Insurance: Terms and conditions (Consumer)

Certua Protect Limited

1.       Introduction

1.1              These terms and conditions (Terms) apply to all insurance products and services offered by us through any websites, web applications, mobile applications or similar devices, channels, platforms, service applications or other applications operated by or on behalf of us (or a member of the Certua Group), Certua’s agents or which reference these Terms (together, the Applications).

1.2              In these Terms, “we”, “us” or “our” refers to Certua Protect Limited (a company incorporated in England with company registration number 10649821) (Certua).

1.3             By accessing and using the Applications you agree to be bound by and to act in accordance with these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to these Terms or our Privacy Policy, you are not permitted to access and use any Applications operated by us or to purchase any insurance product or service and you should immediately stop using or accessing the Applications and the content on them.

1.4             You may request a copy of these Terms from us at any time during our contractual relationship (i.e. for the period of the provision of the services by us).

         Who we are

1.5             Certua is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to carry out regulated activities, registered under firm reference number 826485.  Certua’s registered office is at 1st Floor Healthaid House, Marlborough Hill, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 1UD, United Kingdom.

1.6             This can be confirmed at the FCA register at https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/financial-services-register or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768.

         Personal Information

1.7              Through your use of the Applications ,you agree that personal information that you provide (or that is obtained about you from third parties) may be dealt with in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

2.       Our Services

2.1              We will make available to you insurance products from a range of insurers with whom we have distribution arrangements.  We will provide you with a list of these insurers upon request by you. For some insurance products, we only offer a choice of one insurer.

2.2             We do not and will not provide any advice or recommendations in respect of any insurance product and therefore when you seek to enter into an insurance product, it is your responsibility to ensure that it is suitable for your demands and needs.  If you are unsure as to whether an insurance product is suitable then you should contact a financial adviser.

3.       Payments

3.1             The premium to be paid for an insurance product may be a one-off payment or an ongoing payment.

3.2             You must pay any premiums due for your insurance product as notified to you by the specified payment date.   Failure to meet a payment date could lead to the cancellation of your insurance product.

3.3            We will notify you of how payments should be made.  In general, payment for an insurance product will be made via the Applications.

3.4            In certain circumstances, we may pass your card details and personal details to a relevant third party, who may take payment for the insurance product in accordance with its terms and conditions. We may charge you any handling fees that we or the relevant third party may incur in respect of your application. We will always inform you of any such charges before they are incurred.

3.5            Please note that Certua acts as an agent on behalf of the relevant insurer for the purpose of receiving and holding premiums and refunds (and has entered into a risk transfer agreement accordingly with each relevant insurer).

4.       Your responsibility

4.1             In order to obtain a quote through our service, you will be required to answer a number of questions via an Application operated by us (or a member of the Certua Group) or by any intermediaries we may use. The answers you provide will determine the insurance products available to you and the amount you will pay for that insurance product.  

4.2            You must ensure that all information you enter on to the Applications is true, accurate and complete and that you disclose all relevant and material facts.  If you have taken out an insurance product and there are any changes to any information that you have provided then you should notify the relevant insurer immediately.

4.3            We may obtain information about you from various sources. We are not always able to verify the accuracy of information we receive about you (for example, values of your assets/mortgages/loans etc. supplied to us by your bank/wealth management platform if you are signed up to Open Banking - for further information about information we may obtain about you from third parties, or via Open Banking, please see our Privacy Policy). As the amount of premium you pay and the value of your insurance cover depends exclusively on such values, you should check any documents that you receive or that are made available to you describing any insurance product that you have entered into, and notify us immediately if you are aware of any errors. You should also keep the documents safe as you may need to refer to them again in the future.

4.4            If you do not provide accurate information and disclose all material facts this could lead to an insurance product being invalid and claims may not be paid.  If an insurance product is invalid any premiums or payments that you have made may not be refunded.  If you deliberately provide false information then we or the insurer may seek to take action against you for fraud or misrepresentation or, in serious cases, you may be subject to criminal proceedings.

4.5            You must obtain permission from beneficiaries or any other people whose details you propose to use in requesting a quote, before you provide us with any of their information. This applies to all information that you provide, but especially special category data such as health information or criminal proceedings or convictions. In submitting any other person’s details, you are confirming to us that you have their permission to do so, and that they understand how their information will be used.

4.6            In order to comply with UK money laundering requirements it may be necessary for us and/or the insurer to carry out certain checks on you and your identity or the identity of any beneficiary.  You agree that you will provide any information that we or the insurer may require in order to do so.

4.7            You agree that you will be liable to us for any damage, loss, claim, demand, liability or expense (including reasonable legal fees) that we may suffer or incur arising out of or in connection with your conduct on the Applications and/or your breach of these Terms.

5.       Our responsibilities and our liability to you

         We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so

5.1             We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors; for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; our duties and liabilities to you under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, or any conduct of business rules that we are bound to comply with.

         We are responsible to you for foreseeable loss and damage caused by us

5.2            If we fail to comply with these Terms, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking this contract or our failing to use reasonable care and skill, but we are not responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable.  Losses are foreseeable where they could be contemplated by you and us at the time your information is inputted on to the Applications.

5.3            We only supply insurance products for domestic and private purposes. If you use the insurance products for any commercial, business or re-sale purpose we will have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, loss of business opportunity or consequential losses.

5.4            We do not accept any responsibility or liability for any loss or damage you may incur:

5.4.1           in connection with an event or series of events which is/are outside our reasonable control;

5.4.2          if any information, content, material or data you provide on the Applications is not correct, complete and accurate, or if it is misleading, or if you fail to disclose all relevant facts or fail to inform us of any errors within any documents that you receive or that are made available to you describing any insurance product that you have entered into;

5.4.3          arising from an inability to access the Applications, from any use of the Applications or from reliance on the data transmitted using the Applications where such losses or damages are caused by any event beyond our reasonable control including as a result of the nature of electronic transmission of data over the internet; or

5.4.4          in connection with any act, omission, error or default by an insurer or any other third party in the provision of any insurance product.

5.5            While we have taken all reasonable steps to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the content of the Applications that we operate, we exclude any warranties, undertakings or representations (either express or implied) to the full extent permitted under applicable law, that such Applications or (including without limitation) all or any part of the content or materials, accuracy, availability or completeness of the content of such Applications or any part of the content or materials are appropriate or available for use either in the United Kingdom or in other jurisdictions or that such Applications are free from viruses or anything else which may have a harmful effect on any technology. If you use the Applications from other jurisdictions, you are responsible for compliance with applicable local laws.

Information on the Applications

5.6            Nothing on the Applications is financial, investment or other advice provided by us or should be considered to be a recommendation or endorsement by us in respect of any insurance product referred to on an Application. Information we provide via any Application is provided for general information purposes only, should not be relied upon by you and is provided so that you can select the insurance product that you feel is most appropriate to meet your needs.

5.7            We will do our best to correct errors and omissions as soon as we can. Nevertheless on occasion there may be mistakes in the price or type of insurance product shown. In the event that such error is shown then we reserve the right to cancel that insurance product, but this of course will be without any liability to you and a refund will be offered.

5.8            We are not responsible for any commentary, opinions, ratings or other postings on the Applications by any third party.

6.       Our fees

We are usually paid by commission (paid to us by the insurer). However, for certain insurance products we may charge you a fee.  If we do charge you a fee we will notify you and provide details of that fee (or the basis for calculating the fee) before you enter into an insurance product.  Please contact us if you wish to know more about our fees.

7.       Website terms of use

Use of the Applications

7.1              If you are in breach of these Terms (or any part of them), your right to access and use any Application operated by us will cease immediately.

Availability of the Applications

7.2             We aim to provide uninterrupted access to the Applications that we operate, but we cannot guarantee this. We reserve the right to suspend, restrict or terminate your access to our Applications at any time.

Intellectual property rights

7.3             Unless otherwise stated, we are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights, including, without limitation, all logos, trademarks, service marks, domain names, database rights, rights in designs, rights in know-how, patents and rights in inventions (whether registered or unregistered) and all other intellectual or industrial property rights in any jurisdiction and for any information, content, materials, data or processes contained in or underlying our Applications and/or any services we provide. You must not use such information or copyright material unless you have written permission from us to do so. All rights of Certua Group in such intellectual property rights are reserved.

7.4            Any logos, trademarks, service marks and domain names and all related intellectual property rights of the companies, intermediaries or providers with which we have business relationships remain the intellectual property rights of those companies and belong to those companies, intermediaries and providers, and you may not reproduce them without their prior written consent.

7.5            You may temporarily print, copy, download or store extracts of information, content, material or data displayed on our Applications for your own personal, non-commercial use, provided you do not otherwise breach these Terms.

7.6             You must not use our Applications:

7.6.1            in any unlawful or fraudulent or manner;

7.6.2           to harm, threaten, abuse, defame, libel, intimidate or harass another person, or in a way that invades another person’s privacy or is, offensive, indecent, inappropriate, discriminatory or damaging (as determined by us);

7.6.3           in order to build a product or service which competes with all or any part of the services provided by Certua under these Terms; or

7.6.4           in a way that interferes with, disrupts or imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large burden on our communications and technical systems or those of any other person.

7.7             You must not tamper with, modify, reverse engineer or amend any part of our Applications.

Viruses, hacking and other offences

7.8            You must take all reasonable precautions (including using appropriate virus checking software) to ensure that any information, content, material or data you provide is free from viruses and anything else which may have a harmful effect on any part of our Applications or any other technology.

7.9             You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our Applications, the servers on which our Applications are stored or any server, computer or database connected to our Applications. You must not attack our Applications via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack.

7.10           By breaching these Terms, you may commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our Applications will cease immediately.

Security

7.11            In order to safeguard your information, we maintain security measures to protect the confidentiality and integrity of your personalised security credentials and we frequently carry out risk assessments and audits to monitor and review threats and vulnerabilities to our systems to prevent fraud. However, while we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information which is transmitted to any Application via an internet or similar connection.

7.12           If you create any usernames and passwords when using the Applications, they must be kept confidential by you and must not be shared with anyone. If you do disclose to anyone your username, password and/or other identification information, you are solely responsible for all activities undertaken on the Applications using your username, password and/or other identification information.

7.13           So far as is permitted by applicable laws, we will notify you without undue delay by email (where appropriate) upon becoming aware of any suspected or actual fraud or security threats relating to your account or information.

7.14           If you become aware of any loss, theft or unauthorised use of your user information, you agree to notify us immediately (please see our contact details below).

Third party applications and services

7.15           We work with a large number of providers and intermediaries.  Your use of any provider or intermediary sites will be subject to the relevant providers’ and intermediaries’ own terms and conditions. It is important that you read such terms and conditions as they may differ from ours.

7.16           You can access hyperlinks published on our Applications or emailed to you as part of our services. The hyperlinks will direct you to websites owned and operated by third parties. We accept no liability for any statements, information, products or services that are published on or may be accessible through third party websites, as this is outside our control.

8.       Other important terms

Nobody else has any rights under this contract

8.1             This contract is between you and us.  No other person shall have any rights to enforce any of its terms.

Assignment

8.2            Your right to access and use the services is personal to you. You will not, without the prior written consent of Certua (such consent not to be unreasonably withheld), assign, transfer, charge, subcontract or deal in any other manner with, all or any of its rights or obligations under these Terms.

If a court finds part of this contract illegal, the rest will continue in force

8.3            Each of the clauses of these Terms operates separately.  If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful, the remaining clauses will remain in full force and effect.

Even if we delay in enforcing this contract, we can still enforce it later

8.4            If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under these Terms, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breaking these Terms, that will not mean that you do not have to do those things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date.

Related entities

8.5            Certua does not have a direct or indirect holding of more than 10% in any insurer.  No insurer has a direct or indirect holding of more than 10% in Certua.

Complaints

8.6            We aim to provide you with an excellent service at all times. If you are unhappy with our service for any reason, please contact our Customer Services Team by emailing client-services@certua.io or using our contact form.

8.7            Once your complaint is received, we will respond with a full reply or send an acknowledgement letter to you, which will tell you who is dealing with your complaint and when we will contact you again.

8.8            We will aim to send you a formal acknowledgement of your complaint within 48 hours and to resolve it as soon as possible. If your complaint is particularly complex, the investigation period may need to be extended, up to a maximum of eight weeks. In these cases, we will periodically give you an update on progress.

Alternative dispute resolution

8.9            Alternative dispute resolution is a process where an independent body considers the facts of a dispute and seeks to resolve it, without you having to go to court. If you are not happy with how we have handled any complaint, you have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. If you wish for the Financial Ombudsman Service to look into your complaint, please note that you must refer it to them within six months of the date of our final response.

8.10          Contact details of the Financial Ombudsman Service are set out below:

The Financial Ombudsman Service

Address: Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR

Tel: 0800 023 4567 (freephone service)

Website: http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

         Contact us

8.11           Our contact form is the quickest way to get in touch with us.

8.12          Or alternatively, you can:

email Certua: client-services@certua.io

write to Certua: Certua Protect Limited, 4th Floor, 64 Great Eastern Street, London EC2A 3QR.

call Certua: +44 (0)203 137 6500 (Monday – Friday between 9am and 5pm).

When can we amend these Terms?

8.13          We may amend these Terms from time to time for example, to keep them up to date, to implement minor technical adjustments and improvements or to comply with legal requirements (the “last updated” reference tells you when we last updated our terms), provided that if we make any significant amendment, we will notify you and you may then contact us within 30 days if you do not wish to accept the amendment. However, in that case, we may decide not to provide any further services to you (including making insurance products available to you).

Which laws apply to these Terms and where you may bring legal proceedings

8.14          These Terms and your access to and use of the Applications are governed by English law and you can bring legal proceedings in the English courts.  If you live in Scotland you can bring legal proceedings in either the Scottish or the English courts.  If you live in Northern Ireland you can bring legal proceedings in either the Northern Irish or the English courts.

Definitions

8.15          “Certua Group” means Certua and any associated companies of Certua (including Certua Group Limited, Certua Licensing Limited, Certua Protect Limited, Certua Lending Limited, Certua Financial Information Services Limited, Certua Sport Limited and Certua Services Limited).

8.16          “FCA” means the Financial Conduct Authority or any other regulator which replaces it.

8.17           “insurance product” means any insurance policy or other product or service relating to insurance that we may make available to you.

8.18          “Terms” means these Terms and Conditions.

8.19          “you” and “your” mean the person who accesses and uses the Applications.