Terms of Business

The Financial Services Authority
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. PJ Insurance Brokers Ltd and PJ Insurance Brokers Ltd t/a C D Shortell Insurance Brokers are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Our FSA Register number is 304340 and you can check our status at www.fsa.gov.uk/register or by contacting the FSA on 0845 606 1234. Our permitted business includes advising, arranging, dealing in and assisting with the placing and administration of all types of General Insurance policies.

Confidentiality and Data Protection
We will treat all your personal information as private and confidential to us and anyone else involved in the normal course of arranging and administering your insurance, even when you are no longer a customer. 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 we hold about you to provide information to you about other products and services, which we feel may be appropriate to you. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you have the right to see personal information about you that we hold in our records. To make sure you get the best offers from insurers, now or at any renewal and to protect you from fraud and to verify your identity, they 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. If you have any queries please write to us at our usual office address.

Our Service
We are an independent insurance intermediary, who acts on our customers' behalf in arranging insurance, and we will endeavour to always treat our customers fairly. Our services include: 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.
Telling you when you need to renew your policy in time to allow you to consider and arrange continuing cover.

Whose products we offer
We usually offer advice from a range of insurers, representing a fair analysis of the market, however, under certain circumstances we may only deal with a limited panel, or single insurer. We will confirm, for each individual policy we provide you with, the basis of our advice on our Initial Disclosure Document.

The service we will provide you with
We will advise and make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your demands and needs. Our advice will be confirmed in a demands & needs and suitability statement, giving reasons for our recommendation.

What you will pay for our services
We usually receive a commission from the Insurer with whom we place your business and in addition to the premiums charged by Insurers we may charge a professional fee to cover the placing and ongoing handling of your insurance. We make the following standard charges to cover the administration of your insurance.

  • Arranging new policies
    Personal - Up to £25.00 Commercial - Up to £50.00
  • Renewals
    Personal - Up to £25.00 Commercial - Up to £50.00
  • Mid-term adjustment
    Personal - Up to £25.00 Commercial - Up to £50.00

Or where policies are net rated, by agreement.
Replacement Policies/Duplicate Certificates - £10.00
Setting up credit arrangements for your insurance - £10.00
Handling claims with insurers - negotiable, depending upon the complexity of the claim. Other charges apply where the brokerage paid by the Insurer does not cover our administration costs. A fee to reflect this will be made in addition to the above charges.The specific amount and purpose of any professional fee and administration charges will always be advised to you in advance. We earn the entirety of our commission and/or fees when your risk is successfully placed and take our commission and/or fees immediately upon receipt of payment unless agreed otherwise with your Insurer.
In the event of an adjustment that results in a return premium or cancellation mid- term we will refund the premium due net of our full commission and any charge made by Insurers. Where the premium is being paid by instalments, we will claim our full commission along with any charge made by the Insurers in the cancellation of any outstanding monies.
Payment by Credit Cards     1.50% - max charge £25.00
Occasionally we may arrange a policy on which we earn no commission (a 'net- premium policy') and in these cases we will advise you of the arrangement fee before you take the policy out. Specific charges, which apply to individual policies will be shown on the Initial Disclosure Document applicable to that policy. The specific charge and purpose of any additional charges will always be advised to you in advance.

What to do if you have a complaint
Our aim is to provide a first class service, however, if you wish to register a complaint, please contact us by writing to Mr Peter Robinson, PJ Insurance Brokers Ltd, 113 Queens Road, Weybridge, Surrey KT13 9UN or, by phone Telephone 01932 852225, by fax 0844 980 8756. We will provide you with a copy of our full complaints procedure and respond to you as a matter of urgency, and always within 5 working days. We will aim to make a final response to you within four weeks, or keep you informed as to why this is not possible. In the event that your complaint relates to activities or services provided by another party, we will ensure that your complaint is appropriately forwarded, and will track the progress of the complaint and responses of that party.
After our final response has been issued, if you still cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service, for an independent assessment and opinion. The FOS Consumer Helpline is on 0845 080 1800 and their address is: Financial Ombudsman Service,SouthQuayPlaza,183MarshWall,London E14 9SR

Your Right to Cancel (Applicable to Personal Lines/Retail customers only)
You have a legal right to cancel your policy 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 above.

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.

Are we covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)?
We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS is the UK's statutory fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms, like ourselves. The primary aim of the Scheme is to provide protection for private individuals and small businesses. The FSCS can pay compensation if an authorised firm is unable or likely to be unable to pay claims against it, usually because it has gone out of business or is insolvent.

Insurance advising and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim, without an upper limit. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS.

Payment Options
We normally accept payment by guaranteed cheque or the following credit/debit cards - Visa, Mastercard, Maestro. You may be able to spread your payments through insurers' instalment schemes or a credit scheme, which we have arranged with an established insurance premium finance provider. We will give you full information about your payment options and the appropriate finance agreement when we discuss your insurance in detail.

Claims & Underwriting Exchange & Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud Register.
Insurers pass information to the Claims & Underwriting Exchange Register operated by Database Services Ltd and the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud Register compiled by the Association of British Insurers. The objective is to check information provided and to prevent fraudulent claims. Motor Insurance details are also added to the Motor Insurance Database operated by the Motor Insurers' Information Centre which has been formed to help uninsured drivers and may be accessed by the Police to confirm who is insured to drive. In the event of an accident, this database may be used by Insurers, MIIC and the MIB to identify relevant policy information. Other insurance related databases may also be added in the future.

Claims
It is essential that you notify us immediately of all incidents which may result in a claim under your insurance policy whether you believe you are liable or not. Any letter or claim received by you must be passed to us immediately. When we receive notification of an incident that might give rise to a claim under your policy, we will inform the insurers without delay, and in any event, within three working days. We will advise you promptly of insurers' requirements concerning claims, including the provision, as soon as possible, of information required to establish the nature and extent of loss. You should not admit liability or agree to any course of action, other than emergency measure to minimise your loss, until you have agreement from your insurer. We will forward any payments received from insurers, in respect of any claim, to you without delay. We will notify you of any request for information we received from your insurers.

Language Used and Applicable Law
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. This terms of business is subject to English Law

Information on how we treat Payments You make to Us
Under the terms of our agreements with the Insurance companies with whom we place business, we normally receive premiums you pay to us as Agent of the Insurer. All insurance premiums you pay to us are protected in a Statutory Trust Client Account until we pay insurers. We will retain any interest earned on our client account. Please note your premiums may be passed to other intermediaries who are also authorised by the FSA

Your Duty to Give Information
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 of the questions are true and accurate before signing the documents.

Please note that if you fail to disclose any information or change in circumstances to your insurers which could influence the cost, or their decision to accept your insurance, this could invalidate your insurance cover, and could mean that part or all of a claim may be not be paid.