Terms Of Business (Guernsey) :

Terms of Business for General Insurance - Effective from 1st January 2006

Your attention is drawn to the following notes relating to the insurance you have arranged, or wish to arrange with us.

Who we are

• Islands Insurance is a business name in the Bailiwick of Guernsey & Alderney of The Islands’ Insurance Brokers Limited
• The Islands’ Insurance Brokers Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Islands’ Insurance Holdings Ltd
• Our ultimate parent company is  National Farmers Union Mutual Insurance Society Limited (NFU Mutual) which is regulated for General Insurance by the Financial Services Authority which in the U.K. regulates sales, advisory and service standards, to make sure that customers are treated fairly.  General Insurance Intermediaries in Guernsey are regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC)
• We are a General Insurance Intermediary who acts on your behalf in arranging your insurance.

Explanation of our service.

• Our service includes advising you on your insurance needs, arranging your insurance cover with Insurers to meet your requirements, and helping you with any ongoing changes you have to make.  As part of our service we also assist you with any claim you need to make.
• In arranging your insurance we deal with a number of insurers, details of these will be advised to you when we discuss your individual requirements, prior to your commitment to proceed.

Market Security and other Insurance Intermediaries

We assess the financial soundness of the proposed insurers and markets we recommend using public information, including that produced by recognised rating agencies.  However we will not in any circumstances act as an insurer nor will we guarantee the solvency of any insurer or market used for your requirements.  The decision regarding the suitability of any insurer or market rests with you.  If you have any concerns regarding any insurers chosen for your insurance requirements we will be pleased to discuss them with you.

If your insurance cover is placed via another insurance intermediary located outside Guernsey, your premium may be passed to that intermediary and will be subject to a legal and regulatory regime that is different from Guernsey’s. In the event of the failure of the insurance intermediary, your premium may be treated differently than it would be if it were held by an insurance intermediary in Guernsey.

Your duty to give information to Insurers

• Your insurance is based upon the information provided to the insurance company and you must ensure that all such information is complete and accurate and that any facts which may influence the insurer’s decision to accept the risk or the terms offered have been disclosed.  The duty to disclose information continues during the life of the policy and at renewal, you must make sure you inform your insurer of any changes affecting your insurance.
• You are responsible for all answers or statements on proposal forms, claim forms or other material documents and you should ensure these are full and accurate.
• Failure to disclose material information at the start of the policy or advise the insurer of changes to the risk during the period of insurance may invalidate your insurance cover and could mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid.

Charges & bank interest                                                                                  

It is our normal policy to make administration or other charges in certain cases.  Where a charge is payable, you will be advised before you commit to the insurance.

The following scale of charges will apply:-

* plus retention of the full annual commission

Any bank interest earned on your premium (insurance money), while it is held in our Insurance Broking Account, will be retained by us.

Complaints

• It is our intention to provide a high level of service at all times.  If however you have reason to make a complaint about our service, we have internal procedures for handling complaints fairly and promptly.  In the first instance you should contact –

The Manager,
Islands’ Insurance, Lancaster Court, Forest Lane, St Peter Port,
Guernsey GY1 1WJ

Our procedure is that:-

• Your complaint will be acknowledged within 5 business days.
• Wherever possible your complaint will be dealt with within 20 business days and if compensation or redress is felt appropriate details of this will be provided .  If it is felt that your complaint is not justified you will be provided with full reasons for this decision. If it is not possible to respond to your complaint within 20 business days you will be advised of the reasons in writing and given a note of when you may expect a final response.
• If you are dissatisfied with our response, please follow the complaints procedure in your policy booklet.

Law applicable

• As parties of the insurance contract,  you and the Insurer have the right to choose the law applicable to it.
• In the absence of a specific agreement, the law of the country within the UK and Channel Islands, in which you reside when the contract is concluded, will apply.

Confidentiality

• All personal information about you will be treated as private and confidential (even when you are no longer a customer) except where the disclosure is made at your request, with your consent in relation to arranging your insurance or where we are required to by law.
• Some or all of the information you supply to us in connection with your insurance proposal will be held on computer and may be passed to insurance  companies for underwriting and claims purposes.  In addition we may use some of the information to advise you of other products and services offered by insurance companies, and may pass details to other carefully selected companies whose products and services we feel may be of interest.  If you do not wish to receive such details please contact the Manager at the address above.
• We may pass information about you to credit reference agencies for the purpose of arranging payments by instalments, and may also pass to them records of your payment history with us. Information about you may be exchanged by your insurer with other insurance companies for underwriting and claims handling purposes.
• Under the Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law you have a right to request access to personal information about you that is held in our records and to ask us to correct any inaccuracies. For more information write to The Manager at the address given above.