Terms and Conditions

About Our Company

We have traded for over 24 years. We pride ourselves on our professionalism and set ourselves high standards to ensure we can meet your insurance needs. We employ fully trained and experienced staff who each commit to professional qualifications. This enables us to provide a knowledgeable and competent workforce, be able to meet your insurance needs and offer a high quality of customer service. To help to maintain this level of service telephone calls may be recorded.

TERMS OF BUSINESS

The Financial Services Authority is a watchdog that regulates financial services. It requires us to provide you with information to enable you to decide if our services are right for you.
This document formally details the terms of business under which our company operates and provides information about our company status, the services offered and our business approach. Please read this document and should you have any queries about the content or require any further information then do please raise them and we will be happy to explain.

Company Status
Graham Sykes Ltd is an Independent Intermediary authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Our FSA Register Number is 300310 and we are permitted to advise, arrange and administer non-investment insurance mediation contracts on behalf of our customers, and potential customers. Should you wish to, you can check our firms details on the FSA's Register by visiting the FSA's website at www.fsa.gov.uk/register or by contacting the FSA on 0845 606 1234.

Ownership
We are a wholly privately owned independent insurance intermediary.

Products Offered
We offer a wide range of personal and commercial insurance products and have access to leading insurers in the market place. We can provide you with details of these insurers when we discuss your individual requirements, and should you wish, we will be happy to provide you with a list of the insurers used for the different types of insurance contracts that we can arrange for you.
For some types of contracts we select from one or a limited number of insurance providers who specialize in those areas. For example we offer Claims Management insurance only from Wisecall. Where selection is made from only one or a limited number of insurance providers we will inform you of this.

Services Offered
We will act as your agent and advise and make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your insurance needs for the type of insurance contract required. Unless we advise to the contrary we will provide you with advice and information based upon a fair analysis of the insurance market. We will use our insurance knowledge and experience, and depending upon the type of product or service, be able to select insurance contracts from a sufficiently large panel of insurers in each section of the general insurance market.

We will accept responsibility for the advice provided and for arranging your insurance. We fully endorse the principles and good business practice embodied in the regulatory requirements to ensure that the sales, advisory and service standards associated with arranging general insurance for our clients are of the highest standard.

We offer a comprehensive range of sales and advisory services to help meet your general insurance needs including:

• advising on your insurance requirements
• arranging your insurance cover with insurers to meet your requirements
• helping with any ongoing amendments that you may have to make
• the issue of certain policies on behalf of insurers
• assisting you making claims to your insurer

We will give you full details of the types of insurances offered and the conditions applicable before you make any commitment.

Disclosure of 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, claim forms and other documents are full and accurate. We would draw your attention to the importance of full disclosure when you sign the declaration on the insurer's proposal form. It is essential that you advise us promptly of any changes when they occur that may affect your policy, such as changes of address, convictions, changes of vehicle, purchases made etc
Any failure to disclose material facts or any inaccuracies in your answers could invalidate your policy or could mean that part or your entire claim may not be paid. If you are unsure as to whether or not a fact should be disclosed, please ask us and we will be happy to advise.

Quotations
All our quotations are guaranteed based on the information provided by you on the date given. We do however; reserve the right to withdraw quotations before they are taken up and to apply any changes notified to us by insurers after the quotation was given.

Our Charges
In addition to the premiums charged by insurers, we make (at our discretion)a charge of £15 in respect of adjustments to your policy, if a cheque or direct debit payment is returned unpaid and for any duplicate documents. We do not refund commission, as this was earned on arranging the policy (unless you are replacing the policy through our company). Any additional charges and their purpose will always be advised to you in advance. Further details on the company's charging arrangements are available to you on request and will be advised when dealing with your insurance arrangements.

Premium Payment
We accept payment by credit/debit cards, guaranteed cheque or cash. You may be able to spread your payments through insurers' installment schemes or a credit scheme that we arrange for you, this will involve additional payments to cover the cost of the credit advance. We will give you full information about your payment options and details of any credit payments when we discuss your insurance in detail.

Holding Client Money
Under the FSA rules we may be required to hold the premiums you pay to us in a segregated trust bank account pending payment to the insurance company. Any premium refunds or claims money that may be due to you from the insurer during the life of an insurance policy will also be placed in this account prior to payment. The funds held in the trust account may be used on occasions for advances of credit to clients to enable us to effectively manage premium payment deadlines and where necessary cover policy risks prior to the receipt of cleared funds. The trust account will be managed in strict compliance with FSA requirements to ensure client money is protected and forwarded to the insurer as they become due and payable.

Withholding documents
We may keep certain documents such as your insurance policy or certificate while we are awaiting full payment of premiums. In these circumstances we will ensure that you receive full details of your insurance cover and will provide you with any documents that you are required to have by law.
In accepting these Terms of Business you specifically agree to the arrangement, but this does not affect your statutory rights.

In the absence of agreement to the contrary, the Law applicable to contract will be the Law of England

Cancellation
See the attached Key Facts for more information regarding cancellation.
Where cancellation is made after this "cooling off" period most insurers charge short period cancellation rates and the refund of premiums allowed for the unexpired period of cover will depend upon the circumstances. You may incur a charge to cover the cost of administration. No refunds are likely on short term policies (less than 12 months), or if a claim has been made or is pending.
In the event of cancellation, we deduct from any premium refund the commission received for arranging this cover. Interest charges are not refundable.

Claims Management, Uninsured Loss Recovery, Legal Expenses and Breakdown policies run concurrently with the main policy and cannot be cancelled, therefore no refund is allowable for these types of policies.

Please note that if you wish to cancel your policy you must first contact us. You must return the policy and any current certificates together with written instructions before we cancel cover. Canceling a direct debit mandate does not cancel the policy. If you do not pay the full premium for the period of cover, a recovery agency may be used and costs incurred will be added to the debt.

Complaints Procedure
Graham Sykes Ltd and the insurers we act for aim at all times to provide a high standard of service. If however, you should wish to make a complaint about our service, we have a formal complaints procedure. In the first instance you should address your complaint orally to our Office Manager on 0845 1300 236 or in writing to:
Graham Sykes Ltd, Complaints Department

As an FSA authorized intermediary we have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) which provide a disputes resolution facility for settling complaints. We will deal with any complaints promptly and welcome the opportunity to resolve any problems and improve the standard of services offered to our clients. The FOS facilities are only available to eligible complainants - they do not apply to commercial customers with turnover in excess of £1m.

Compensation
Our company is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which provides our customers with further protection. This means that our customers may be entitled to compensation from the compensation scheme in the event of the company being unable to meet its liabilities. Further details can be provided on request. The FSCS only applies to eligible claimants, which normally covers private individuals and small businesses with turnover of less than £1m.

Claims
Where you are making a claim under your policy we will provide you with a claim form, if appropriate, and advice on how to progress your claim. We will assist you in pursuing your claim and facilitate the prompt settlement of your claim. Please ensure that you seek our advice before responding to a third party regarding a claim.

Confidentiality
All personal information is treated by us as confidential and is processed in accordance with the relevant legislation. We will not use or disclose personal information without your consent, other than in the normal course of arranging and administering your insurances, except where we are compelled by law (including by regulators or law enforcement agencies) to disclose such information. In such instances personal information held by us may be disclosed on a confidential basis, and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, to such parties. We may use the information we hold about you to provide you with information about other products and services that we offer which we feel may be appropriate to you.

The Data Protection Act
Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you have the right to see personal information about you that we hold in our records. If you have any queries please write to the Manager, Graham Sykes Limited, 37 Rolle St, Exmouth, Devon, EX8 2SN.

Please quote your name and address together with your policy number. We would be grateful if could also provide brief details of what information you want a copy of (this helps us to more readily locate your data).

We will take all reasonable steps to confirm your identity before providing you with details of any personal information we may hold about you. To this extent therefore, we would be grateful if you could provide two forms of identification such as a copy of a driving licence, passport or document containing your signature and a copy of a recent utility bill that confirms your address.

In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 we are entitled to charge £15 to cover the administration costs involved with this process. Please make accompanying cheques payable to 'Graham Sykes Limited'.

Thank you for taking the time to read this document. Having advised you of our Terms of Business in writing they will be deemed to be acceptable and binding on you unless you notify us to the contrary in writing within 7 calendar days.