The Financial Conduct Authority

UK Mortgage Centre Ltd is a trading style of The UK Mortgage Centre Group Ltd who is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA regulates financial services in the UK and you can check our authorisation and permitted activities on the Financial Services Register by visiting the FCA’s website www.fca.org.uk/firms/systems-reporting/register. Our Financial Services Register number is 826982.

Our Services

For Mortgages (Residential) we are independent mortgage advisers and we will recommend a mortgage product that is suitable for you following an assessment of your personal needs and circumstances. This will include a detailed assessment of affordability.
We will consider all products and lenders that we have access to. This means we will not consider those lenders that are only available by you going direct to them.

Where you are increasing your borrowing, we will consider the merits of both a new first charge mortgage and securing this by an additional mortgage on a second charge basis. You may have the option of a further advance from your existing lender, however, we will only consider this where we are able to deal directly with the lender on your behalf.
It may be in your best interests to explore this option and look at the further alternative of an unsecured loan, as these may be more appropriate for you.

For Non-investment protection contracts we are an intermediary and will act on your behalf when providing advice and making our personal recommendation(s) to you. We will do this based on a fair and personal analysis of insurers for term assurance, income protection, critical illness.

For general insurance contracts we are an intermediary and will act on your behalf when recommending an insurer based on your demands and needs from a fair analysis of the market. The insurers we consider will be listed to you when we carry out our research. It will be your responsibility to ensure the policy meets your demands and needs for building and/or contents, private medical insurance, accident sickness and unemployment.

For estate planning we are able to provide you with bespoke advice in conjunction with third party drafting companies & legal firms. Our advice will be tailored to your personal circumstances.

Mortgages

We may charge a fee for mortgage advice. How much we charge will depend on the advice product you wish to choose prior to an application is made on your behalf.

We have two products to choose from:
1. Home Ownership Standard – £345.00
2. Home Ownership Lifetime – £495.00

The Home Ownership Standard is a fee charged with every residential mortgage transaction.

The Home Ownership Lifetime fee is charged once per property, you will not pay any further advice fees for future transactions of the property.
Our advice fee becomes payable on receipt of a mortgage offer.

We will receive and retain any commission paid by the lender when your mortgage completes. This amount will be confirmed by the lender in their disclosure document.

Should you wish you can request to view the commission rates from each of the lenders we have considered at the time that we make our recommendation to you.

Refund of fees
Please note our fee will still be charged should the lender reject your mortgage application due to you not disclosing any material information about your personal situation. It should also be noted we do not provide a refund should you decide not to proceed with the mortgage loan after we have made a recommendation to you.

Non-Investment Protection and General Insurance Contracts

We do not charge a fee as we will receive commission from the provider/insurer after the policy has been placed on risk.
As an example, if we arrange a Single Will and 2 Lasting Power of Attorneys, the total cost to you would be £500.00 which would be inclusive of the drafting fees.

Our Ethical Policy

We are committed to providing the highest standard of advice and service possible. The interest of our customers is paramount to us and to achieve this we have designed our systems and procedures to place you at the heart of our business. In doing so, we will:
• be open, honest and transparent in the way we deal with you;
• not place our interests above yours;
• communicate clearly, promptly and without jargon;
• seek your views and perception of our dealings with you to ensure it meets your expectations or to identify any improvements required.

Cancellation Rights

Certain protection and insurance contracts allow you the right to cancel after a contract has been put in force. Prior to you entering into a contract of protection or insurance we will provide you with specific details should this apply to include: its duration; conditions, practical instructions and any costs for exercising it, together with the consequences of not exercising it.
If you decide to cancel a protection policy within the first 48 months, the provider may claw back any commission paid to us for arranging the policy. As such, this fee will be forwarded onto you to repay.
Should you be considering the cancellation of a protection policy, we request that you speak with your advisor prior to cancelling so that we can assist you with any changes.

Instructions
We prefer our clients to give us instructions in writing, to aid clarification and avoid future misunderstandings. We will, however, accept oral instructions provided they are confirmed in writing.

Complaints

If you wish to register a complaint, please write to, FAO: Sam Fox, UK Mortgage Centre Ltd, 9 Honiton Way, Warrington, WA5 2EY or telephone 01925 573328.

A summary of our internal complaints handling procedures for the reasonable and prompt handling of complaints is available on request and if you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk or by contacting them on 0800 023 4567.

Compensation Scheme

If you make a complaint and we are unable to meet our liabilities, you may be entitled to compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Further information about the limits applicable to the different product types is available from the FSCS at http://www.fscs.org.uk/what-we-cover/products

Mortgage advising and arranging is covered up to a maximum limit of £85,000.

Long term insurance benefits (e.g. Life Assurance)
The maximum level of compensation for claims against firms declared in default is 100% of the claim with no upper limit.

General Insurance
General insurance advice and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim with no upper limit.
Protection is at 100% where claims arise in respect of compulsory insurance (e.g. employer’s liability insurance), professional indemnity insurance and certain claims for injury, sickness or infirmity of the policyholder.

Protection is at 90% where claims arise under other types of policy with no upper limit.Commercial Buy to let mortgages are not covered by either scheme.

Client Verification
We may be required 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.

Law
This agreement is governed and shall be construed in accordance with the Law of England and the parties shall submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.

Capturing Your Needs
We are committed to providing you with a service that meets with your individual needs. To enable us to achieve this objective it is important that you are open and frank with us and provide us with all of the necessary information that we will need to deliver a service that reflects your needs e.g. any existing mortgages or other loans you may have. This will enable us to identify products and services that best meet with your personal circumstances. It will also help us to identify any specific needs regarding the methods by which we deliver our services to you. This may include additional ways of communication to those that we usually use as set out in the section of this agreement entitled “means of communication”.

Further information on how we collect and use your personal data is set out in the separate Data Privacy Notice that we have issued to you.

Means of Communication

We will provide information to you by whatever means are convenient to you, including face-to-face, telephone, paper, email and other acceptable electronic communication methods including audio. All such information will be made free of charge to you.

For any of our clients who are visually impaired, on request we will provide this information in larger print format or braille.

Our communications with you will ordinarily be in [English] [amend if applicable], both in respect of oral and written communications.

In addition where requested we can provide a translated version of this document, you may at any time choose to request information in paper and free of charge that has previously been provided to you by means other than paper. For example, where a communication was originally sent by email. You may at any time choose to change your preferences as to how we communicate with you. However, where you choose to do this, we will require you to confirm this change in writing to us.

Conflicts of Interest

Occasions may arise where the firm, an employee, or other associates of the firm has competing professional or personal interests which may prevent these services being provided to clients in an independent or impartial manner.

We will take all appropriate steps to prevent conflicts of interests from occurring in line with the firm’s conflicts of interest policy. However, there may be occasions where a conflict of interest cannot be prevented. Where this is the case, we will disclose to you the nature of the conflict and the steps that we will take to mitigate the risks that you will be treated unfairly as a result of any conflicts identified.

We will make you aware of any conflicts of interest before the provision of services to enable you to choose whether you still wish to proceed with services. A copy of the firms’ conflict of interest policy is available on request.

We may on occasion receive minor non-monetary benefits from third parties such as product providers e.g. food and drink provided at a provider training event. Where relevant, any minor non-monetary benefits received will not conflict with our duty to act in your best interests.

Force Majeure
The UK Mortgage Centre Group T/A UK Mortgage Centre shall not be in breach of this Agreement and shall not incur any liability to you if there is any failure to perform its duties due to any circumstances reasonably beyond its control.

Termination
The authority to act on your behalf may be terminated at any time without penalty by either party giving 7 days notice in writing to that effect to the other, but without prejudice to the completion of transactions already initiated. Any transactions effected before termination and a due proportion of any period charges for services shall be settled to that date.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate commercial buy to lets or Estate and trust planning.