In this Terms of Business, the following words shall have the following meanings:

• “We, Us, Our, Ourselves” means the company known as Hammond Professional Indemnity Consultants Ltd.
• “I, You, Your, Yourself” means the party to these Terms other Hammond Professional Indemnity Consultants Ltd.
• “Services” means the services and, or work to be performed by Us for You.

Hammond Professional Indemnity Consultants Limited (co. reg. 04799687) is trading at the address:

• Somerset House,
  37 Temple Street,
  Birmingham,
  England, B2 5DP

Our registered office address is:

• Hazara House,
  502 -504 Dudley Road,
  Wolverhampton,
  England, WV2 3AA.

We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Our firm's Registration Number is 302911.

We are permitted to arrange, advise on, and deal, as an agent of Insurers and assist in Claims handling concerning non-investment Insurance policies. You can check these details on the FCA's Register by visiting the FCA's website www.fca.org.uk/register or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768 (freephone) or 0300 500 8082 from the UK.

There is no ownership between Us and any Insurer.

Your Insurance is based upon the information provided to the Insurance company. Unless otherwise indicated by the specific Insurer underwriting Your particular Policy, the following circumstances apply.

For Consumers (individuals buying insurance wholly or mainly for purposes unrelated to their trade, business or profession), this means that You must take reasonable care to answer all questions fully and accurately. Once cover has been arranged, You must immediately notify Us of any changes to the information that has been provided to Your Insurers. Failure to provide accurate and up-to-date information may invalidate Your Insurance cover and mean that a Claim may not be paid.

All other customers must present the risk (i.e., the subject matter of the proposed insurance) fairly. This means that You must disclose to Insurers, before arranging or renewing Your Insurance Policy, and throughout the Policy period, anything that might influence the judgement of an Insurer in fixing the premium, setting the terms or determining whether they would take the risk. If You are uncertain whether anything is material, You should disclose it. In order to identify what must be disclosed, You are obliged to carry out a reasonable search before presenting the risk to Insurers. This includes (but is not limited to) consulting with all senior managers (anyone who plays a significant role in the making of decisions about how Your activities are to be managed or organised, regardless of whether or not that individual is a member of Your board or is formally in a management role).

You must also consult with anyone who has particular knowledge about the risk to be insured. Failure to disclose material information may invalidate Your Insurance cover and could mean that a Claim may not be paid or an additional premium may be incurred.

All statements and facts disclosed on proposal forms, statement of facts, claim forms and other documents should be full, true and accurate. Where forms are completed on Your behalf, You must check them for accuracy and completeness before signing them. You must always read the declaration and make sure You understand it before You sign. If any information supplied changes during the course of the Policy period or the setting up process, You must notify Us and/or the Insurer, as this may influence the cover and Policy terms and conditions. Failure to disclose material information may invalidate Your Insurance and could mean that part, or all, of a Claim, may not be paid.

When a Policy is issued, You should read it carefully. The Policy Wording together with the Policy Schedule, Endorsements, Certificate of Insurance and "The Statement of Fact" (where applicable) form the basis of the contract of Insurance. If You are in any doubt over any of the Policy terms, conditions or warranties, then contact Us immediately. If any information is incorrect, you must notify us immediately, as this could adversely affect your cover. Where an Insurer issues a "Statement of Fact", the details contained therein will take precedence and supersede any proposal forms or additional information that has been provided to Us.

We are the Data Controller for the data you provide to us. We need to use your data to arrange your insurance and associated products and for marketing purposes (please let us know if you would prefer not to receive marketing information from us). You are obliged to provide information without which we will be unable to provide a service to you.

We may pass your data to other organisations, such as insurers, auditors, external consultants, credit providers, banks, financial transaction processors, crime and fraud prevention agencies and databases and regulators. We process all data in the UK but where we need to disclose data to parties outside the European Economic Area (EEA), we will take reasonable steps to ensure the privacy of your data.

To protect our legal position, we will retain your data for a minimum of 7 years. We have a Data Protection regime in place to oversee the effective and secure processing of your data. You can request copies of the data we hold, have it corrected, sent to a third party or deleted (subject to our need to hold data for legal reasons).

If you wish to complain about how we have handled your data, you can contact us, and we will investigate the matter. If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your data incorrectly, you can complain to the Information Commissioners Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Tel: 0303 123 113.

Professional Indemnity, D&O and EPL

We specialise in Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) and its associated Insurances. We offer Products from a range of Insurers for Professional Indemnity Insurance, Directors and Officers Insurance (D&O), Employment Practice Liability Insurance (EPL) and Cyber cover. The Products quoted and offered to You are from a fair analysis of the Insurance market. We have access to a wide range of providers so we can discuss Your needs and to establish a Product best suited to You.

Other Insurance Products

While We specialise in PII, We can offer certain other General Insurance Commercial Products when requested; however, We only offer these products from a limited number of Insurance providers or may refer such enquires to another Broker or division within the Company.

Online Facility via Our Website

We also offer Products direct from Our website from specific Insurance providers. Online quotes are offered on a Direct Offer Basis and are subject to the website's “Terms of Business”. You should ensure any Products purchased Online meet Your needs and requirements.

We will quote all premiums net and gross of Her Majesties Government Insurance Premium Tax or the tax to be applied in the EU country where the Policyholder is resident. We reserve the right to withdraw premiums and premium indications before they are taken up and to apply any changes notified to Us by underwriters after they have been given. All quotations have a time limit after which they may require re-quoting. This is usually 21 days unless otherwise stated.

In consideration of being granted Insurance cover under a Policy on the basis of providing evidence of Claims or other Subjectivities, You undertake to provide such evidence and/or documentation within seven days before the commencement date or an agreed timescale. If You do not provide such evidence, You must pay any increases in premium as a result. Insurers also reserve the right to cancel the Insurance cover ab initio or offer amended terms if the subjectivities are not forthcoming within their timeframe or to Insurers satisfaction.

The majority of insurers that request for any subjectivities (additional information &/or documentation) will not confirm cover until all the requested information/documentation has been received and accepted by them. Until such time, if the policy period has started whilst the insurer's subjectivities remains outstanding if a notifiable circumstance &/or claim occurs insurers will reserve their right not to provide any cover regardless of whether the premium has been paid or not.

We also maintain the right to make a charge or to retain any commission to cover the administration involved in both placing the Policy and cancellation.

Professional Indemnity Insurance is a "claims made" policy. Therefore, if a circumstance or notice of a claim arises against You, any time after the cancellation of a Professional Indemnity policy; You will not be protected. Determination of coverage is triggered by the date You first become aware and notify the Insurer of a claim or potential claim. The policy in force on the notification date is the policy that will respond.

You may have a Statutory Right to cancel a Consumer Insurance Policy within a short period. Where Statutory Rights to cancel can be exercised You will receive a pro-rata refund of Premium from the Insurer (subject to no claims being made). We may also keep an amount that reflects Our administrative costs of arranging and cancelling the Insurance. Please refer to Your Policy document for further details.

Statutory Rights to cancel do not apply for Commercial Policies, & Cancellation Terms will vary between Insurers. In the event of a cancellation, an administration fee of £48 will be charged in addition to any brokerage earned. We do not refund commission since this is earned for arranging the Policy (unless You are replacing the Policy through Our agency with another Insurer).

We cannot guarantee that Insurers will agree to any Cancellation.

You should take note of the required procedures in the event of a Claim, which will be explained in the Policy documentation. Generally, Insurers require immediate notification of a Claim or Circumstances which might lead to a Claim. We will employ due care and skill if We act on Your behalf in respect of a Claim. In the event of a Claim, You should NOT admit liability or take any action which could prejudice Your Insurer’s position or their ability to investigate a Claim; enter into any Claims correspondence; settle or offer a payment; disclose the Insurer's involvement; disclose any details of Your Insurance Policy.

Claims will be notified to Insurers between Business Hours: 9am & 5pm from Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). Some Insurers stipulate that acceptance of any notification must be received by their own Claims Department before confirming Indemnity. If Your Policy expires outside of business hours and You have a Claim you must notify us, We will not be responsible for any matters NOT accepted by Insurers. If You have an urgent matter, please contact Us by telephone to discuss the position in the first instance.

We reserve the right to charge £75 per hour for the handling of any outstanding Claims which were notified to Us should the Insured/You no longer have a live Insurance Policy with Us, with the exception of where You are no longer trading.

You should keep a record of all information supplied to You for this Insurance.

Both inbound and outbound calls will be recorded. The call recording facility is automated, and recordings will only be used for the purposes specified in this policy. An itemised log will be made, which will include details of the caller’s number and the date, time and duration of the call. Calls are recorded for quality and training purposes.

Purpose of the telephone recording policy

To maintain high standards and protect both internal and external clients, including staff, we record all inbound & outbound telephone calls.

We shall ensure that the use of these recordings is fair and that we comply with the requirements of relevant legislation, such as:

• The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000;
• The Telecommunications (Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 1999;
• Data Protection Act 2018;
• The Human Rights Act 1998.

Whilst all inbound and outbound calls will be recorded, in normal circumstances, a call will not be retrieved or monitored unless it is necessary to investigate a complaint, check compliance with regulatory procedures or improve standards in call handling via training and coaching.

Collecting Information

Personal data collected in the course of recording activities will be processed fairly and lawfully. In accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, it will be:

• adequate, relevant and not excessive;
• used for the purpose(s) stated in this policy only and not used for any other purposes;
• treated confidentially;
• stored securely.

Our preferred method of communication is email, and We provide Policy documents in electronic format. Should You prefer other methods of communication, please advise as to your preference. All emails sent by Us are without liability on the part of the writer and We give no warranty as to the security, accuracy or completeness of any Email, together with any attachments, after it is sent, nor do We accept responsibility for any errors or omissions in the content of Our email communication, which may arise as a result of email transmission. Any liability for viruses/trojans/malware is excluded to the fullest extent permitted by Law.

In the majority of instances, We will receive Our income from Insurers who pay Us commission for arranging Your Insurance, We will disclose this to You should You request it. We may in some instances charge a fee which will be disclosed to You prior to Policy inception or renewal. The commission We receive for arranging your Insurance will be incorporated within the quoted premium. The commission that We earn covers costs to successfully broker/market Your Insurance Policy; but also covers Our costs for mid-term changes/queries + all the claims support You may require at the event You are faced with any number of incidents. We do not charge any additional fees or charges for anything that needs to happen to your cover mid-term.

We will provide full details of all the payment options available when we provide you with your insurance premium.

If you choose to enter into a finance arrangement, this will be subject to interest charges that we will confirm to you when providing the full details. Importantly, the arrangement you will enter into will be with the finance company, not us. It is an entirely separate contract, irrespective of the insurance contract. In the event of your failure to meet with the contractual obligations regarding payment, the finance provider could approach the insurer to seek a termination of the insurance contract to recoup their outstanding finance arrears. You will be liable to pay their costs and charges if you do not keep up your repayments, and cover is cancelled under your policy. This is because the agreement is between you, the policyholder and the finance company direct, not us or the insurer. Any shortfall rebate may not be enough to repay any outstanding credit balance.  There will be no credit rebate for a cancelled policy if a claim has occurred during the policy period, and any outstanding balance must be paid.

We will not offer a particular market to benefit our business, and we, therefore, ensure that we review the insurer’s finance facility and, if that is available, offer that to you in the event that their finance rate is more competitive.

Note: We use Close Brothers or Premium Credit for the provision of premium finance facilities, and select the provider that we believe best suits your requirements.

Note: Your policy cover will cease if you fail to keep up payments on an instalment agreement or premium finance facility related to it.

In the event that Your renewal is invited by Insurers on an “Auto-Renewal” basis, We will notify You before the renewal date, of the premium and terms & conditions which will apply. Unless We hear from You on or before the renewal date, Your Policy will be renewed.

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 the Managing Director at the above address or ring 0333 222 4257. At any point should You be dissatisfied with the complaints procedure or its outcome, You may be entitled to refer it subsequently to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Further information is available at https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk. The FOS Consumer Helpline is on 0800 023 4567 or 0300 123 9123 (free for some mobile-phone users paying monthly charge for calls to No’s starting 01 or 02). Alternatively, You can contact them at Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, Harbour Exchange Square, London, E14 9SR. https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk. A full copy of Our complaints procedure is available on request.

Before Your premium being forwarded to the Insurer, and for Your protection, We either hold Your money as an agent of the Insurer (in which case Your Policy is treated as being paid for), or We hold it in a client bank account on trust for You. In some cases, We may need to transfer Your money to an Intermediary. However, Your money will be protected at all times because of Our requirements under the FCA rules. We also reserve the right to retain interest earned on this account.

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.

Most Insurance contracts are covered for 90% of the Claim, without any upper limit. Compulsory Insurances (for example, motor insurance and employers’ liability Insurance) are covered for 100% of the Claim, without any upper limit.

Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS at 0800 678 1100 or by visiting https://www.fscs.org.uk.

If any term, covenant, condition or provision of this Document is held by a Court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, void or unenforceable, it is the Parties intent that such provisions be reduced in scope by the Court only to the extent deemed necessary by that Court to render the provision reasonable and enforceable, and the remainder of the provisions of the Agreement will in no way be affected, impaired or invalidated as a result.

The laws applicable to these “Terms of Business” shall be English law and the Parties agree herewith that all matters arising in connection with or under these “Terms of Business” shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.

The Insurance Act 2015 came into force on the 12th of August 2016 and changed the way the law deals with the duty of disclosure for commercial insurance contracts. The purpose of the Act is to update the current law to reflect the way in which the insurance market has evolved in modern times with the aim being to achieve a fair and balanced regime between insurers and Policy Holders.

Under the Act insurance contracts will still be based on good faith and you will have a duty to make a fair presentation of the risk to insurers which will include disclosure of:

• Every material circumstance which as an insured you are expected to know or ought to know about the risk for which you are seeking insurance; or
• Sufficient information to put a prudent insurer on notice that it needs to make further enquires to revel those material circumstances.

The core information we ask for as part of proposal forms or insurance submissions (such as claims information or asset value) will continue to lie at the core of a Fair Presentation and should be completed as accurately and fully as possible.

In addition to answering our questions, you must flag ‘special or unusual facts’ about the risk. These will be unique to your business but could for example include:

• Recent or planned business developments such as new products and services, acquisitions, customers or contracts, which will affect your risk profile.
• Changes in business operations, which might not be fully explained in the standard underwriting information such as business units with different working practices.
• Operational factors which make your business different from competitors or industry standards.
• Known issues where you already have a concern about the potential for increased risk in future.
• For all changes it is important to describe the circumstances and what you think the risk impact could be.

You must ensure that any information you provide is correct to the best of your knowledge and subject to you having conducted a reasonable search for information. This could require you to obtain or verify information with a number of sources who may hold or have access to important information about your business or the insurance risk.

This may include key decision makers or those with responsibility for arranging your insurance (including us as your broker) or other parties that carry out outsourced functions for your business such as (but not limited to):

• Senior managers and those with accountability for managing functions relevant to the risk
• Persons normally involved in arranging insurance for the organisation
• Risk managers, outsourced contractors and service providers
• Persons covered by the insurance e.g. co-insured or sub-contractors
• Employees who may have in-depth or specialist knowledge on processes and procedures

In the event that you make a misrepresentation of information which is considered to be deliberate or reckless i.e. you were aware that you were making a misrepresentation or did not care whether or not you were misrepresenting the risk, an insurer will be allowed to avoid your policy, which means that any claims you make will not be met and no refund of the insurance premium will be made and an Insurer may recover any amounts that they have paid or claim any expenses that they may have incurred.

If however you make a misrepresentation of information which is not deliberate or reckless i.e. you appropriately carried out your duty to make a fair presentation but made an honest mistake or omission then the remedy available to the Insurer depends on what they would have done had the full information been available to them when the policy was taken out. There are a number of remedies which may be applied by the insurer to achieve a fair outcome:

A warranty is a term in an insurance contract which must be strictly complied with. The Act also includes changes to the way that the law deals with insurers rights in the event of breaches of warranties and terms. These changes will affect both commercial and personal insurance contracts. Clauses which have the effect of turning representations made by you into a warranty will be prohibited under the Act.

An insurer will no longer be able to avoid a policy where a breach of warranty occurs; instead, the cover will be suspended for the period that you are in breach of the warranty. This means that where it is possible you may be able to remedy the breach of warranty and continue with the insurance policy; however, Insurers will not be responsible for a loss during any period where the cover was suspended for a breach of warranty.

The insurer cannot avoid a policy or limit or discharge its liability for non-compliance with any terms which are not relevant to the loss or did not increase the risk of loss which has occurred.

An insurer may wish to contract out of certain elements of the Act subject to your understanding and agreement and we will advise you of the implications of this should the situation arise.

The Act will come into effect in August 2016 and we will be in touch to discuss your insurance requirements in good time before your renewal date, in the meantime, you should start to think about how the changes will affect you, such as what information you may need to disclose, who holds this information within your business and how you might capture it. As your insurance broker, you can rest assured that we are on hand to help you understand your obligations under the Act and to guide you through the process of gathering the information required to make a fair presentation. We will undertake to present this information to insurers on your behalf in a way which is clear and accessible.

Email:
[email protected]

Phone:
0333 222 4257

Fax:
0330 024 9375

Post:
Hammond Professional Indemnity Consultants Ltd
Somerset House,
37 Temple Street,
Birmingham B2 5DP.

Hammond Professional Indemnity Consultants Ltd are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Ref No. 302911. Hammond Professional Indemnity Consultants Ltd Insurance Company Limited is registered in England No. 04799687.