Terms of business

Please read this document carefully as it sets out our terms and contains important regulatory and statutory information.

Definitions

We/us/our means PolicyBee Ltd, 14 Brightwell Barns, Waldringfield Road, Ipswich IP10 0BJ.

Status

PolicyBee Ltd is an insurance intermediary authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), 12 Endeavour Square, London, E20 1JN. Our FCA register number is 945969.

This can be checked by clicking here, https://www.fca.org.uk/register or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768.

If you have a complaint

We aim to provide you with a high level of customer service at all times. If you’re not satisfied in any way, please contact Kerri-Ann Hockley, Director of Customer Service, on 0345 222 5364 or by emailing her - kerri-ann@policybee.co.uk

We’ll follow our complaint handling procedure, available on request. If you’re still not satisfied, you may be entitled to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Further details can be obtained here: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ordering-leaflet/leaflet.

Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)

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/circumstances of the claim. Further details are available by downloading the Protecting your Money FSCS Leaflet (pdf).

Our services

We're a broker. That means we do not underwrite your insurance. Instead we arrange cover for you with one of the insurers we work with.

This involves assessing your individual needs and making a considered personal recommendation about your insurance. Also assisting you with any policy changes you want to make, or your insurer makes, and helping you with any claims.

We conduct a fair and personal analysis of the market to meet your demands and needs. Sometimes, this means we’ll only offer products from a single insurer, but we’ll let you know who this is.

We act as your agent when finding your insurance and putting it in place, and when you make a claim. We act as the insurer’s agent when we collect your premium and we’ll let you know if there are other situations where we are acting on behalf of the insurer.

Our remuneration and fees

Remuneration is commission paid to us, which is a percentage of the premium paid by you; commission may well include a profit share arrangement that your policy may contribute towards. We are committed to ensuring complete transparency of our remuneration and we will, at your request fully disclose our remuneration.

Some insurers may charge a fee, we'll agree this with you before you purchase the policy. We do not charge any additional fees (payable by you) for handling your insurance or arranging premium finance.

Your responsibilities - Fair presentation of risk

Before entering into a contract of insurance, prior to a midterm alteration and ahead of your policy renewal, it is your statutory duty to make a fair presentation of your risk. This information must be provided in a clear and accessible format. You must disclose, where practical, all material circumstances about your risk, this being information that might affect the judgement of a prudent insurer in deciding whether to accept your risk or not - should you require additional explanation of what constitutes a material circumstance, please contact us immediately.

You must make reasonable enquiries before presenting your risk and ensure that all individuals holding knowledge about the risk have been approached in the compilation of this information.

If you feel you have not been able to do so, please advise us, so we can allow underwriters to make further enquiries if they wish to do so.

You must complete any proposal forms or fact finds provided to you, honestly, accurately and in good faith.

Any deliberate or reckless misrepresentation may involve part, or your entire claim being declined and in some circumstances; the Insurer may be entitled to retain your premium whilst avoiding the policy or apply additional terms to your policy.

Security

We do not guarantee the solvency of any insurer we place business with. A liability for the premium, whether in full or pro rata, may arise under policies where a participating insurer becomes insolvent.

GDPR/Data Protection - how we use your data

We treat your personal information as private and confidential, and we’re registered with the ICO as a Data Controller. We comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in all our dealings with your personal data. If you’d like specific information on how we use your personal data, and other rights you have under GDPR such as ‘Right of Access’, please contact us. You can review our privacy notice at: https://www.policybee.co.uk/privacy-notice.

Information which you provide to us will not be used or disclosed by us to other parties, except in the normal course of handling a contract of insurance or a claim on your behalf and any related activities, unless we have obtained the necessary consent from you or where we are required to by law or a regulatory body that has authority over us. We will take appropriate steps to maintain the security of your confidential documents and information which are in our possession.

Credit checks

To make sure you get the best offer from Insurers or Third Parties involved in your insurance, i.e. finance providers, now or at any renewal or at any time and to protect their customers 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 organizations. Their search will appear on your credit report whether your applications proceed.

Unless you contact us to confirm you do not want these searches to be carried out we will assume your consent has been given and proceed as above.

Claims

You must notify us as soon as possible of a claim and circumstances which may give rise to a claim. In the event of a claim you should contact us and we will promptly advise you and pass all details to your Insurer. You should not admit liability or agree to any course of action, other than emergency measures carried out to minimise the loss, until you have an agreement from your Insurer. We will remit claims payments to you as soon as possible after they have been received on your behalf. If an insurer becomes insolvent or delays making settlement we do not accept liability for any unpaid amounts.

Handling your money

We collect and hold money in a Non-Statutory Trust account pending payment. The establishment of the Non-Statutory Trust account follows FCA rules introduced to protect money held by authorised intermediaries. However, you should be aware that, under the Non-Statutory Trust account rules, we are permitted to use such monies temporarily held to advance credit to clients generally. A copy of the Deed of Trust is available on request or may be inspected at our premises during normal office hours. If you object to your money being held in a Non-Statutory Trust account, you should advise us immediately. Otherwise, your agreement to pay the premium together with your acceptance of these Terms of Business will constitute your informed consent to our holding your money in a Non-Statutory Trust account. Interest earned on monies held in such a NonStatutory Trust account will be retained by us.

Our financial arrangement with one insurance company is on a 'Risk Transfer' basis. In these circumstances such monies are deemed to be held by the insurer with which your insurance is arranged.

Cancellation Clause

Your insurance may include a cancellation clause. Full cancellation details will be explained to you during the negotiation process. If you fail to pay your premium by the due date the insurance may be cancelled forthwith or by the insurers, giving notice of the cancellation. In the event of cancellation, insurers may return the pro rata premium to us, but you are advised to check your insurance policy for full details of your insurers’ cancellation clause. Once our remuneration has been earned if the insurance is cancelled after inception, our commission will not usually be returnable.

In circumstances where we feel we cannot continue providing services to you, we will give you a minimum of 7 days' notice. Valid reasons may include but are not limited to non-payment of premium, failure to provide requested information, deliberate failure to comply with terms, deliberate misrepresentation or non-disclosure or attempted fraud, removal of the product from the market by us or the insurer, change of insurer or broker appetite.

Financial Crime

The National Crime Agency (NCA) requires us to report any suspicious transactions to them. We also carry out checks of the consolidated list of financial sanctions targets designated by the United Nations, The European Union, The USA and the United Kingdom for all customer transactions. In these circumstances, we might ask for evidence of your identity. This could mean we ask to see your passport, a utility bill or a bank statement. We may request your date of birth or nationality. For companies, we might want to see your Certificate of Incorporation or we may check the Companies House register.

We are obliged to report evidence of suspicion of financial crime to the relevant authorities at the earliest opportunity and may be prohibited from disclosing any such report to you.

If sanctions apply we are obliged to report the transaction to the relevant authorities and, in such cases, we shall not make any further payments or process already notified claims and insurers may invoke cancellation rights to terminate affected insurance contracts.

Conflict of Interest

Occasions can arise where we, clients or product providers, may have a potential conflict of interest with business being transacted for you. If this happens, and we become aware that a potential conflict exists, we will write to you and obtain your consent before we carry out your instructions and we will detail the steps we will take to ensure fair treatment.

Health & Safety

We cannot be held responsible for any client who fails to comply with current Health & Safety (or other relevant) legislation.

How to cancel your insurance

You can request cancellation of your policy by giving us one month's notice without cause or penalty by email, phone, web form or letter. In this event we will be entitled to retain the commission payable. The responsibility for handling claims reported after the date of termination shall, in the absence of an express agreement, be the responsibility of the party taking over the role.

Refusal of service

We reserve the right to refuse service to any customer at our discretion without the need for justification or explanation.

Quality Assurance

Files may be audited by us or your insurer for quality assurance purposes. This may include using public and personal data from a variety of sources.

Law and Jurisdiction

The insurance policy offered is strictly available to individuals aged 18 years or older, ensuring compliance with legal requirements and promoting responsible insurance practices.

These terms of business are written according to English law. Any legal action or proceedings arising out of or in connection with these terms of business fall under the jurisdiction of English courts.

We may change the terms of this agreement from time to time to reflect changes in our services or where changes are required due to legal or regulatory developments.