Terms of Business

The following Terms of Business set out the basis on which Livingstones of London Limited will provide business services to you as an individual, private or corporate client or firm. These terms will remain in force and shall apply to any business product provided to you now or at a future date. Should we change any of our business terms at a future date, these terms will be notified in writing.

Our Status –Livingstones of London Limited is an independent insurance intermediary, we are AUTHORISED and REGULATED by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our permitted business is arranging general insurance contracts. Our FCA Registration number is 305710. These details can be checked on the FCA Register by visiting the FCA website at http://www.fca.gov.uk/register or by contacting the FCA on 0845 606 1234.

We are required to comply with the FCA Regulations relevant to an insurance intermediary. These include the following:

We must conduct our business with integrity, pay due regard to the interests of our customers and treat them fairly.
We must conduct our business with due skill, care and diligence.
We must pay due regard to the information needs of our clients and communicate with them in a way which is clear, fair and not misleading.
We must manage conflicts of interests fairly, both between ourselves and our customers and between a customer and another client.
As we hold client money, we have to meet specified conditions.
We must take reasonable care to establish and maintain such systems and controls as are appropriate to our business.
We must maintain and keep an up to date list of the insurance products we select from and be able to provide a copy of this list if requested by a customer.

Please read this document carefully as it sets out the terms on which we agree to act for our clients and contains details of our regulatory and statutory responsibilities. Please contact us immediately if there is anything in these terms of business, which you do not understand or with which you disagree. We specifically draw your attention to the sections titled Non-statutory Trust and Interest on Client money.

Our Service –As independent insurance intermediaries we act as the agent of our client. We are subject to the law of agency, which imposes various duties on us. However, in certain circumstances we may act for and owe duties of care to other parties. We will advise you when these circumstances occur so you will be aware of any possible conflict of interest.

We offer products from a range of insurers. A list of insurers is available on request. We are not tied to any insurance company.

We will advise and make recommendations for you after we have assessed your needs. This will include the type of cover you seek together with the costs. Upon receipt of your instructions we will place insurance with insurers, and keep you informed of the progress of our negotiations. We will also advise you of any inability to place your insurance.

Your Responsibilities –You are responsible for providing us with sufficient information to enable us to fully understand your requirements and the nature of the risk/s to be insured. You have a duty to disclose all material facts that could affect whether an insurer offers or continues to offer insurance, and the premium and terms applicable. If you are in any doubt as to whether information is material, you should disclose it anyway. Should you not act with utmost good faith or fail to disclose any material fact or circumstance to insurers, insurers may avoid the contract.

You should read through all policy terms, conditions and warranties shown on your policy documentation. Please ensure that you understand them and are able to follow their requirements exactly. If not please advise us immediately as a breach of any terms, conditions or warranties may enable your insurers to terminate your policy from the date of the breach, and / or repudiate a claim under your policy.

The Proposal Form / Statement of Fact forms the basis of your application for insurance. It is important that you check all the information and, if anything is incorrect or missing you must correct this by amending, updating and initialling the relevant area of the form. Failure to disclose such information could invalidate your insurance and / or result in a claim not being paid.

Insurers pass information to the Claims and Underwriting Exchange register run by IDS Ltd and the Anti-Fraud and Theft register run by the Association of British Insurers. The aim is to help them check the information provided and also to prevent fraudulent claims. You must tell us about any incident (such as an accident or theft) which may or may not give rise to a claim. Insurers will pass this information on to be added to the registers.

Premiums –You must provide the premiums due in cleared funds in accordance with the amounts and payment dates specified in our invoicing and correspondence. As we have stringent credit terms imposed on us by the insurers that we place cover with, please assist us in settling your invoice promptly within these terms. Failure to meet the payment date may lead to us and/ or your insurers cancelling your policy. Where insurers have specified that the premium must be received by a certain date, failure to comply can result in the automatic termination of your insurance contract.

In order to be able to offer credit facilities, we have interim from the Financial Conduct Authority to carry out consumer credit activities. For the purpose of arranging payments by instalments we may pass information about you to credit reference agencies as well as details of your payment record.

Our Remuneration –Will be a combination of any commission allowed by insurance companies together with any other fees. Anything which is not a premium is considered to be a fee. Any commission which is due is payable out of the premium. Brokerage and fees are earned for the policy period. We will be entitled to retain all fees and brokerage in respect of the full policy period in relation to policies placed by us whether they run for the full policy term or are cancelled part way through.

A policy charge of up to 10% of the premium will be made to reflect the cost of administration and will be added to all new and renewal premiums and mid term adjustments. There may however, be occasions when the level of commission received from insurers is not deemed adequate. In this case we will advise you of our fee from the outset of your instruction to arrange cover. In addition to client fees and/ or brokerage payments we may receive remuneration by way of administrative fees or commissions for services provided to underwriters. We may also act as re-insurance brokers to underwriters with who we have placed insurance or reinsurance.

Policy Cancellation –Your insurance contract may include cancellation clauses. A common reason for cancellation is failure to pay the premium or instalment by a specified date. However many other reasons could result in cancellation including a change to the risk details originally notified to the insurer, failure to provide a completed proposal form or other documentation, not carrying out safety or security improvements specified by the insurer or failure to comply with any other terms in the policy terms. In these cases the insurance may be cancelled forthwith or by insurers giving notice of the cancellation. In the event of cancellation of the insurance contract, insurers may return a part of the premium to us. Livingstones of London Limited will retain all of the commission and arrangement fee and charge a cancellation fee of up to £100.00 before returning the balance to the policy holder. Refunds of less than £15.00 will not be processed, however, this can be used as credit towards any other policies.

Renewals –A renewal letter will be sent to all policyholders. All policies will be automatically renewed if we do not hear from the policyholder. If when we attempt to collect funds this does not go through, the policy will lapse from the renewal date. This will apply to policies paid in installments or in full.

Please note the following cancellation conditions with regards to premium refunds.

Where there has been a claim submitted during the current period of insurance your insurers are not obliged to allow a refund of premium. Any outstanding premiums owed on the policy e.g. outstanding direct debit / standing order payments will become due immediately. Please note that we cannot process your claim until all outstanding monies are settled and cleared in full.
Instalment credit charges are non-refundable.
Mid term cancellation of a claim free policy will normally attract refunds of premium based on short period scale that is weighted in favour of your insurer.
Certain commercial policies do not allow for a cancellation return of premium e.g. all professional indemnity contracts, malpractice contracts, marine cargo contracts and liability policies placed with Lloyds of London.
Holiday and annual travel policies cannot be cancelled mid-term and no premium refund will be allowed.

Cancellation of your insurance can only be processed upon written confirmation from the policyholder.

Claims –You must notify us as soon as possible of a claim or circumstances which may give rise to a claim. In the event of a claim you should contact us. You should have available the following information

Your name and address
Policy Number
The place where the loss occurred
What caused the loss or damage

We will remit claims payments to you as soon as possible after they have been received on your behalf. We will provide you with every assistance in submitting a claim and seeking to obtain reimbursement for you. However in the event that an insurer becomes insolvent or delays making settlement we do not accept liability for any unpaid amounts.

Policy Documentation –Our policy is that documentation will be issued in a timely manner.

Your documentation will confirm the basis of cover, give details of the insurers, and be accompanied by a policy summary together with an invoice showing amounts due and acceptable forms of payment. The date that the premium is due, together with any penalties, will be clearly shown.

Prior to the conclusion of the contract you will be given a statement of demands and needs. You should read this carefully. It will confirm whether the contract has been recommended by us and, if so, the reasons for making that recommendation.

We will do our best to provide you with renewal terms or notification that renewal is not being invited by a communication in a durable medium no less than 21 days before expiry of the policy. Attached to the renewal terms will be a statement of any changes to the terms of the policy, and changes to directive-required information (information required under the EU Directives), statement of price and information about cancellation.

You will be given an explanation of any changes, where necessary and in good time, which may appear in your policy and you will be advised of your right to request a new policy statement.

Mid-term changes to your policy will be provided in good time, prior to the change taking effect.

It is our policy to retain documents for business placed on your behalf in electronic or paper format for up to five years.

For some types of insurance cover it is possible that a claim may be made under a policy long after expiry date and it is therefore important to keep such documents safely.

Complaints –We take all complaints seriously. If you wish to register a complaint then please contact The Complaints Handler at Livingstones Insurance Brokers, 309 Harrow Road, Wembley, HA9 6BD.

Our complaints procedure complies with applicable regulatory requirements and is available on request. We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days. If we are unable to settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service at South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SR.

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.

Segregation of Designated Investments –We keep client money separate from our own money. We do this by paying it into a client bank account.

Client Money –Client money is money of any currency that we receive and hold in the course of carrying on insurance mediation on behalf of our clients (including you) or which we treat as client money in accordance with the client money rules. A copy of these rules is available on request. Client money can be held in one of the following ways: a) It can be subject to a statutory trust b) It can be subject to a non-statutory trust or c) In accordance with the FCA client assets sourcebook (CASS)

Client money will only be held on behalf of an insurer or underwriter in accordance with a written agency agreement.

Bank Accounts –Client money will be deposited with one or more approved banks, including, Barclays and HSBC. We may on occasion choose to hold client money with a bank which is not an approved bank. In such circumstances the legal and regulatory regime applying to the bank with which the client money is held will be different from that of the UK and, in the event of a failure of the bank, the client money may be treated differently from the treatment which would apply if the client money were held by an approved bank in the UK.

Where client money is held in a bank, which is not an approved bank, such money will be held in a designated bank account. This means that it is not pooled with the money held in any other account. We will not hold client money in a bank, which is not an approved bank for any longer than is necessary to effect the transaction. Where we propose to hold client money with a bank, which is not an approved bank, we will request your consent in writing to the use of the particular bank.

Non-Statutory Trust –The aim of the trust is to protect the client in the event of the failure of the firm, or the failure of the bank or a third party at which the money may be held. In such circumstance, the firm’s general creditors should not be able to make claims on client money, as it will not form part of this firm’s property.

The fact that we will hold money on trust gives rise to fiduciary duties, which will be owed to you until the client money reaches the insurer or product provider.

We hold client money subject to a non-statutory trust. This means that we are entitled to and may use client money held on behalf of one client to pay another client’s premium before the premium is received from that client, and to pay claims and premium refunds to another client before we receive payment from the insurer. However, we are not entitled to use client money to pay commissions before we receive the relevant premium from the client.

Interest on Client Money –Any interest on client money held by us will be retained by us for our own use, rather than paid to you.

Payment to Third Parties –We may transfer client money to another person, such as another broker or settlement agent, for the purpose of effecting a transaction on your behalf through that person.

This may include brokers and settlement agents outside the UK. The legal and regulatory regime applying to a broker or settlement agent outside the UK may be different from that of the UK and, in the event of a failure of the broker or settlement agent, this money may be treated in a different manner from that which would apply if the money were held by a broker or settlement agent in the UK. You may notify us if you do not wish your money to be passed to a person in a particular jurisdiction.

Compensation –We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). You may be entitled to compensation from the FSCS if we cannot meet our obligation. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim. Full details and further information on the scheme are available from the FSCS

Money Laundering / Proceeds of Crime Act. –UK money laundering regulations require us, in specified circumstances, to obtain evidence of the identity of clients for whom we act at the start of a business relationship. This might, for example be evidence by sight of a current passport and two utility bills/ bank statements. For companies (other than listed ones) evidence of identity will usually comprise a copy of certificate of incorporation, a list of directors, a list of shareholders and the registered address.

We are obliged to report to the National Criminal Intelligence Service any evidence or suspicion of money laundering at the first opportunity and we are also prohibited from disclosing any such report.

Claims payment will be made in favour of you. If you require a payment to be made to a third party then you must confirm the required payee name and details and provide a brief explanation for your request.

Data Protection –We are registered under the Data Protection Act 1998 and we undertake to comply with the Act in all our dealings with your personal data. Your personal information will be kept secure.

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.

Cancellation of this Agreement

This agreement may be terminated by either party giving 14 days’ notice in writing to the other. In the event that our services are terminated by you we will be entitled to keep all of our earnings in addition to any cancellation fees charged on all policies concerned

Call us today on 020 8903 9412 or get an online quote to find out more…