Terms of Engagement for the appointment of Key Financial Claims to act on the Client’s behalf in all aspects of the administration and negotiation of the claim.
1. Definitions
1.1 “Claim(s)” means the Client’s claim or claims against the Company relating to the mis-selling of a payment protection insurance policy or policies; or the application of unlawful charges to the account (s) of the client;
1.2 “Client” means the policyholder/account holder(s), whose details are set out in the Letter of Authority and who have appointed Key Financial Claims to provide the Services;
1.3 “Company” means the Financial Institution and or persons to whom the Letter of Authority is addressed being the Insurance Company, Bank, Building Society, Credit Card Company or Financial Advisor or any other entity which sold the policy or gave the advice to the Client, or applied the unlawful charges (including for the avoidance of doubt any employee, director, agents, representatives and associates of said entities or any other entity and/or any of their predecessors);
1.4 “Compensation” means any sums paid or awarded as calculated at the time of the award that would not have been paid if the Claim had not been made;
1.5 “Key Financial Claims” means Key Financial Claims, a third party claims handler, having its Head Office at Processing Centre, Imperial House, Hornby Street, Bury, BL9 5BN.
1.6 “Fee” means the fee of 33.95% (including all taxes applicable from time to time, if any) of the compensation payable to Key Financial Claims Ltd for the services carried out by it; if we recover £600 of compensation, our fee would be £203.70 (including all taxes applicable from time to time, if any) and you would receive £396.30.
1.7 ’Letter of Authority” means the letter included in the claim pack to be sent to the Company from the Client;
1.8 “Services” means the services provided by Key Financial Claims including assessing the viability of, preparing, submitting and negotiating your Claim; and
1.9 “Terms” means these terms of engagement.
2. Conduct of Engagement
2.1 By signing and returning the Letter of Authority, the Client hereby agrees to be bound by the Terms and appoints Key Financial Claims to provide the Services for such period as to allow Key Financial Claims to assess, and if reasonably possible, to complete the Claim.
3. The Client will:
3.1 by completing and signing the Letter of Authority give Key Financial Claims his/her/their consent and full authority to deal with the Company on the Client’s behalf and to obtain relevant information from whatever source on a continuing basis;
3.2 deal promptly with every reasonable request by Key Financial Claims for authority, information and documents and further instructions that Key Financial Claims may from time to time require. Failure to do so will give Key Financial Claims the right to terminate this Agreement forthwith and the Client will reimburse Key Financial Claims its reasonable costs incurred in pursuing the Claim to the date of termination;
3.3 promptly inform Key Financial Claims of any relevant matters affecting the Claim;
3.4 hereby assign his/her/their entitlement to any Compensation to Key Financial Claims. The Client hereby agrees to the Company remitting the Compensation to Key Financial Claims and for Key Financial Claims to retain the Fee before paying the balance of the Compensation to the Client. Notwithstanding such agreement, should the Compensation be paid direct to the Client, Key Financial Claims will invoice the Client for the Fee which will become immediately due and payable by the Client to Key Financial Claims. If this fee is not paid in full within 28 days of the dated invoice it shall be deemed a termination of the Agreement and will fall under clause 3.6 below;
3.5 give Key Financial Claims the right to deal exclusively with the Claim, unless otherwise agreed in writing by the Client and Key Financial Claims;
3.6 subject to clause 3.7 below, if this Agreement is terminated by the Client for any reason, pay Key Financial Claims either £295.00 plus VAT (cancellation fee) or, if the Claim has already been submitted by Key Financial Claims and Key Financial Claims proceeds with the Claim and the Claim is successful, the Fee or the cancellation fee, whichever is the greater;
3.7 if the Client terminates this Agreement and Key Financial Claims proceeds with the Claim, if the Claim is unsuccessful and no Compensation is payable to the Client, the Client will not be liable to pay the said sum of £295.00 plus VAT referred to in clause 3.6 above or any monies whatsoever in respect of the Claim; and
3.8 for the avoidance of doubt not be liable for any charge in respect of the Claim if the Claim is pursued and the Company pays no Compensation.
4. Key Financial Claims will:
4.1 rely on the information and documents provided by the Client to Key Financial Claims as being true, accurate, and complete. Key Financial Claims will not audit, test or check such information or documents except where it is under a legal obligation to do so:
4.2 use its reasonable endeavours to obtain the maximum Compensation for the Claims which are pursued;
4.3 accept no liability for an unsuccessful Claim or for the amount of compensation paid to the Client;
4.4 promptly notify the Client if the Claim is not to be pursued. It is at Key Financial Claims’ sole discretion to decide whether or not to proceed with the Claim at any time during the claims process but Key Financial Claims must act reasonably in taking any such decision;
4.5 promptly notify the Client of the outcome of the Claim;
4.6 as soon as is reasonably practicable following the settlement of a Claim and the payment of Compensation by the Company to Key Financial Claims, pay the Client the balance of the Compensation, after deducting the Fee; and
4.7 preserve confidentiality, including the Client's personal information (even when this Agreement has terminated and the Client is no longer a client), save as expressly or implicitly authorised to the contrary including where disclosure is made at the Client's request or with the Client’s consent in relation to pursuing the Claim or where otherwise required by law.
5. Disclaimer
5.1 Key Financial Claims accepts no liability for any loss suffered by the Client by entering into this Agreement and specifically in the event that no Compensation is paid to the Client by the Company. Any claim by way of consequential damage arising out of any act or omission or commission by Key Financial Claims is specifically excluded.
5.2 You are aware that you could complain directly to the Company at no cost, with the ability to take matters further with the Financial Ombudsman Service yet still wishes to pursue your complaint via Key Financial Claims
5.3 Please note you have 14 days (which starts from the date you signed the authority) to cancel your authority, instructing us to act on your behalf.
5.4 Full details of Key Financial Claims' internal complaints handling procedures are available upon request.
5.5 Key Financial Claims is regulated by the Ministry of Justice in respect of regulated claims management activities; our authorisation number is CRM22105.
6. Governing Law
6.1 This Agreement shall be subject to the laws of England and Wales.
V3 - April 2012
