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Terms of Business (“Terms”)
In these Terms references to “we” or “us” are to Smart Rental Solutions a trading style of Park Place Insurance Services Ltd. We recommend that for your own benefit and protection you should read these Terms carefully. These Terms constitute our standard client agreement upon which we intend to rely and will apply to the services that we will provide to you. If you do not understand any point please ask for further information. IN PARTICULAR we draw your attention to CLAUSE 4 and CLAUSE 9 of these Terms which relate to the amount you will receive if you cancel your policy, and the maximum amount we will be liable for in the event of our negligence.
Your legal duty to disclose information to us and insurance companies
It is your responsibility to provide complete and accurate information to insurers when you take out your insurance policy, throughout the life of the policy and when you renew it. It is important you ensure that all statements you make online, claim forms and other documentation are full, frank and accurate. If you are in any doubt as to the relevance of any information you should disclose it. Please note that if you fail to disclose any material information or change of circumstances to your insurers, this could invalidate your insurance cover and could mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid. We strongly recommend that the information provided is checked thoroughly prior to submission and that you keep a record of all correspondence supplied in relation to the arrangement of your insurance cover.
Please also note that any renewal of insurance will be made in reliance upon the information provided by you in connection with your previous insurance policy – we will assume that such information remains correct unless you tell us otherwise.
You will find full details of your cancellation rights, and any related charges which may be levied by your insurer, in the terms and conditions of the insurance policy produced by your insurance company. Cancellation rights vary between insurers. You will have 14 days (the “Cooling Off Period”) to cancel your policy with effect from: (a) the day you receive the full terms and conditions of the policy, or; (b) the day the policy is sold - whichever is the later. To exercise your right of cancellation, contact your insurance company or contact us either by telephone or by letter in each case in the manner and within the time limits set out in your policy documentation. If you exercise your right to cancel your policy within the Cooling Off Period you will be charged for the period during which you were temporarily covered, and other charges may be applied to cover the insurer’s costs in arranging the cancelled policy.
YOUR ATTENTION IS SPECIFICALLY DRAWN TO THE FOLLOWING:-
Where you cancel your policy or where you request a mid-term adjustment which reduces the cover provided under the policy, we reserve the right to charge you for our time and costs. This will usually result in us reducing the amount refunded to you by the FULL amount of the commission and fees we would have received had you not cancelled or amended your policy. The reason for this is that the majority of our costs are incurred either in initially finding and setting up your policy or in the annual renewal process when we might check the ongoing suitability of the cover the policy offers. These costs are recovered through the commission and fees we earn. If you cancel, this does not give us an opportunity to recover the costs we incurred and would often result in us making a loss. However, any charge made will not exceed the cost of the commission and fees we would have earned.
Where you are paying for your insurance by instalments (and an instalment payment is not received by us or the relevant premium finance provider on or before the date when it is due to be paid) you agree that we may on your behalf instruct the insurer to cancel the insurance (or where the first instalment payment has not been received, notify the insurer that the policy has not been taken up) and offset any refund of premium which may be received against any money which you owe to us, the insurer and/or the premium finance provider. In such circumstances you will remain liable for any time on risk or other charge. You will also be responsible for putting in place any alternative insurance.
Our right to set off monies you owe us
Information on our remuneration
Other companies (including members of our group of companies) may act as underwriting agents, intermediaries for insurers or Lloyd’s/London Market placing brokers in connection with your insurance. Where such companies are involved in placing or servicing your business they may charge an administration fee or other payment which will be passed on to you and disclosed separately from the cost of your insurance. Such businesses earn commission in respect of placing such business which is separate from that which we receive.
In addition to commission which is paid to us by insurers we may earn a “profit-share”, management or administrative fees and other payments from insurers for efficiently managing business transacted with them. These payments may be calculated by reference to various criteria such as overall annual profitability of the insurance business transacted, taking into account the total amount of claims arising under policies we place with them. “Profit-share” payments are not directly referable to individual policies and consequently it is not possible to calculate such payments on an individual policy basis, meaning that we are unable to disclose to you how much your policy contributed to any “profit-share” payment we might receive. Ordinarily, and if such a “profit-share” payment is received (which is not guaranteed) it represents a small proportion of the normal commission we receive and will be retained by us.
Depending on the services which you have asked us to perform we may earn referral fees from third parties which are incidental to the insurance arranged for you. Such payments may be derived from a number of incidental activities including arranging premium financing, risk management, legal expenses cover and uninsured loss recovery services and will be retained by us.
During the course of our appointment we may hold certain monies on your behalf. This may include premiums to be paid to insurers, commissions derived from your insurance, claims monies and other sums. Interest and investment returns which are derived from such sums whilst temporarily held will belong to and be retained by us in addition to any other remuneration which we may earn in connection with the services which you have asked us to perform.
Whilst we will endeavour to place business with insurers who demonstrate an adequate level of financial solvency, and although their regulator requires them to maintain a minimum level of capital, we cannot guarantee the solvency of any insurer. We do not monitor insurer solvency on an ongoing basis, and shall not be liable for losses suffered by you in the event of the insolvency of an insurer.
Notification of incidents
It is essential that you notify us promptly (within 14 days) after discovery of all incidents or allegations that may result in a claim against your insurance policy. You must do so whether you believe you are liable or not. Any failure to do so may result in your insurer refusing to accept a claim. Any letter or other communication making allegations which could give rise to a claim which is received by you from any third party must be passed to us immediately, without acknowledgment. Only by providing prompt notification of incidents can your insurance company take steps to protect your interests.
How to make a claim
If you wish to report a claim or potential claim, please call 01592 857925 quoting your policy number or other reference given to you as part of the documentation you produced from the website or received from us.
For some policies, insurers give us authority to act on their behalf in settling claims. In these circumstances, and in recognition of a potential conflict of interest, we will seek your permission for us to deal with such a claim.
As and when we feel it appropriate we may review your policy and look to enhance and/or extend the cover offered.
Terms of Payment
In the absence of any alternative terms which we agree with you in writing (such as payment by instalments which we can arrange for you) our payment terms are as follows:
We normally accept payment by cash, cheque, debit or credit card or monthly instalment (full details available on request). Time shall be of the essence, both as regards times, dates and periods specified in this paragraph and as to any times, dates or periods which we may agree can be substituted for any of them. In the event that you fail to pay any premium and/or fees when due your insurer may cancel your policy from the inception/renewal date and reject any claims thereunder.
If you elect to pay for your insurance premium using our third party supplier, Premium Credit Limited (PCL) of Premium Credit House, 60 East Street, Epsom, Surrey KT17 1HB your details will be passed on to them. Any queries or questions about the service provided by PCL should in the first instance be directed to them on 0844 736 9836. Where your policy is paid via PCL and you elect to renew your cover (or we renew your cover pursuant to clause 14 of this agreement), we will again continue to pass your details to PCL. If any direct debit or other payment due in respect of the credit agreement you enter into with PCL to pay premiums is not met when presented for payment, or if you end the agreement with PCL, or if you do not enter into a credit agreement with PCL we will be informed of this by PCL
Prior to the expiry of your policy where we will be inviting a renewal we (or your insurance company) will endeavour to send you details of the cost and terms to renew your policy. On occasions your renewal may be offered with a different insurer, however, we will notify you if this is the case in writing before the renewal date.
In order to protect your interests relating to the risks/property you have insured, and in the event that we do not receive your instructions and payment prior to the date of renewal, we reserve the right (but shall have no obligation) to renew your policy and (in the case of direct debit/instalment payments) to continue to accept payment from you unless and until you specifically notify us or your insurance company in writing that you wish to cancel your policy. In circumstances where we have assumed (in the absence of instructions to the contrary) that renewal is required you may be liable to make payment to us and/or your insurance company.
Premium(s) and any other monies we may hold on your behalf (for example refund premiums and claim cheques received from an insurer) will be held in Trust until such time as they are remitted by us to your insurance company/to you. This will be a Statutory Trust account operated in accordance with FSA regulations. However, some (but not all) of the insurance companies we deal with have agreed to deem any premiums that you pay to us as having been received directly by themselves. This improves your protection against financial loss in the event of our insolvency. Please note that this is not the case for all the insurance companies we deal with and where this added protection does apply it may only extend to premiums, and not to any claim payment, refund or other monies that we may from time to time hold on your behalf. Should such an arrangement be agreed with an insurer(s) we may not hold your funds in Trust because of this added protection.
We will take commission earned from insurance companies in connection with your insurances, from the Statutory Trust account, only after we have received your premium (or received it from a third party finance provider on your behalf). This may occur before payment of the premium to the insurance company and will take account of the Terms of Business we have agreed with the insurance companies.
Where we hold money in a non-statutory trust we may use the funds in that account as a short term credit facility to fund another client’s premium before it is received from that other client and/or to pay claims and premium refunds to another client before we receive the same from an insurer. The total funds held in the non-statutory trust account must always comply with the FSA regulations to ensure you are protected from loss.
By accepting these terms you consent to the way we will hold your premium (and/or other insurance related money) in accordance with this paragraph.
Confidentiality and Data Protection
All information about you of a sensitive or personal nature will be treated as private and confidential. We will however use and disclose the information we have about you in the course of arranging, placing and administering your insurance. This may involve passing information about you to insurers, other intermediaries, risk management assessors, uninsured loss recovery agencies and other third parties involved (directly or indirectly) in your insurance.
We may also pass information about you to credit reference agencies and premium finance providers in connection with the assessment of your financial standing generally and, in particular, where you have requested a premium instalment plan – this may include details of your payment record with us.
We may also pass information about you to other companies which are in or are associated with our group. We or they may also use the information we hold about you to provide you with information on other products and services we or they can offer and which we or they feel may be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive marketing information from us or them, or for us to disclose information about you to other parties for marketing purposes, please contact us immediately.
In the interests of security and to improve our service, telephone calls you make to us may be monitored and/or recorded.
No Waiver and Amendments
A failure at any time by us to enforce any right or obligation shall not be deemed to be a continuing waiver of such right or obligation. Without the agreement of the other, neither we nor you may alter these Terms at any time during our appointment (including for the avoidance of doubt during the term of your insurance). We reserve the right to make amendments that are required to reflect a change of applicable law or regulation. Whenever possible we will provide at least one month’s written notice to you, before any such changes take effect. We may freely assign or delegate all or any part of these Terms and/or the services to any third party only where such assignment or delegation ensures that your rights under this Agreement will not be prejudiced.
Prior Agreements and Acceptance
These Terms supersede all proposals, prior discussions and representations (whether oral or written) between us relating to our appointment as your agent in connection with the arranging and administration of your insurance. These Terms constitute an offer by us to act on your behalf in the arranging and administration of your insurance – in the absence of any specific acceptance communicated to us by you (whether verbal or written) you are deemed to accept our offer to act for you on the basis of these Terms by conduct upon your instructing us to arrange, renew or otherwise act for you in connection with insurance matters.
