Terms of Business Agreement
The following Terms of Business Agreement sets out the basis on which Inval Holdings Ltd trading as Routen Chaplin, referred to as ‘Routen Chaplin’, ‘We’, ‘Us’, ‘Our’ will provide business services to you as a consumer or commercial client of the firm.
Please contact us immediately if there is anything in these terms of business which you do not understand or with which you disagree. We are happy to answer any questions and willing to explain these terms and the reasons for them.
You are deemed to have accepted these terms of business unless you advise us otherwise within 7 days of receipt.
Contact us
Telephone: 0115 973 4437 Email: insurance@routenchaplin.co.uk Address: Routen Chaplin, Britannic House, 5 Tamworth Road, Long Eaton, Nottingham NG10 1JE. Business Hours: Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm
About us
We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as an insurance intermediary. Our Firm Reference Number is 304376. We are permitted to arrange; advise on; deal as an agent of insurers and clients; assist in claims handling in respect of non-investment insurance policies. You can check these details online using the Financial Services Register at https://register.fca.org.uk/ or by contacting the Financial Conduct Authority Consumer Helpline on 0800 111 6768. We are also authorised by the FCA for credit broking. We act for one lender.
Our scope of service
We offer a wide range of insurance products and have access to leading insurers in the marketplace. When we arrange your insurance, we will usually provide you with a personal recommendation to buy a policy on the basis of a fair and personal analysis of the market. There may be some occasions where a fair and personal analysis of the market is not possible in which case we will select from one or more insurance undertakings and we will provide the names of those insurance undertakings.
We may inform you 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 and nature of the service we provide before you take out the policy with us.
We generally act on your behalf in arranging your insurance, but we’ll make it clear at the outset whether we are acting for you or for the insurer in particular circumstances.
Your duty of disclosure Consumers
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.
Non-consumer 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 presentation 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 presentation of the risk and will be deemed to know what should reasonably have been revealed by the search.
Your duty of fair presentation 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 presentation, the insurer may refuse to pay your claim or reduce the settlement amount, depending on the circumstances.
How to cancel
Please contact us immediately if you wish to cancel any insurance policy, we have arranged for you. You may have a right to cancel a policy without penalty within the first 14 days (or, in some cases, longer). If you choose to cancel within an initial cancellation period you may not receive a proportionate refund of premium from the insurer. However, insurers are entitled to make an administrative charge. In addition, we may charge an amount which reflects the administrative costs of arranging and cancelling the policy. Details of the amount we charge are detailed below under Fees and Charges.
If you choose to cancel other than within an initial cancellation period, you may not receive a pro-rata refund of premium. In addition, we may charge an amount that reflects the administrative costs of arranging and cancelling the policy (see our Fees and Charges below).
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 may contain other clients’ money and money we hold as an agent of insurers. In line with strict FCA rules, our client bank account is rigorously monitored in order to segregate and safeguard client money.
We reserve the right to retain interest earned on our client bank accounts. 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.
Complaints
It is our intention to provide a high level of service at all times. However, if you have reason to make a complaint about our service you should contact us immediately using the contact details on the first page of this document. 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 023 4567 or online and further information is available at http://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. We will provide a summary of our complaints handling procedures should you make a complaint which we cannot resolve informally and at any other time, upon your request.
If your complaint is about a Lloyd’s of London policy of insurance, you are entitled to refer the matter to the Complaints team at Lloyd’s. Full details of Lloyd’s complaints procedures are available at www.lloyds.com and the Complaints team’s contact details are as follows: Lloyd’s, Fidentia House, Walter Burke Way, Chatham Maritime, Chatham, Kent ME4 4RN. Telephone: +44 (0)20 7327 5693 Fax: +44 (0)20 7327 5225. Email: complaints@lloyds.com
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 compensation 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/
Money laundering/Proceeds of crime
We are obliged to report to the National Crime Agency any suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing activity and we are prohibited from disclosing any such report.
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, it can be found on our website - https://routenchaplin.co.uk/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.
How to claim
Please refer to your policy summary or your policy document if you need to notify a claim. You should contact us or the insurer direct as soon as you become aware of any incident which could give rise to a claim. If in doubt about whom you should contact, or if you require our assistance in relation to a claim or potential claim, please contact us.
Fees and charges
We may charge you for the work incurred in handling your insurances. These charges apply if you instruct us to arrange insurance, carry out a mid-term adjustment, renewal, cancellation or other work on your behalf. Any additional charges, if applicable, will always be agreed with you in advance of them becoming due.
Consumer Customers
- New Business £25
- Renewals £25
- Mid Term Adjustments £12.50
- Cancellations £25
Commercial Customers
- New Business £25
- Renewals £25
- Mid Term Adjustments £25
- Cancellations £25
If you pay your premium by instalments, we shall inform you of any additional fees, charges or interest as part of your credit arrangements.
Our earnings
In return for placing business with insurers and/or underwriters and/or other product providers, we generally receive a commission from them which is a percentage of the annual premium that you are charged.
For arranging premium instalment facilities, we earn commission from the premium finance provider which is usually a percentage of the individual loan. This means that the amount you pay for credit and the overall cost of arranging your insurance will vary according to the interest charged by the lender and the amount of commission we earn.
Using premium finance makes the overall cost of the insurance more expensive. A full break down of the cost of your insurance and the cost of credit will be provided as part of your new business or renewal quotation before you make a decision whether to proceed.
Occasionally we may also receive a bonus, training, IT and marketing support from insurers and/or underwriters although this is not always guaranteed.
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.
Block transfers
In respect of some classes of insurance we may operate block insurance arrangements in order to provide competitive terms. This is where we place all insurances of a certain type with one insurer who can provide particularly competitive terms for all our customers. On occasions it will be necessary for us to transfer such blocks from one insurer to another where this is beneficial for our clients. This Terms of Business Agreement constitutes both your acceptance that we may do this and your prior request for us so to do.
Adequacy of insurance values
It is the responsibility of the insured to ensure that all sums insured, and policy limits are adequate. It is strongly recommended that the appropriate Professional (e.g. Surveyor/Accountant) be consulted to ensure that the sums insured and limits under the policy are suitable.
Conflicts of interest/Customers best interests
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 and the options available to you before we proceed.
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.
Termination
You or we may terminate authority to act in connection with your insurance arrangements at any time. Notice of termination must be given in writing and will be without prejudice to the completion of any transactions already commenced. Any business currently in progress will be completed unless we receive instructions to the contrary. Any premiums or fees outstanding will become payable immediately. In circumstances where we feel we cannot continue providing services to you, we will give you a minimum of 7 days’ notice.
Law and jurisdiction
These Terms of Business shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English Law and shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
Updated: 08th February 2024.