Terms and Conditions of Business

Stephen O’Connor T/A O’Connor Architectural Design (OCAD) is authorised and regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. We are permitted to arrange, advise, deal as an agent of insurers and assist in claims handling with respect to non-investment insurance policies. You can check this on the Central Banks Register by visiting the website www.centralbank.ie or by contacting the IFSRA on 01 4104000.

Our Service We are a totally independent company and will always act objectively and in our clients best interests when processing an insurance claim but under no circumstances do we act as an insurer ourselves, nor warrant or guarantee the solvency of any insurer of their levels of cover. We will handle negotiate and settle your claim on your behalf and only with your written approval.

Your Duty It is your responsibility to provide complete and accurate information to insurers when you take out an insurance policy, during the life of the policy, and when renewing your insurance, this included an accurate calculation of your sum insured. It is also your duty to fully disclose all the facts to us in-relation to the damage along with any previous damage, claims or losses.

A material fact is anything that might influence an insurers decision as to their terms for the cover requested, and if in any doubt as to whether a fact is material, you should always let us know the details, because if you fail to disclose any material facts to insurers, assessors or adjusters this could invalidate your cover, meaning that part of, or an entire claim, may not be met.

It is also your responsibility to provide complete and accurate information to us on the onset of a claim arising as we all material facts must be taken into account when processing all claim types.

Payment and Accounting Our fee is based on an industry agreed amount of 10% + vat (21%) of the final settlement amount. Our fee is not paid by your insurance company, except in the case of third party claims (a claim against another parties insurance policy).

Our fee due to us upon your initial settlement amount/cheque from your Insurance Company. We request payment not later than 5 working days of receipt of your first payment from Insurers. We may offer a significant discount for prepayment. In all cases payment is to be made by post-dated cheque, credit or debit card details or bank transfer before settlement has been confirmed with insurers. In the event of a claim arising where there is non-payment by Insurers, we agree to waive our fee. In the event of a claim arising where the actual loss is not covered under your particular policy, we agree to waive our fee.

Cancellation Rights You may have a statutory right to withdraw from our service at any time. In this case we do reserve the right to withdraw our estimated claim from your insurers. In this case we also reserve the right to charge you €50 + vat for every hour we spend on your claim including travel. We reserve the right to withdraw our services, without notice for any client or claim that we deem fraudulent.

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 administering your insurance or where law requires us. As part of the Central Bank duties, we may be asked to provide them with access to our customer records in order that they may carry out a review of our activities.

Some or all of the information you supply to us in connection with your insurance proposal will be held in an encrypted file in the cloud and may be passed to other insurance companies for underwriting and claims purposes. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you have a right of access to see personal information about you that is held in our records, whether electronically or manually. If you have any queries, please write to the Managing Director at the address.

Complaints We aim to provide you with a high level of service at all times, but if you should wish to make a complaint about our service we have a formal complaints procedure, and in the first instance you should contact us at office@stephenoconnor.info or by post to Stephen OConnor T/a OCAD, Rampark, Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth A91 X045.

We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 5 working days, and will aim wherever possible to resolve your complaint within this timescale. If immediate resolution is not possible and our investigations take longer we will write to you with an interim report at the very least within 28 working days, and will continue to work towards resolving your complaint at the earliest opportunity.

Our Commitment and Mission Statement :We are committed to our clients and promise that we will act fairly and reasonably and make sure that all general insurance mediation services satisfy the requirements of the Central Bank of Ireland by whom we are authorised and regulated.