Terms of Business
Definitions
“We/us/our/CIA” means CIA Insurance Services Limited.
Our Service
Who we are
CIA Insurance Services Limited, Boughton Leigh House, Brownsover Road, Rugby, Warwickshire, CV21 1AW.CIA Insurance is a trading name of CIA Insurance Services Limited, which is an independent Insurance Intermediary, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority No.309407. Our status can be checked by visiting the FCA website www.fca.gov.uk/register or by calling 0800 111 6768.
The products we offer
We are an Independent Intermediary acting on your behalf to offer non-investment insurance products from a range of leading insurers for Commercial Insurance, including Landlord Insurance, Home and Contents, and Motorcycle Insurance.
The service we provide
We will advise and make a recommendation to you after we have taken details of and assessed your needs. Our recommendation will be based on a fair analysis of the market (if this is not the case, we will advise you), and quoted on the lowest premium for the cover you need. We will tell you if we recommend a policy for other reasons. Our service includes assisting you on your insurance needs, arranging your cover with insurers to meet your requirements and helping you with any ongoing changes you may make. For your protection, calls are recorded and monitored.
How you can complain
It is our intention to provide you with a first-class service. However, should you have cause for complaint, you should in first instance contact our Complaints Manager, in writing at the above address, via email (complaints@cia-insurance.co.uk), or verbally by contacting 01788 818600. If you wish to complain, you will be given full details of our complaints procedure. If we are unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service at: Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR. Telephone: 0800 023 4567. Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk. Your insurer also operates a complaints procedure, details of which are in your policy.
Your right to compensation
CIA, and the Insurers of this policy are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). You may be entitled to compensation from this scheme if we cannot meet our obligations, but this depends on the type of insurance cover and the circumstances of the claim. Most Insurance contracts are covered for 90% of the whole amount. Further information is available from the FSCS at www.fscs.org.uk or by telephoning 0800 678 1100
Our financial arrangements
Payment for our services
When we sell you a policy, the insurer pays us a % commission from the total premium. Please be assured that at no time will the way in which we are remunerated conflict with our responsibilities to meet your needs and treat you fairly, and we will ensure your best interests are our priority. Where you elect to pay via premium finance, the provider pays us a percentage of the annual interest charged.
Holding money as an agent of your insurer
When we act as an agent for an insurer, the Insurer bears the risk for any losses that may arise from the failure of an Intermediary to make a transfer of premiums, claims money, or premium refunds. When the Insurer bears the risk for such losses, this is referred to as risk transfer. For this reason, CIA Insurance acts as an agent of your insurer to receive and hold premiums and to administer premium refunds. When you pay your premium, CIA holds it in a non-Statutory trust bank account. If you take out a policy via CIA Insurance, you consent to us holding your money in a non-Statutory trust bank account.
Credit arrangements
If you enter into a credit arrangement, this will be with an external Finance Company. These payments are made to the Finance Company by Direct Debit, for which they will charge interest. If you default on these payments, the total outstanding balance will become due. If the policy is cancelled mid-term, these payments must still be made until any return premium is notified to you. Any return premium is notified to us by your insurer. This refund will be returned to the Finance Company and go towards any outstanding balance on your credit agreement. Any remaining balance will be returned to you. If the return premium does not cover the outstanding balance on your credit agreement, you will be liable for the remaining balance.
Charges
In addition to the premiums charged by insurers, additional charges may be incurred to cover the administration of your insurance.
- Commercial Insurance (including Landlords): New Business and Renewal – up to £75. Cancellation (including cooling off period) – up to £30. Mid-Term Adjustment – £10
- Commercial Motorcycle Insurance: New Business and Renewal – up to £75. Cancellation (including cooling off period) – up to £75. Mid-Term Adjustment – £10
- Motorcycle Insurance: Single Bikes: New Business and Renewal – £25. Multi-bikes: New Business and Renewal – £35. Cancellation (including cooling off period) – up to £30. Mid-Term Adjustment – £20
- Household Insurance: New Business and Renewal – £25. Cancellation (including cooling off period) – up to £30. Mid-Term Adjustment – £10
Refunds
Where the full payment has been made by credit/debit card, we will, wherever possible, make the refund to that card. All other refunds will be made to the policyholder unless specifically authorised otherwise by the policyholder.
Cancellations
Your policy may be cancelled by either you contacting us or after we have issued notice of cancellation. If your policy is cancelled after the 14 days cooling off period (see below) and no claims have been reported during your time on cover, then a return premium for the unused period of cover will be calculated according to the insurer’s rates. The administration fee and any add-ons are non-refundable after the 14-day cooling off period, alongside any insurer fees if applicable. Additionally, a cancellation fee will then be deducted from any return premium issued by your insurer. Any refund of premium may take up to 4 weeks to be issued and will use the same method that you used to pay for the policy unless instructed otherwise.
Cooling off period
It is important that you are happy with your policy. If after having examined your policy documentation, you decide not to proceed, you may cancel this insurance within the first 14 days. The 14 days start on the day that you received the policy documentation. There will be a pro rata charge for the number of days that cover was provided within the cooling off period. This will also be subject to a cancellation handling charge alongside insurer charges if applicable.
Duty of disclosure
You have a duty under The Insurance Act 2015 to make a fair presentation of the risk. This means that you must disclose every material circumstance which you and/or anyone responsible for arranging your insurance know or ought to know. Alternatively, you must disclose sufficient information which would put the insurer on notice that it needs to make further inquiries for the purpose of revealing those material circumstances. Your duty of fair representation applies at the start of your policy, at renewal, and when any variation of the policy is arranged. If you fail to make a fair representation, the insurer may refuse to pay your claim or reduce the settlement amount, depending on the circumstances.
Claims
If you need to make a claim under your policy, then please refer to your policy wording for details on how to report a claim. If in any doubt, then please contact us, and we will assist you. Any incident must be reported to us as soon as reasonably possible. Any documentation that has been requested must be submitted immediately to enable the claim to be progressed. All outstanding premiums must be paid before any claim payment can be made.
Data protection
When you visit our website or contact us directly you will be expecting us to provide you with an insurance product. We do not require consent in order to process the information you provide to obtain quotations on your behalf. Therefore, by completing our online forms or requesting a quotation over the telephone, we have a legal basis for processing your personal data to fulfil your needs.
The information you provide may also be used to verify your identity and to enable us to carry out anti-money laundering and other financial crime checks where required. The information declared constitutes the basis of your contract and will be submitted by us to your Insurer and to the agent appointed to handle claims on their behalf. Insurers pass information to the Claims and Underwriting Exchange (CUE) Register run by Insurance Database Services Ltd (IDS Ltd), run by the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The aim is to help them to check information provided and to prevent fraudulent claims. When we deal with your request for Insurance, we or your insurers may search these registers. When you tell us about a claim, we or your insurers will pass on information to the registers.
Marketing and the general data protection regluation
It is not our company’s policy to sell or pass on your information to third parties for external marketing purposes. CIA Insurance may engage a third party to act on our behalf to contact you only in relation to a lapsed Landlord Insurance Policy or quote you obtained from us previously.
Further information about your rights regarding how we handle your personal data can be accessed on: www.cia-insurance/co.uk/privacy-policy
Law and jurisdiction
These terms of business shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law. In relation to any legal action or proceedings arising out of or in connection with these terms of business, we both irrevocably submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.