Client Agreement for Mortgages and Protection Planning
This agreement sets out the terms under which our services are to be provided, including details of the specific services and a summary of our charges for those services.
If you have a question or concern about any aspect of our services, please contact us at:
This agreement shall commence once it has been signed by all parties and shall remain in force until terminated in accordance with Section 5 – Cancellation below.
Private Finance can advise and make arrangements on mortgages including: Regulated Mortgage Contracts, Consumer Buy to Let Loans, Business Buy to Let Loans, Second and further charges and Development Finance, as well as non-regulated mortgage arrangements. We offer a comprehensive range of mortgages from across the whole market, but not mortgages which you can only obtain by going direct to a lender.
The firm can advise on non-investment insurance protection including products such as term (both level and decreasing), critical illness cover and health insurance. The firm advises on non-investment insurance products from a range of insurers acting as an intermediary on your behalf to provide a personal recommendation after a fair and personal analysis of the market.
The firm can provide a service to obtain general insurance acting as an intermediary on your behalf, operating from a bespoke panel of insurers after a fair and personal analysis of the market.
You should obtain advice on matters including but not limited to legal and taxation on any arrangements you might be recommended by the firm and in particular on second properties whether to be let out or otherwise.
We offer you an initial discussion (without charge) at which we will describe our services and charges in more detail.
The Firm reserves the right to increase or decrease its fees and charges in an individual case, favourably or otherwise to reflect its particular characteristics. This might be due to factors such as: especially straightforward or complex requirements when assessing the likes of your requirements, geographical location, income structures etc.
Where you have been referred to us by a third party, they may receive a referral fee from Private Finance.
What you will have to pay us for this service
Mortgage/Loan – Initial evaluation stage: No Fee
Mortgage/Loan – Application stage: Up to a £1,995 application fee
Mortgage/Loan – Mortgage Offer stage: Brokerage fee up to 1% of the mortgage loan*
*Example: The fee payable would be £1,500 for a loan size of £150,000.
*The mortgage offer fee quoted is for standard mortgage/loan transactions. Should more specialist requirements be needed, we will advise you in writing if a different fee scale will apply before proceeding with an application.
We will tell you how much the total fee will be in good time before you apply for a mortgage, but you may ask for this information earlier.
*For smaller mortgage amounts, for example, below £150,000 we may charge in excess of 1% due to the percentage calculation not justifying the level of work involved to deliver the service required. We will tell you how much the total fee will be in good time before you apply for a mortgage, but you may ask for this information earlier.
Insurance
There is normally no fee as the firm usually receives commission from the product provider, the amount of which will be disclosed to you in full. In the event that it is necessary to charge a fee, this will be based on an advisor hourly rate of £250 per hour and it is anticipated that for all types of protection the provision of the service will take up ten hours of advisor time resulting in a fee of £2,500 per contract.
You will receive a written quotation which will tell you about all fees relating to any particular insurance policy.
We will not charge you until we have discussed your payment options and agreed with you how we are to be paid. We will also let you know if there are any other costs that might arise in connection with the services, we provide to you.
Our charges/fees are usually VAT exempt unless the work we provide for you only involves advice and/or for example, preparing a report, in which case VAT may be applicable. We will always tell you if you have to pay VAT before we undertake any work for you.
If the firm charges a fee you will not normally receive a refund.
Private Finance may receive a fee for recommending a third party such as a solicitor or surveyor, if this is the case the full amount will be disclosed to you.
You should note that where we provide services in relation to increased borrowing on an existing mortgaged property there may be alternative options available to you that may be more appropriate. For example, you may be able to obtain a further advance from your existing lender, or obtain an unsecured loan for the additional funds. Where your existing mortgage is a first charge against the property, a second or further charge mortgage may be available and where there is an existing second charge a new first charge loan may be available.
Recommendations
We will confirm to you in writing the basis of our recommendations. We will also provide you with a ‘Key Facts’ Illustration (KFI) or a European Standardised Information Sheet (ESIS) which is a personalised description of the costs and features of the mortgage / product that we are recommending. You may ask us to provide you with additional KFIs or ESISs for any mortgage / product for which you are eligible.
Any advice or recommendation that we offer to you, will only be provided after we have assessed your needs and considered your circumstances, financial objectives, and attitude to any risks that
may be involved. We will also take into account any restrictions that you wish to place on the type of products you would be willing to consider. The services that you have selected and the charges for those services are confirmed in Section 8 – Your Consent at the end of this agreement. We agree to provide the services selected and you agree to pay us for those services.
Anti-money laundering
We are required by the anti-money laundering regulations to verify the identity of our clients, to obtain information as to the purpose and nature of the business which we conduct on their behalf, and to ensure that the information we hold is up-to-date. For this purpose, we may use electronic identity verification systems and we may conduct these checks from time to time throughout our relationship, not just at the beginning. The check may leave a ‘footprint’ on your credit file, but it will not affect your credit rating.
Conflict of interests
Although we will always try to act in your best interests there may be situations where we or one of our other clients has some form of interest in the business being transacted for you. If this happens or we become aware that our interests or those of one of our other client’s conflict with your own interests, we will write to you and ask for your consent to proceed before we carry out any business for you. We will also let you know the steps we will take to make sure you are treated fairly.
We have a conflicts of interest policy. If you want to see a copy of it, please ask us.
Communicating with you
We may communicate with you by telephone, post, e-mail or in person. In certain circumstances, we may ask you to confirm any instructions in writing prior to implementation. All our communications with you will be in English (unless agreed otherwise).
Recording telephone calls
Termination of this Agreement
You may terminate this agreement and our authority to act on your behalf at any time, without penalty. We may terminate this agreement and our authority to act on your behalf and must provide you with at least 1 months’ notice. Notice of this termination must be given in writing and will take effect from the date of receipt. Termination is without prejudice to any transactions already initiated which will be completed according to this agreement unless otherwise agreed in writing. You will be liable to pay for any services provided prior to termination and any fees outstanding, if applicable.
Product cancellation rights
Full details of the products we recommend to you including, for example, the minimum duration of the product, information on your right to cancel or whether no right to cancel exists, and any other early termination rights and penalties, will be covered in the relevant product disclosure information you will receive before the conclusion of any contract.
In most cases you can exercise a right to cancel by withdrawing from the contract. In general terms you will normally have a 30 day cancellation period for a life, protection or payment protection policy and a 14 day cancellation period for all other policies. Please note that there is no right to cancel a mortgage contract once the mortgage transaction has been concluded.
Instructions for exercising the right to cancel, if applicable, will be contained in the relevant product disclosure information which will be provided to you.
Private Finance is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), 12 Endeavour Square, Stratford, London, E20 1JN.
Our Financial Services Register number is 310566, authorised as a Credit Broker and not a Lender. Our permitted business is advising on and arranging non-investment insurance contracts and mortgages. You can check this on the Financial Services Register by visiting the FCA’s website www.fca.org.uk/firms/systems-reporting/register or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768.
Complaints
If you, or any other interested parties i.e. guarantors, are dissatisfied with a recommendation we have made you are entitled to make a complaint. We have a complaints procedure that is available on request. If you wish to register a complaint, please contact us:
Please be assured we treat complaints seriously. For your further protection if you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service (‘FOS’). Full details of the FOS can be found by contacting the following:
Address: Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR.
Contact: 0800 0234567, 0300 1239123.
Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Financial Services Compensation Scheme
We are also covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (‘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. Please note that business buy-to let mortgages are NOT regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) nor are they protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
Insurance
Advising and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim, without any upper limit.
Mortgages
Advising and arranging is covered up to a maximum limit of £85,000.
Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS at www.fscs.org.uk.
Jurisdiction
This agreement is governed by and should be interpreted in accordance with English law and you agree to submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.
Legal and accounting advice
Neither our firm nor our employees are qualified to render legal or accounting advice or to prepare any legal or accounting documents. It is hereby understood and agreed that the onus is on you, the client, to refer to a solicitor or accountant any point of law or accountancy that may arise during the course of discussions with us.
Legal and associated costs
You agree that you will pay the full costs of any action taken for breach of contract (including any failure to pay any invoice by its due date), including without limitation court fees, legal fees and all other associated costs, limited only if the court sets an amount that is reclaimable.
Direct mortgage deals
We advise on mortgage products from the whole of the market. This means that we source the recommended mortgage from the range of mortgages available to “intermediary” firms. Certain lenders may offer products directly to the public, rather than via an intermediary firm, with more favourable terms. Accordingly, our recommendation to you will be based on the most suitable mortgage product incorporated within the range available to intermediary firms.
If there is a particular mortgage product that you are aware of which is available directly from a lender that you wish us to review and comment on, we are happy to do so. We may charge you a fee for providing advice in relation to this but would agree this with you at the time.
Unsolicited promotions
Where you have consented for us to do so, we may contact you in the future by means of an unsolicited promotion (by telephone, email or post) should we wish to discuss the relative merits of a particular mortgage product or service which we feel may be of interest to you.
Providing information about your circumstances
Our advice will be based on the information that you give so it is important that you provide us with accurate and up-to-date information when we request details about your circumstances and objectives. This will allow us to provide you with the appropriate advice. If you limit the information provided it could affect the suitability of the advice we give.
DATA PROTECTION – PROTECTING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018, the data controller is Private Finance Limited whose registered office is 1-3 Worship Street, London EC2A 2AB.
To provide our services properly we’ll need to collect information about your personal and financial circumstances. We take your privacy seriously and will only use your personal information to deliver our services. We will endeavour to take all due care to protect your personal information.
Processing of your personal data is necessary for the performance of our contract for services with you. Generally, this is the lawful basis on which we intend to rely for the processing of your data. (Please see the reference to special categories of data below). Our policy is to gather and process only that personal data which is necessary for us to conduct our services appropriately with you.
We adopt a transparent approach to the processing of your personal data. Sometimes, we may need to pass your personal information to other organisations. If you apply to take out a financial product or service we’ll need to pass certain personal details to the product or service provider.
We may engage the services of third party providers of professional services in order to enhance the service we provide to you. These parties may also need to process your personal data in the performance of their contract with us. Your personal information may be transferred electronically (e.g. by email or over the internet) and we, or any relevant third party, may contact you in future by what we believe to be the most appropriate means of communication at the time (e.g. telephone/ email /letter etc.).
In order to facilitate the transaction to which your business with us relates, we will aim to keep all relevant third parties including, but not limited to, solicitors and estate agents informed of key milestone events, such as valuation dates or the issuing of your mortgage offer.
If you are based outside of the EEA, the country in which you are based might not have analogous Data Protection Legislation to the UK, as a firm we apply UK standards.
The organisations to whom we may pass your details also have their own obligations to deal with your personal information appropriately. Sometimes a product or service may be administered from a country outside Europe. If this is the case, the firm must put a contract in place to ensure that your information is adequately protected.
We may also use your personal information to monitor and analyse our business, to identify other products and services which we think may be of interest to you, including reviewing your mortgage at the end of any product term, and to give you information about these products and services by post, telephone, email, text message or recorded call unless you have advised us at the bottom of this agreement or in writing that you do not wish us to do so.
Our Privacy Notice is available on our website www.privatefinance.co.uk/about/privacy-policy or alternatively you can request to see a copy of our Data Protection Policy. This is a separate document which provides more information about the nature of our personal data processing activities and includes details of our retention and deletion policies as well as your rights of access to the personal information that we hold on you.
Will will ask you to consent to the transfer of personal information in accordance with the protections outlined above.
Special categories of personal data: there are certain categories of personal data that are sensitive by nature. The categories include: data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, data concerning health and information relating to credit history, bankruptcy and criminal convictions. Depending on the nature of the products and services that you engage us for we may need to obtain your sensitive personal data particularly in relation to health. Our policy is that should we require any special category of personal data we will only gather this with your explicit consent.
You can request a copy of the information we hold about you both on computer file and in manual records. You must put your request in writing and we will respond to your request within a month from the receipt of your letter.
If you are concerned about any aspect of our privacy arrangements, please contact us at:
