Policy Information ~ RJP Marine Insurance

RJP Marine Insurance Services Customer Charter

At RJP Marine Insurance Services we believe it is important that our customers always have peace of mind and know with confidence that the insurance products they are buying are suitable for their needs and that the service they will receive from us is always professional. Our Consumer Charter aims to ensure that our customers will always be treated fairly.

The fair treatment of customers is central to our culture.
We market products and services to appropriate customer groups.
We give customers clear information about the products they are buying and keep them appropriately informed at all times.
When customers receive advice, it is suitable for their needs and takes account of their circumstances as advised to us
Products perform as we have led our customers to expect, and we will deliver the service we say we will.
We will provide a professional ongoing service.

How to make a claim

In order to make a claim, please select from one of the following four options

Damage Claims Theft or Malicious Damage Claims Fire Claims Injury or Damage to Third Parties

Damage Claims

Firstly we hope everyone involved is OK and no injuries were sustained. However bad it is to have your craft damaged, GRP repairs easier than flesh and bone!

Ideally, where there is any dispute over what happened you need to have independent witnesses. Gather names and addresses and generally as much information as you can about the site, the lake, it’s rules etc.

First things first, you should make sure you don’t make the situation worse by neglecting to do your usual (manufacturers recommended) maintenance routine. This is especially important if your craft has taken water into the engine – flush it out as normal. Remember insurers are only obliged to pay for damage caused by the accident.

If your craft is damaged we need to see a repair estimate ideally from a specialist repairer. Ask us for details of a repairer that can do the work. The repairer will prepare an estimate once they have your craft and e-mail it over to us. In most cases we can authorise repairs without the need for inspections by engineers which can prolong the time off the water. If you can get your craft to a repairer we know they will get the ball rolling pretty quickly.

We will need a report of the accident. Please CLICK HERE to download a report form (.pdf format) and complete as much detail as possible. Send this to us with any additional information, as quickly as you can by post, such as maps, plans, rules of the lake etc. Photographs of your damaged craft are very useful as well as the location. Email everything over to us and we will make contact with you to inform you of how we will proceed.

Theft or Malicious Damage Claims

Theft or Malicious Damage to your property is a most traumatic and annoying event. We will do our best to make the claim process as smooth and quick as we can. This type of claim does though need to be thoroughly investigated and the involvement of the Police, the need to gather information and take statements inevitably means that it is unlikely that settlement will be reached more quickly than four weeks. We do though promise to deal with the claim within 6 weeks or should circumstances be such that this is not possible tell you why and give you details of the appropriate and anticipated timescale.

CLICK HERE to download a Theft / Malicious Damage report form. Please complete this as fully as possible and let us have it as quickly as you can. As soon as we have the completed form we will appoint an investigator who will make contact with you to arrange a meeting/interview.

Fire Claims

Fire Damage to a Personal Watercraft can often mean a serious claim. Our procedure very much depends on the extent of the fire.

Please therefore CLICK HERE to download a report form, complete it and let us have it with as much information as possible. Photographs of your damaged craft and the surrounding area would be helpful.

We will make contact with you on the next working day after reporting.

Injury or Damage to Third Parties

If you caused damage or injury to something or someone then it is very important to gather and tell us as much detail as possible about the incident and the sooner the better.

It is particularly important if you believe you were not at fault to obtain the names and addresses of anyone who witnessed the incident and will support your view. Ideally witnesses should be independent but any witness is better than none.

An incident like this may be traumatic for everyone involved. Try to stay calm and matter of fact. Do not admit fault or argue unnecessarily.

CLICK HERE to download a report form and get this over to us as quickly as possible. Please telephone with brief details if there is going to be any delay in getting the form to us especially where there is any possibility of injuries.

Conflict of Interest

The insurance market for personal watercraft is very small, and therefore, if you are unfortunate enough to be involved in an incident with another craft, there is a possibility that the other person involved may also be insured with RJP Marine Insurance Services. This is something we have become familiar with during our 20 years of trading, and have always managed any possible conflict of interest in a professional manner. Should this situation arise, we will inform you, immediately we are aware, that the other person is insured with us. To ensure that both customers are treated fairly we will operate the following procedure:

Where possible we will arrange for each claim to be dealt with by a different manager
Where this is not possible, the manager dealing with both claims will deal with each claim impartially and according to the circumstances of the claim. They will deal without prejudice and with complete fairness to both customers at all times.
If you are not happy with us dealing with both claims then you will be able to appoint your own loss assessor to handle your claim on your behalf, but this will be at your own cost and we should advise you that this can be quite costly. Whilst we would not wish to dissuade you from this, we would like to remind you of our Customer Charter which demonstrates our commitment to treating all customers fairly.

Legal and Trading Information

Click here to download our Terms of Business Agreement.

Click here to download information for paying by Premium Finance.

Click here to download our Fair Processing Notice.

Complaints Procedure

At the heart of RJP Marine Insurance Services is our Consumer Charter, which we strive to achieve at all times to ensure that our customers are always treated fairly. You may view this Charter from the home page on our website. Where you feel we have failed to meet this Charter, then we would ask you to discuss this with our Marine Manager, so that we can put things right immediately. On the rare occasion that you may find we have not met this Charter to your satisfaction you may find it necessary to submit a formal complaint to us using our formal Complaints Procedure below.

What is a complaint?

We hope that we always provide you with a high level service, however, if we do not then we would ask you to please let us know. We define a complaint as:

Any expression of dissatisfaction from or on behalf of a customer, whether oral or written, and whether justified or not.

What is our complaints procedure?

All complaints whether they are oral or written will be recorded in a Complaints Log. If your complaint is not resolved immediately, this will be passed to the Branch Director for handling. If the complaint made is about the Branch Director, this will be handled by senior staff member. It is the firm’s policy to treat all complaints, whether regulated or not, according to this Complaints Procedure.

Any unresolved complaint will be acknowledged within three business days, with a copy of the Complaints Procedure. We will then advise you of the outcome of our investigations within four weeks. If we are unable to resolve your claim, we will advise you of the current position, and will attempt to resolve it by the end of a further period of four weeks. If we are unable to settle your complaint at this time, we will advise you of how you may proceed with your complaint further.

Investigation

The Branch Director or appropriate member of staff will investigate all complaints and may, where considered necessary, consult the adviser/member of staff whose possible actions or possible omissions gave rise to the complaint. The investigation will include a review of your file and may, where necessary, involve contact with third parties such as product providers to obtain information or we may also contact you for further information.

Immediately on completion of the investigation the Branch Director or appropriate member of staff will write to you notifying you of the outcome, the nature and terms of any settlement, and will advise that if you are not satisfied with the outcome that you may refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

If your complaint is upheld, details of any compensation which may be offered will be fair, and the basis of calculation will be explained to you.

If the investigation is not concluded within four weeks, we will write to you advising that the investigation is continuing and the reasons for the delay and when we expect to be able to contact you again.

If the investigation is not concluded within eight weeks, the Branch Director will write to you informing you of the reasons for the further delay. If you are not satisfied with progress you may refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. You must do this within the next six months or you may lose the right to do so.

Financial Services Ombudsman (FOS)

You may contact the FOS at:

Financial Ombudsman Service
South Quay Plaza
183 Marsh Wall
LONDON
E14 9SR
TEL: 0800 023 4567 or 0300 1293 123
WEBSITE: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

A leaflet about the Ombudsman's arrangements will be forwarded to you with our letter after the eight week period.

Closing the complaint

When we receive confirmation from you that you are satisfied with the findings of the investigation and any resolution, the complaint will be considered closed by the Branch Director. Where no confirmation has been received from you, the complainant, within eight weeks of our most recent letter, the complaint may also be considered closed.

What is the market value of your watercraft?

What is the market value of your trailer?

What kind of cover would you like?

What is your postcode?

For claims made against you should you cause injury or damage to property what limit of indemnity do you need?

If you tow waterskiers or “toys” what limit of indemnity do you need?