Terms of Business

Terms and Conditions

1.     About Us

Please read this document carefully. It sets out the terms on which we agree to act for you, our client, and contains details of our regulatory and legal responsibilities. If you are unsure about any aspect of our Terms of Business or have any questions regarding our relationship with you, please contact us immediately. By doing business with us you agree to do so on the terms of this document, unless we both agree otherwise.

Oops is a trading style of C&C Risks UK Limited. C&C Risks UK Limited is an Appointed Representative of Spero Limited which is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 950311). C&C Risks UK Limited. Registered in England No. 13016555. Registered office address The Stables 32 Main Street, Ashley, Market Harborough, United Kingdom, LE16 8HF. Referencing services are provided by Lettings in a box which is a trading style of Quodex Limited. Registered in England No. 11434933. Registered office address 10 Guildhall Street, Grantham, Lincolnshire NG31 6NJ.

Oops, C&C Risks UK Limited and Quodex Limited shall be referred to throughout these terms and conditions as the “the companies, us, our, we”.

Our authorisation includes a number of trading names, and our permitted activities as an insurance intermediary include arranging general insurance contracts. You can check this on the Financial Services Register by visiting the FCA’s website https://register.fca.org.uk or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768.

2.    The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

The FCA is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services.

3.    Our Service

We will make a personal recommendation for you after we have assessed your needs, this will include the type of cover you seek together with the costs. Where we are not able to give you a personal recommendation, we may ask you some questions to narrow down the selection of products that we will provide details on. You will then need to make your own choice on how to proceed. Where we do not offer a personal recommendation, we will make you aware of this. Our service includes arranging your insurance cover with insurers to meet your requirements and helping you with any ongoing changes you have to make. We will advise you of any inability to place your insurance.

4.    Capacity In Which We Are Acting

As an independent insurance intermediary, we usually 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 will inform you prior to placing your cover(s) of the capacity in which we are acting on a policy-by-policy basis.

5.    Our Culture

Along with the FCA, we aim to achieve the following outcomes through the Treating Customers Fairly initiative:

Our customers will always deal with a company that take your fair treatment seriously – it is part of our culture.

We make sure any products and services we market and sell to our customers are those designed to meet their needs.

Our customers will be provided with clear information and will be kept informed during every stage of the sale.

Any information given to our customers will be suitable, relevant and take into account any individual circumstances.

Products and services you receive will perform as our customers have been led to expect by us and our services to you will be of an acceptable and professional standard.

There will be no post-sale barriers if our customers wish to change product, switch provider, make a claim or make a complaint.

We ensure these outcomes by making sure all of our staff completely understand the Treating Customers Fairly concept and offering a robust training scheme to enable them to develop the skills to provide the excellent and personal service we pride ourselves in.

We will always deal with enquiries expeditiously and with a service standard a customer would reasonably expect to receive.

Our company ethics and culture towards customer service means that we never deliberately put ourselves in a position where our interests or our duty to another party prevents us from discharging our duty to you.

We seek to avoid conflicts of interest in the conduct of our business and have procedures in place to deal with possible conflicts of interest that may arise when dealing with you. For example, occasions may arise where we, or one of our other clients, will have some form of interest in business which we are transacting for you. Also, in certain circumstances, we may act for and owe duties of care to other parties.

We will ensure that any conflicts of interest that may arise in relation to the performance of our obligations under this agreement are identified, openly resolved, and clearly understood by all parties.

We will notify you immediately when and if a conflict should occur and if it is particularly complex or difficult to manage, we will agree with you the best way forward.

6.    How We Make Our Selection

Prior to placement of your policies, we will inform you of the basis of our market selection and where a fair and personal analysis has not been undertaken, we will provide you with a list of the insurance undertakings with whom we may and do conduct business. Unless notified to you, we are not under a contractual obligation to conduct business exclusively with one or more insurance undertakings although on some occasions we may offer cover from only one market. To assess the insurance product that most suits your needs, we may use another intermediary to help place your business and we will inform you when this is the case.

7.    Products we offer

We provide a wide range of both personal and commercial insurance products and provide information on the basis of a fair analysis of the market from a wide range of insurers.

These products are clearly set out on our website. When we provide a quotation to you, we will provide details of the insurer as well as all of the terms and conditions relating to the product.

Any additional policies we sell in conjunction with your main policy are linked and may be cancelled in line with the main one and these additional products may be non-refundable. We provide insurance products from a large number of insurers. We can provide a list of these insurers on request.

For Rent Guarantee & Legal Expenses Insurance we deal with City & Commercial Insurance Group.

For Home Emergency Insurance we deal with City & Commercial Insurance Group.

For Key Cover Insurance we deal with City & Commercial Insurance Group.

For Residential Buildings & Contents and Landlord Buildings & Contents Insurance we deal with a large number of insurers including RSA, Axa and Ageas.

For Deposit Replacement Insurance we use City & Commercial Insurance Group.

For Home Buyers’ Costs Insurance we deal with City & Commercial Insurance Group.

For Tenant Contents and Liability we deal with City & Commercial Insurance Group.

8.    Solvency of Insurers

We cannot guarantee the solvency of any insurer with which we place business. This means that should an insurer become insolvent you may still be liable for any premium due and not be able to recover the premium paid, whether in full or in part, and your claim may not get paid.

9.    Your Obligations

Your insurance is based upon the information provided to the insurance company. If you are a Consumer (an individual buying insurance wholly or mainly for purposes unrelated to their trade, business or profession) 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.

If you are not a Consumer (an individual buying insurance wholly or mainly for purposes unrelated to their trade, business or profession) you must present the risk (i.e. the subject matter of the proposed insurance) fairly. This means that you must disclose to insurers, before the setting up or renewal of your insurance policy is concluded, 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. A senior manager is anyone who plays a significant role in the making of decisions about how your activities are to be managed or organised, regardless of whether 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. If you deliberately or recklessly (i.e. without care) fail to comply with your obligations to present the risk fairly, insurers may avoid the policy. This means they can retain all premiums and treat the policy as if it never existed and refuse to make any claims payments. You could also be obliged to repay any claims payments that had already been made. If you fail to present the risk fairly, but your failure was neither deliberate nor reckless, insurers’ response will depend upon what would have happened if you had complied with your obligations:

a) if insurers would not have provided the policy, they may treat the policy as if it never existed, refuse to make any claims payments, and demand the return of any claims payments already made. However, insurers would have to return any premium payments already made;

b) if insurers would have provided the policy but on different terms, the policy will remain in force but will be treated as if those different terms applied from the start of the policy. This could result in a claim not being met in part or in full;

c) if insurers would have provided the policy but charged a higher premium, insurers may reduce any payment in proportion to the difference between the premium charged and the premium that would have been charged if you had fairly presented the risk. This could result in a significant reduction

10.  Claims

If you have occasion to make a claim on your policy, you must notify us immediately and we will promptly advise you and, if appropriate, issue you with a claim form and pass details to your insurer.

You must continue to make your monthly payments for your insurance, if applicable.

We reserve the right to withhold payment in respect of claims, if payment of any premiums to us is in default. You may be required to pay any outstanding premium in order to make a claim where you are paying your premium by monthly payments.

11.   What you will pay for our services

We will receive our remuneration via one, or a combination of, the following methods:

a) A commission payment, which is a percentage of the total premium paid by you and given to us by the insurer with whom we place your insurance policy, which we will disclose to you upon request;

b) A fee, in addition to the agreed premium, that is paid by you;

c) Administration charges, in addition to the premium, for administration of your policy, including amending and cancelling a policy and replacing lost documents or providing duplicate documents;

d) Consultancy fees for services additional to our normal insurance broking services, such as risk management or disaster planning.

Any applicable insurance premium tax will be shown on the documentation we provide to you.

In addition to premiums and administration fees charged by insurers and the finance provider, we normally make the following non-refundable charges to cover the administration of your insurances:

Setup fee for arranging a policy (which is non-refundable) up to £50

Renewing policy up to £50

Adjustments from any non-disclosed or misrepresented information: £25

Changes to a policy up to £25

Collection of debts £35

Processing uncleared cheques: £30

Policy cancelled before inception £10

Policy cancelled for any reason £25

(This is in addition to set up fee, adjustment fees and insurers charges for time on cover)

We reserve the right to charge you £15 if you issue a cheque to us which does not clear on the first presentation.

Our minimum refund is £5.00, anything under this will be retained and not refunded to you.

We usually receive a commission from the insurer, which is proportionate to the insurance premium.

Occasionally we may arrange a policy on which we earn no commission and in these cases we will advise you of the proportionate fee before you take the policy out.

Your insurer may make a charge for any amendment or cancellation made to your policy in addition to any increase in premium and our midterm adjustment fee.

Where applicable, all refunds will be processed to the last card used under your account up to the amount debited, any balance thereafter will be issued to you using any previous card or failing this via cheque.

You should not take out a new policy if you have an existing debt with us. If your new policy is cancelled as a result, we reserve the right to offset the cancellation refund against the equivalent value of the debt.

There may also be occasions when an additional fee is sought, for example a risk that requires significant further advice and placement of additional coverage or substantial involvement in any large, difficult, or complex claims.

We may occasionally receive additional remuneration from insurers, claims management providers and others. For example, insurers may pay us a profit commission under a delegated underwriting authority or other facility, or individual contract in recognition of overall profitability. Insurers may also pay us for ancillary services provided solely on their behalf.

We may also earn income from arranging premium finance. Where you choose to pay your premium by instalments, we may use a scheme operated by your insurer, or we may use a single finance provider or a finance provider selected from a limited panel. Where we arrange premium finance on your behalf, we are paid commission for our assistance in putting this financing in place. We will advise you of any commission payable by the finance provider in relation to a credit agreement where knowledge of the existence or amount of commission could affect our impartiality in recommending a particular product or that may have a material impact on your transactional decision.

You are entitled at any time to request further information regarding the amount of any remuneration which we may have received as a result of placing or renewing your insurance cover. To the extent that this is not possible for an amount to be given, we will provide the basis for its calculation.

Where a policy is cancelled before renewal, insurers charge to cover their costs, with the balance refunded to you, subject to no claim having been made. Full details will be available in your policy. In the event of an adjustment giving rise to a return of premium the amount may be refunded or held to credit.

Your attention is specifically drawn to the following: Where you cancel your policy after the expiry of the cooling off period or where you request a mid-term adjustment which results in a refund of premium, we may retain an amount that reflects our administrative costs of arranging and cancelling the insurance, and we reserve the right to retain our brokerage fees and commission in full. This will usually result in us reducing the amount refunded to you. Any charge made will be highlighted to you.

For certain commercial insurance policies, insurers will only provide cover where the premium is due in full on inception of the policy this policy is normally called a minimum deposit premium. This means that no refund will be paid if the policy is cancelled before renewal. We will advise you if this affects you. Bank details may be retained for the purposes of refunds and claims payments that may be made by BACS.

12.  Premiums held for Insurers

We have agreed with certain insurers to collect and hold premiums from you as agents of those insurers.  Therefore, once we have collected premiums from you, under the terms of our agreements with insurers those premiums are treated as being held by the insurer.  It will not be Client Money but will be insurer money, held and managed in the same way as Client Money and in the same Statutory Trust Client account. We will remit the premiums to insurers, after deduction of any commission due to us, in accordance with the terms of our agreements with insurers. Whilst this arrangement, known as Risk Transfer, affords you extra protection in the event of our financial failure, it does mean that in the event of insurer insolvency we would not be permitted to return any premiums not remitted to insurers at the date of their insolvency. Similarly, if we were holding claims monies due to you in such an eventuality, we would not be able to remit them to you.

13.  Cancellation

Customers acting outside their trade, business or profession are regarded as Consumers and usually have the legal right to cancel a policy within 14 days of receiving the full policy terms and conditions, although this timescale may vary depending on the type of policy purchased and this will be clarified in your policy document. The right to cancel also depends upon a claim not having occurred and the performance of the policy not being complete.

This right does not usually apply to policies of less than one month in duration, such as short-term travel insurance and you should presume as such unless informed in writing by us to the contrary. You must contact the office from where you purchased your cover within the 14 day period where the Right to Cancel applies. The insurers may return a proportion of the premium to us, less any reasonable cost incurred in providing the cover.

We reserve the right to make a charge including administration charges in relation to the time policy coverage was in place and to make reasonable charges for additional administration incurred. These charges will be notified to you prior to them being levied. In the case of cancellation after the Right to Cancel period for Consumers or for commercial customers where a Right to Cancel period does not usually apply (refer to your policy document for clarity) please note the following:

a) Your policy may include a cancellation clause, please note: a number of insurers will only incept cover on a ‘minimum and deposit’ premium basis and some policies may be non-refundable in the event of cancellation.

b) Where this does not apply, insurers may only return a proportionate return of the premium and you may be charged an admin fee to cancel.

c) Our commission and or fees will not be returnable.

In the event that you fail to pay your premium by the due date, the insurance may be cancelled forthwith, or by insurers giving notice of cancellation. If you pay by instalments, there is the possibility that the amount paid prior to the cancellation date may not cover the overall amount due up to the date of cancellation. In that situation you will remain liable to pay the difference between those amounts. If you wish to cancel any policy, please contact the office from where you purchased the cover.

If you wish to cancel your policy, please call us first to discuss this. It may be necessary for you to send us your cancellation request in writing before we can cancel your policy.

Any refund will be offset against any outstanding Direct Debit payments. Where the amount that you owe exceeds the amount that you have paid, you will be required to make payment for the outstanding amount straight away. Failure to do so may result in us taking steps to recover the debt. Once your policy has been cancelled, it is your responsibility to cancel any direct debits with the premium finance provider.

14.  How monies paid to us are handled

We are the Agent of Insurers for the purpose of collection of premiums and refunds of premiums. This means that premiums are treated as being received by the insurer when received in our bank account and that any premium refund is treated as received by you when it is actually paid over to you. We normally accept payment by any of the major debit/credit cards or BACS.

Your debit or credit card information will be replaced by a secure token so we can use the same card to take payments for automatic renewals and to pay or refund other premiums that may become due upon changes to the policy.

If you take a new policy out with ourselves and make a payment towards this new policy but have a previous policy with ourselves that has an outstanding balance, we reserve the right to transfer any money paid on the new policy to cover the debt outstanding on your previous policy.

15.  Premiums and financial aspects

The following refers to policyholders over the age of 18 years. Policyholders under the age of 18 years are not eligible to enter into a credit agreement and will require a parent or guardian to do so on their behalf.

The parent or guardian will be subject to the data sharing, credit and money laundering checks as stated below.

We may receive a commission for introducing you to a premium finance provider. If you pay using premium finance, it costs more in total than paying for your policy in one single payment. Finance is subject to status. Your data will be shared with the premium finance provider who will assess your creditworthiness using a range of tools to carry out anti-money laundering checks and credit assessments. Your application will include a search of your records at a credit reference agency.

This is a credit agreement between you as the policyholder and the premium finance provider and is separate to the insurance policy. The premium finance provider will contact you with full details of your credit agreement. As this is in effect a loan for the premium, this agreement should not be cancelled until this has been fully repaid to the premium finance provider, even if your insurance policy has been cancelled. If any Direct Debit or other payment due in respect of the credit agreement you enter into with the premium finance provider to pay insurance premiums is not met when presented for payment, or if you end the credit agreement with the premium finance provider, or if you do not enter into a credit agreement with the premium finance provider we will be informed of such events by the premium finance provider. If you do not make other arrangements with us to pay the insurance premiums you acknowledge and agree that we may, at any time after being so informed, instruct on your behalf the relevant insurer to cancel the insurance (or, if this occurs shortly after the start or renewal of the insurance, to notify the insurer that the policy has not been taken up) and to collect any refund of premiums which may be made by the insurer and if any money is owed to the premium finance provider under your credit agreement pay it to the premium finance provider or if the premium finance provider have debited us with the amount outstanding use it to offset our costs. The balance will be debited from the debit/credit card last used by you.

You will be responsible for paying any time on risk charge and putting in place any alternative insurance and/or payment arrangements you need.

If during the course of the policy any additional premiums or refunds of premium are due, then these will be automatically applied to the remaining balance on the premium finance provider account.

16.  Disclosure

It is important you ensure that all information, statements or answers made by you to us online, on the telephone, proposal forms, claim forms and other documents are full and accurate and must be correct. If a form is completed on your behalf, you should check that the answers shown to any questions are true. You should not make any false statements or withhold any relevant information to obtain an insurance certificate. You are advised to keep copies of any correspondence you send to us or direct to your insurer. Please consult us if you are in doubt on any aspect.

17.  Awareness of policy terms

When a policy is issued, you are strongly advised to read it carefully as it is that document, the schedule, any certificate of insurance and the policy wording, which are the basis of the insurance contract you have purchased. If you are in any doubt over any of the policy terms or conditions, please contact us promptly.

18.  Amendments

Contact our Customer Service Team advising them of any change to your personal information. Your policy will be based on your needs when accepting the policy, therefore should your needs change this may result in your insurer not being able to continue cover or be the most suitable for you. In order to process any amendment that requires an additional premium we require this to be paid immediately or added to any existing Direct Debit plan that has sufficient payments remaining.

19.  Automatic renewals

For your protection, we reserve the right to automatically renew your policy up to five working days prior to the renewal date and take payment by the same payment method as this year. If we exercise this right we will write to you prior to the renewal date, informing you how much the premium will be and giving you time to let us know if you wish to opt out of the automatic renewal process.

Neither we nor any insurer are under any obligation to offer renewals terms and we will not be held responsible for any losses arising from your not being insured after the expiration of your current policy.

20. 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 and the circumstances of the claim. Insurance advising and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim, without any upper limit. For compulsory classes of insurance, insurance advising and arranging is covered for 100% of the claim, without any upper limit.

Holders of policies issued by City & Commercial Insurance Group will not be protected by the United Kingdom Financial Services Compensation Scheme if City & Commercial Insurance Group should become unable to meet its liabilities. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS.

If the insurer of your policy is declared in default by the FSCS, we reserve to right to arrange a replacement policy with another insurer on your behalf. We would endeavour to replace your insurance with another insurer on your behalf. We would endeavour to replace your insurance cover at no extra expense or inconvenience to you.

21.  Confidentiality

All personal information about our customers is treated as Private and Confidential.

We will only disclose the information we have about private individuals in the normal course of arranging and administering their insurance, including debt recovery, and will not disclose any information to any other parties without their written consent unless required by law or public interest, which includes the detection and prevention of fraud and money laundering. We may use the information we hold about our customers to provide them with information about other products and services that we feel may be appropriate to them. For full details of how we use your data please view our privacy policy on our website. Under the General Data Protection Regulation, private customers have a right to see the personal information about them that we hold in our records. If you wish to exercise this right, or have any other related queries, you should write to the data protection officer.

22. Fraud Prevention and Detection

Insurers pass information to the Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register (CUE) operated by Insurance Database Services Limited (IDSL). The aim is to check information provided and to prevent fraudulent claims. To prevent and detect fraud we may at any time:

Share information about you with other organisations and public bodies including the Police.

Undertake credit and claims record searches; Check and/or share your details with fraud prevention and detection agencies.

If false or inaccurate information is provided and fraud is identified, details will be passed to fraud prevention agencies. We may log your IP address (and/or a unique identifier for your computer) and use this information to help us prevent and detect fraud, including passing it to fraud prevention agencies. Law enforcement agencies may access and use this information. We, and other organisations may also access and use this information to prevent fraud and money laundering, for example when:

Checking details on applications for credit and credit related or other facilities;

Managing credit and credit related accounts or facilities;

Recovering debt;

Checking details on proposal and claims for all types of insurance;

Checking details of job applicants and employees

If you have any questions about any information in this notice, or if you want more details of the databases we access and contribute to, please contact us.

23. Identity and credit searches

We, and the companies we place business with, may make searches about you at credit reference agencies who will supply us with information, including the Electoral Register and credit information. The agencies will record details of the search whether or not your application proceeds. The searches will not be used by lenders to assess your ability to obtain credit. We may use scoring methods to assess this application and to verify your identity. Credit searches and other information which is provided to us and/or the credit reference agencies, about you and those with whom you are linked financially, may be used by us and other companies if you, or other members of your household, apply for other facilities including insurance applications and claims. This information may also be used for debt tracing and the prevention of money laundering as well as the management of your account. Alternatively, we may ask you to provide physical forms of identification.

24. Data Protection

Our full Privacy Policy can be found here.

We are registered with The Information Commissioners Office in the UK and we undertake to comply with the most current Data Protection Act and regulations in all our dealings with your personal data. Your personal information will be kept secure. Our Data Protection Officer’s details are: Data Protection Officer, Oops, 10 Guildhall Street, Grantham, Lincolnshire NG31 6NJ. Email: theteam@www.oopsinsurance.co.uk.

We may share your information with credit agencies and other companies for use in credit decisions, for fraud prevention and to pursue debtors. Specifically, if you ask us to arrange finance for your payment of premium, the companies we ask may perform a credit check. This may happen at inception and each renewal of the policy. If you ask us to obtain insurance on your behalf outside of the UK, you accept that personal data associated with that policy will be covered only by local data protection law and will not be covered by UK data protection regulations. We may use your personal data for other similar purposes, including marketing and communications, but that will only occur if we have your consent or another legal justification for doing so. You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes. Please be aware that telephone calls may be monitored and/or recorded. You have the right to request access to any of your personal data we may hold. If any of that information is incorrect, you can request that we correct it. If we are not using your information correctly, you can request that we stop using it or that we delete it completely. If you would like to make a request to see what personal data of yours we hold, you may make a request to our Data Protection Officer using the details above. Where we have asked for your consent to use your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. If you withdraw your consent, we will stop using your personal data where legally possible. Any processing undertaken before your withdrawal remains valid and lawful.

25. Anti-Money Laundering

We, and the companies we place business with, may make searches about you at credit reference agencies who will supply us with information, including the Electoral Register and credit information. The agencies will record details of the search whether or not your application proceeds. The searches will not be used by lenders to assess your ability to obtain credit. We may use scoring methods to assess this application and to verify your identity. Credit searches and other information which is provided to us and/or the credit reference agencies, about you and those with whom you are linked financially, may be used by us and other companies if you, or other members of your household, apply for other facilities including insurance applications and claims. This information may also be used for debt tracing and the prevention of money laundering as well as the management of your account. Alternatively, we may ask you to provide physical forms of identification.

26. What to do if you have a complaint

If you wish to register a complaint, please contact us:

In writing: Complaints Department, 10 Guildhall Street, Grantham, Lincolnshire NG31 6NJ.

By telephone: 0345 548 1101

Our full complaints procedure can be found here complaints procedure.

If you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. For more information, visit their website www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

27.  Financial Ombudsman Service

Ultimately, should you remain dissatisfied with the final response issued by us, you may, if eligible, refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The Financial Ombudsman Service is an independent service in the UK for settling disputes between consumers and businesses providing financial services. The FOS’ contact details are as follows:

Financial Ombudsman Service

Exchange Tower

London

E14 9SR

Email: complaint.info@financialombudsman.org.uk

Telephone: +44 (0)300 123 9 123

Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

28. Telephone call recording

Calls may be monitored and recorded.

29. Governing Law

Your acceptance of these Terms of Business does not affect your normal legal rights.

These Terms shall be governed by the laws of England and the parties agree herewith that any dispute arising out of it shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the relevant court.

Updated 1st July 2023