Ageas, Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Covea, DAS, Ecclesiastical, Gallagher Heath, Groves John Westrup (for Watkins Syndicate), HCCI, HSB Engineering, Ink Underwriting (for Faraday Reinsurance), John Ansell & Partners (for Great Lakes & Hannover), NIG, QBE, Royal & Sun Alliance, Sutton Specialist Risks (for QBE), Towergate Partnership (for various insurers) and Zurich.
All insurance policies contain Conditions and Conditions Precedent with which you must comply for cover to apply, and may also include Warranties which are very strict requirements that insurers have attached to your policy, based upon the risk details supplied. As such, failure to continually meet the terms of a policy Condition, Warranty, or Condition Precedent throughout the policy period could leave you without any insurance protection, and may give underwriters the right to void the policy in its entirety, even where the breach is not directly linked to a claim. It is, therefore, vital that you read and understand the cover restrictions applicable to this insurance, which are contained in full within the policy document issued by your insurers, and notify us immediately if you cannot comply with them.
Your policy contains a number of technical terms, usually for reasons of precise meaning, which may not necessarily be easily understood. The British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) has produced a handy ‘jargon buster’ to explain the key words and phrases that you’ll find in insurance documents, a copy is available by contacting us.
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 renewal date.
Renewal when using a Third Party credit provider -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. 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.
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
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.
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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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.
Your buildings and/or contents can be insured against: -
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.
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.
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.
Gives the business protection against misappropriation by employees.
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.
Protects your company’s legal liability for claims made against you alleging financial loss following breach of professional duty or negligence.
Increasingly, actions are taken against individual directors and officers of corporate bodies – these individuals are not protected by the limited liability available to shareholders. Directors and Officers cover will afford protection up to the requested indemnity levels.
Covering goods exported and/or imported, as well as other marine and aviation risks.
For principals and employees. Can be arranged either for specific journeys or on an annual basis.
Providing capital sums in the event of death or permanent disability and weekly benefits for temporary disability, for principals and employees.
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.
Protection against acts of terrorism where your other insurance excludes or restricts such cover.
Tailored insurance for all types and numbers of motor vehicles.
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.