Terms & Conditions
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS IMPORTANT INFORMATION.YOU SHOULD READ IT THOROUGHLY BEFORE SIGNING AND YOU SHOULD ONLY SIGN IF YOU AGREE TO ITS CONTENTS.
Your Agreement with Us
In these terms and conditions, we refer to Addlington-West Group as ‘Us’, ‘We’, or ‘Our’ and we refer to you as ‘You’ and ‘Your’. If you are entering into this Agreement with your spouse or partner, such references are to you jointly.
These terms and conditions explain the entire rights and obligations of You and Us regarding the provision of Our Claims Management Service. If You have any questions about this document, please ask Us before signing below.
We are a claims management company authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority FRN: 838665
By signing this Agreement, you appoint us as your sole representative in pursuing a complaint for financial mis-selling. You do not need to use a representative to make a complaint to Your finance provider. You may complain to them directly yourself for free, and if unsuccessful, may take Your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service ‘FOS’. Your Agreement with Us
1.4 By appointing Us as Your representative You confirm that:
1.4.1. no other agency or person is acting for You in relation to the potential claim and You agree not to appoint any such agency/person in relation to the potential claim or the Claim; and
1.4.2. You have not previously claimed or received compensation / redress or an offer of compensation / redress from the Third Party relating to the finance agreement(s) to which this Claim relates.
2. Definitions
2.1 Agreement means this contractual agreement entered by You with Us for the claims management services.
2.2 Claim/s means Your claim/s or complaint/s against a Third Party relating to their mis-selling of a financial product or service, or their breach of legislation relating to the provision of a financial product or service.
2.3 Claims Management Services means our identification, investigation, and representation of your claim to the relevant Third Party under the terms of this Agreement.
2.4 Data Protection Legislation means the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (‘UK GDPR’).
2.5 Fee/s meaning the charges payable by You to Us in return for the Claims Management Services and in accordance with clause 5 below.
2.6 FOS means the Financial Ombudsman Service, an independent arbitrary service set up under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to resolve disputes between financial businesses and their customers.
2.7 FSCS means the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, the compensation fund for customers of authorised financial services firms that have gone out of business.
2.8 Gross Amount means the total amount of redress offered to You before any tax is deducted, before Our Fee is deducted, or before any Redress is offset against debt or arrears.
2.9 Letter of Authority means the letter We ask You to sign giving Us permission to represent Your claim to a Third Party.
2.10 Reasonable Offer means an offer or redress that We deem appropriate in the circumstances based on our knowledge of previous or published decisions of the FOS, FSCS or the Financial Conduct Authority.
2.11 Redress means any sum, offer or monies awarded in respect of any Claim as a result of Our efforts. This includes benefits, redress, gestures of goodwill, ex gratia payments, refunds, discounts, any reduction in outstanding car finance, loans or liabilities, any amount added to a pension and/or any
interest or capital recovered. Where such award or refund is revised on appeal, then the revised amount shall be used to calculate the Fees (provided that you have not terminated this Agreement). This is whether it is (a) paid directly to you, (b) used to reduce any arrears/ debt you owe to the Third Party or (c) paid as an enhancement on a fund, policy or plan.
2.12 Third Party means the respondent financial services firm being the subject of mis-selling claim/s alleged by You and against whom We shall submit your Claim/s. Third Party also includes the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), The Pension Ombudsman (TPO) and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
2.13 VAT means value added tax which is payable by You on the Fees at the prevailing rate determined
by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs; and
2.14 Working Day meaning all days other than Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.
3. What We will do for You
3.1 We will establish whether You have a viable claim by reviewing Your financial agreements, speaking to You about the sale of the financial product or service you wish to complain about and assessing whether the Third Party finance provider complied with applicable laws or regulatory rules.
3.2 If after We have reviewed Your Claim, We reasonably believe that it is unlikely to be successful or it is not in Your best interests to pursue a Claim We may decline to act for You.
3.3 If You do not possess or cannot locate the relevant documents needed, we will obtain copies from the Third-Party respondent using Our signed Letter of Authority.
3.4 Once a basis of Claim is established, We will compile a letter to the Third Party detailing why you are unhappy with the financial product or service they provided to You.
3.5 We will notify You promptly and no later than 10 days from receipt of any requests for additional information or documentation that the Third Party needs to investigate Your Claim.
3.6 We will keep you updated on the progress of Your claim. Any material developments shall be notified to You no later than 10 days from receipt of the communication from the Third Party. Where there are no material developments, we will keep in contact with you at three monthly intervals.
3.7 We will notify You in writing of any offers of Compensation made by the Third Party and provide Our advice regarding whether the offer You have received is in line with the rules of the Financial Conduct Authority or the principles used by the FOS.
3.8 Where Your Claim is successful and You receive an offer of Redress, We will charge our Fee on the Gross Amount.
3.9 Where You decline a Reasonable Offer which We advise You to accept and which is consistent with the rules of the Financial Conduct Authority or the principles used by the FOS Our Claims Management Service shall be complete, and We will invoice You for Our Fee.
3.10 If Your Claim is rejected or the Third Party fails to respond to Us or to You within 8 weeks of our letter of Claim We will discuss Your options with You. If We agree that a complaint to the FOS by Us on Your behalf is appropriate, We will advise You of the FOS process and We can make the complaint on Your behalf. Any Redress paid to You through the FOS process will be treated under this Agreement as a successful Claim and entitles Us to collect Our Fee.
3.11 Alternatively, We may recommend a legal service to You. In order for a solicitor to represent You it will be necessary for You to enter into a contract with the solicitor for the provision of their services. If You do not wish to continue with your Claim at this point you may cancel your Agreement with Us
in accordance with Our cancellation clause below.
4. Your Obligations
4.1 You will give Us exclusive authority to act on your behalf in all aspects of the Claim.
4.2 You will not liaise directly with the Third Party in respect of the Claim and will not negotiate any Redress independently of us, either directly yourself or by using another representative. All communications should take place between Us and the Third-Party respondent.
4.3 You will promptly provide Us with all and any documentation in Your possession relevant to Your Claim. Where You cannot provide the documentation required You will provide us with a signed Letter of Authority allowing Us to request the documentation from the Third Party.
4.4 You agree to cooperate with us and provide all assistance from time to time as reasonably requested by Us in all matters relating to the Claim.
4.5 All information You provide to Us must be true and accurate to the best of your knowledge. By providing false or misleading information to obtain financial Redress is a serious matter and We reserve the right to withdraw Our Claims Management Service where We have concerns about the legitimacy of your Claim.
4.6 You will notify Us within 7 Working Days of any communication received by You directly from the Third Party in relation to the Claim, including any offer of Redress.
4.7 You must pay our fees within 14 days of receiving an invoice from Us. You should consider how You will pay Our Fee if Redress is awarded to You in the form of a reduction in an outstanding balance or arrears, or if You decide to decline an offer of Redress which We recommend that You accept.
5. Our Fees
5.1 Our Fees are payable if your Claim is successful. We will charge you a percentage fee based on a Reasonable Offer of Redress. VAT is chargeable on each of our Fees (the current rate of VAT is 20%). Below are several worked examples that illustrate how our Fees are applied to a successful Claim.
5.2 These Redress Amounts are not to be taken as an estimate of the amount likely to be recovered for You.
5.3 These are our fees (all fees shown are before VAT):
| Band | Redress | Fee |
| 1 | £1 – £1,499 | 30% |
| 2 | £1,500 – £9,999 | 28% |
| 3 | £10,000 – £24,999 | 25% |
| 4 | £25,000 – ££49,999 | 20% |
| 5 | £50,000 + | 15% |
5.4 Our Fee(s) will reduce the amount of cash in hand Redress You will retain. If You have arrears or outstanding liabilities on your finance the Third Party may use all or part of the Redress Amount to pay those before making any payment to You. In this case You will still be required to pay Our Fee.
5.5 You will be charged Our Fee where You decline a Reasonable Offer of Redress that We advise You to accept. Our fee examples are shown here:
Settlement Offered Our Fee VAT (20%) Fee Owed To Us Amount You Receive
| Settlement Offered | Our Fee | VAT (20%) | Fee Owed To Us | Amount You Receive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £1,200 | 30% – £360 | £72 | £432 | £768 |
| £3,000 | 28% – £840 | £168 | £1,008 | £1,992 |
| £15,000 | 25% – £3,750 | £750 | £4,500 | £10,500 |
| £30,000 | 20% – £6,000 | £1,200 | £7,200 | £22,800 |
| £50,000 | 15% – £7,500 | £1,500 | £9,000 | £41,000 |
5.6 If You independently accept or receive Redress, based on a Claim made by Us to the Third Party, at any time You will be liable to pay Our Fee.
5.7 If the Claims Management Services relate to a pension Claim it is possible that Redress may be paid directly to Your pension before You are able to access it and You will still be liable to pay Our Fee.
5.8 In the event that You are or have previously been subject to a Trust Deed or IVA or a Bankruptcy or Sequestration You should be aware that any Redress You receive may be used to pay Your creditors. Our Fees may be met by the Account in Bankruptcy or Your appointed Insolvency Practitioner however, in the case that they are not, You will still be required to pay Our Fee.
5.9 Failure to pay Our Fee when it becomes due and payable could result in debt recovery action, court action, a CCJ or similar, and may negatively affect Your credit file.
6. Cancellation
6.1 You may cancel this Agreement within 14 days without giving any reason. You can cancel by phone, email or in writing. Any cancellation notified to Us within 14 days shall terminate this Agreement without any cost to You.
6.2 If You cancel after the fourteenth day, and an offer of Redress has been made by the Third Party, You will be liable for Our Fee.
6.3 If this Agreement is cancelled after the fourteenth day, and before an offer of Redress has been made, We reserve the right to charge You a cancellation fee to cover Our reasonable costs for the Claims Management Services We have carried out up until the date of cancellation at a rate of £100 per hour.
6.4 We can cancel this Agreement if You materially breach any of Your obligations and You fail to rectify Your material breach within 21 days of Us telling You. We will attempt to notify You of the breach by telephone and post.
7. Complaints
7.1 Please contact Us if for any reason You are dissatisfied with Our Claims Management Service.
7.2 We are committed to resolving complaints as quickly as possible. In the event that You wish to make a complaint, please contact us by email to: email (info@zippcar.co.uk) or by telephone on: 02046039288
7.3 We will acknowledge receipt of the complaint with 5 working days and provide a copy of Our full complaints handling procedure. We have a maximum of 8 weeks in which to respond to Your complaint, but We hope to resolve matters within 28 days. 7.4 If You are dissatisfied with Our handling of Your complaint, or if We don’t provide a full response within 8 weeks, You can refer the matter to the Claims Management Ombudsman, a designated department of the Financial Ombudsman Service.
7.5 The Claims Management Ombudsman can be contacted in writing at: Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, Harbour Exchange, London E14 9SR. By Phone: 0800 023 4567; or by Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
8. Data Protection
8.1 We warrant and undertake in respect of all Your Data supplied, forwarded, or otherwise made available to Us for the purpose of pursuing financial mis-selling claims to:
(a) Transfer and process Your Data in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation at all times.
(b) Promptly cease using, erase (unless We are required to hold information for regulatory obligations) or rectify any inaccuracies of Your Personal Data for marketing or any other purpose or any complaint if You request Us to do so in writing.
(c) Take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect Your Data against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss or destruction of or damage. This shall include without limitation appropriate encryption of, and password protected access to all such Personal Data
however stored.
(d) Restrict access to Your Data only to employees or Third Parties who require to have it.
(e) Retain Your Data for no longer than necessary for the purpose for which We hold such data.
8.2 You can, at any time, request a copy of all information which We hold relating to You by writing to Us. (This is a Subject Access Request under UK GDPR).
9. Other Important Terms
You are entitled to seek further advice in relation to Your Claim and to consider what services might be most appropriate to Your circumstances. In particular, You have the right to shop around and You should be aware of the free service provided by the FOS or FSCS.
The provisions of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 are excluded from this Agreement which means that only You and We have any rights under this contract. However, if You ask Us to liaise with anybody else on Your behalf in relation to this contract, We will do so provided that You
give us Your written permission.
Our service is personal to You and for this reason You are not able to assign this contract to any other person.
We can assign Our rights and responsibilities in this contract provided that the person we assign it to agrees to provide the same Claims Management Services to You in accordance with this Agreement. We will write to You before any assignment is made to ensure that You are aware that it is happening. You will have the option to cancel the Agreement without charge in these circumstances.
You should be aware that as with any Claim there is a small risk that it may result in Court proceedings. In the unlikely event that this were to occur, We would arrange for You to be represented by a solicitor. In order for the solicitor to represent You it will be necessary for You to enter into a contract
with the solicitor for the provision of their services. If You do not wish to continue with Your claim at this point You may cancel your Agreement subject to 6.3 above.
This Agreement is governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. Any dispute in connection with this Agreement will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
10. Events Beyond Our Reasonable Control
We are not responsible for events beyond Our reasonable control. Such events might include network failures, war, terrorist activity, riots, malicious damage, fire, flood, storm, accident or compliance with any new law or governmental order, rule, regulation or direction. We may suspend or cancel this
Agreement if, despite trying to provide the Claims Management Services, We are not able to provide them to You as a result of events beyond Our reasonable control.
11 Length of This Agreement
11.1 The contract between Us and You will start on the date You sign and return this Agreement to Us and, unless terminated earlier, will continue until:
(a) Redress is recovered for You by Us and You have paid the Fees in respect of all Claims We are processing; or
(b) Your Claim is rejected and either We notify You that there is no avenue of appeal remaining or any such avenue is, in Our reasonable opinion, unlikely to succeed.
11.2 If the Claim to which this agreement relates is dealt with over more than one account then We will, for the avoidance of doubt, be entitled to charge you a Fee in accordance with Clause 5 in respect of any and all additional accounts identified. We will notify You of any additional accounts that are identified and you shall have the option to choose which accounts/Claims to pursue.
Signatures:
By signing this Agreement, you agree to its terms and conditions.
| (Client 1) | (Client 2) |
| Signature: | Signature: |
| Name: | Name: |
| Date: | Date: |
All figures disclosed on the results page of our form are based on the average a client was overcharged during the FCA’s investigation.
Free Online Checker refers only to the live soft-credit check completed online to identify your car finance agreements.
Zippcar is a trading style of Addlington West Group Limited who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FRN: 838665
T: 0204 603 9288 I E: info@zippcar.co.uk