Terms of Business
The Employment Services Partnership Limited Terms of Business for Commercial Clients
Introduction
The Employment Services Partnership Limited seeks to achieve the highest professional standards and as part of that aim we will operate in accordance with the following Terms of Business.
Our Role
The Employment Services Partnership Limited is an Employment Law and Human Resources Consultancy. We also act as an independent insurance intermediary when acting on your behalf in arranging employment protection/legal expenses insurances.
Our service includes:
- We will advise and make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your needs for Employment Legal Expenses insurance.
- Arrange cover in accordance with your requirements with insurers selected by us as capable of providing the necessary cover.
- Arranging changes to those insurances as required by you.
We will keep you fully informed of the progress of our negotiations and identify any inability to fulfil the proposed programme or to achieve the required changes.
We do not in any circumstance act as an insurer nor do we guarantee or otherwise warrant the solvency of any insurer.
Who Regulates Us?
The Financial Services Authority (FSA).
The FSA is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. It requires us to give you this document. Use this information to decide if our services are right for you.
The Employment Services Partnership Limited of Orchard House, Albury, Guildford, Surrey GU5 9AG is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Our FSA Registration Number is 308405.
Our permitted business is Non-Investment Insurance Contracts.
You can check this on the FSA’s Register by visiting the FSA’s website www.fsa.gov.uk/register/ or by contacting the FSA on 0845 606 1234.
Whose Products do we Offer?
We currently offer products from Allianz Insurance Plc, trading as Allianz Legal Protection and Brit Insurance Limited via Abbey Legal Protection, who is an authorised Agent for Employment Legal Expenses Insurance.
Confirmation of Cover
We will send you confirmation of the cover proposed and full policy terms and conditions (and any special conditions that are applicable) prior to the cover being placed.
We will forward final policy documents to you within our initial Welcome documentation (and annually thereafter). This documentation is usually issued within 2 weeks of your contract start or anniversary date.
Your Responsibilities
Policy Cover
You should review the summary of cover and policy documents to ensure they accurately reflect the cover, conditions, limits and other terms that you require.
Particular attention should be paid to policy conditions and warranties as failure to comply with these could invalidate your policy.
Provision of information
It is your responsibility to provide complete and accurate information to insurers when you take out an insurance policy, throughout the period of the policy and when you renew the policy.
It is important that you ensure all statements made on proposal forms, claim forms and other documents are full and accurate.
Please note that if you fail to disclose any material information to your insurers, your policy cover could be invalidated and could mean all or part of a claim may not be paid.
If you are uncertain as to whether information is material you should disclose it.
Changes
You should advise us as soon as practicable of any changes in your business operations that may affect the cover provided under your insurance policy.
Claims
All claims or circumstances that could lead to a claim should be notified immediately, otherwise insurers could deny your claim.
Premium Payment
The initial premium must be credited before we can arrange for you to be on risk. This is usually achieved by payment of ongoing monthly payments financed via our credit facilities with Premium Credit. Please do review your formal Services and Quotation Report for further details.
If any direct debit or other payment due, in respect of the credit agreement you enter into with Premium Credit Limited (PCL) to pay insurance premiums or service fees, is not met when presented for payment or if you end the credit agreement with PCL or if you do enter into a credit agreement with PCL, we will be informed of such events by PCL.
If you do not make any other arrangements with us to pay the insurance premiums or service fees due, 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 policy, to notify the insurer that the policy has not been taken up) and to collect any refund of premiums/service fees due to the insurer or ourselves, which may be made by the insurer/ourselves and if any money is owed to PCL under your credit agreement, pay it to PCL or if PCL have debited us with the amount outstanding, use it to offset our costs.
You will be responsible for paying, any time, an on risk charge and putting in place alternative insurance and/or payment arrangements you need.
In certain circumstances insurers may stipulate special payment terms which, if they are not met, may invalidate your cover. We will advise you if this applies to your policy and specify a payment date to enable this requirement to be met.
Claims Handling
For the majority of claims, notification should be made to the branch of ESP with whom you deal but certain insurers require direct notification. If this applies to your cover, details will be supplied to you of all contact numbers and procedures.
As part of our service we will provide all reasonable assistance with any claim on a policy we have arranged.
What will you have to pay us for this Service?
No additional fee for arranging Employment Legal Expenses insurance, over and above the contracted service fee detailed in your Service and Quotation Report. In addition, we may be paid a commission, which is normally a percentage of the insurance premium paid by you to insurers.
Commission may be earned for the policy period and we will be entitled to retain all commission in relation to policies placed by us in respect of the full policy period.
We may also receive income based upon the amount and/or profitability of business placed with an insurer over a given period of time.
You are entitled to know exactly how much commission we have earned when placing your insurance policy. Please do ask us for details at any time.
Complaints Procedure
It is always our intention to provide you with the highest level of service but if it is necessary for you to make a complaint the following procedure will be adopted.
Complaints may be made orally or in writing and should in the first instance be sent to:
*Russell Guest* – Sales and Marketing Director, The Employment Services Partnership Limited, Orchard House, Albury, Surrey GU5 9AG
Within five working days of receiving your complaint we will acknowledge receipt and give our response to your complaint if we can. If it will take more time to deal with your complaint, we will advise you at this time who is dealing with your complaint and when you can expect a fuller response.
Within 20 working days we will provide you with either a full response, or if our investigations are taking longer, explain the current position of your complaint and provide you with a timescale for a full response.
If you are not satisfied with the response from the office dealing with your complaint then please write to:
The Managing Director
The Employment Services Partnership Limited
Orchard House
Albury
Surrey
GU5 9AG
If you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The Financial Ombudsman Service can normally deal with complaints from private individuals and from small businesses with an annual turnover of less than £1 million (for a group of companies, this means a group annual turnover of less than £1 million). The Financial Ombudsman Service can also help with complaints from charities with an annual income of less than £1 million, and from trusts with a net asset value of less than £1 million. Their details are as follows:
Financial Ombudsman Service
South Quay Plaza
183 Marsh Wall
London, E14 9SR
Tel: 0845 080 1800
www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
This procedure will not prejudice the Insured’s rights to take legal proceedings
For any complaints relating solely to the insurance cover, you may either follow the procedure detailed above and ESP shall manage the complaint, keeping you fully informed at all times or you may contact the insurer directly. Please contact us to obtain communication details relating to your insurer or refer to your actual insurance policy for full details of the Complaints Procedure and contact details.
In the event that the insured remains dissatisfied and wishes to pursue matters further they may be able to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service. See above for contact information.
Are we Covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)?
We are covered by the FSCS. If the Insurer is unable to meet its liabilities you may be entitled to compensation under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available at www.fscs.org.uk, by emailing enquiries@fscs.org.uk or by phoning the FSCS on 0207 892 7300.
Confidentiality
We will treat any information about your business in our possession as confidential.
Information will however have to be disclosed to insurers to enable us to secure the insurance cover required.
We may provide information about your company to other companies within the Group. If you do not wish us to do this please advise the person with whom you deal.
Data Protection
If you wish to pay your premium/service fee by instalments, your details will be passed to our third party instalment provider, Premium Credit Limited (PCL). They will send you a welcome pack detailing their full terms and conditions. If you have any questions about your instalments you should contact Premium Credit on 0844 736 9836. On renewal of your policy/contract, we will continue to pass your details to Premium Credit unless you instruct us otherwise.
Termination
Our services may be terminated without cause or penalty by you by giving three months’ notice in writing to us prior to the end of the initial service period. There are no other termination rights available during the initial service period. If you do not serve the required notice, as detailed above, the contract is automatically renewed for a further 1 year. Once again, notice may be served by you three months prior to the end of this renewal year; otherwise a further automatic one year contract is entered into by yourselves.
If you have any questions on termination please do contact us to ensure you fully understand any implications prior to contracting with us.
In the event our services are terminated by you we will be entitled to keep all commission (whether or not these have been received by us) in relation to policies placed by us or services provided by us before the date of termination.
From the date of termination we will have no obligation to perform any further services for you of any nature.
The responsibility for handling claims after the date of termination will be the responsibility of the party taking over our role unless agreed to the contrary by us in accordance with the claims handling conditions above.
Third Party Rights
Unless otherwise agreed between us in writing, no terms of this agreement are enforceable under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
Governing Laws
In respect of services provided in England, Wales and Northern Ireland this agreement will be governed by the laws of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In respect of services provided in Scotland or The Republic of Ireland the agreement will be governed by the laws of Scotland or The Republic of Ireland.