Privacy
We observe all the relevant legal and regulatory requirements to protect your personal information and to ensure it cannot be accessed by any unauthorised persons.
We use information supplied by you to confirm your identity, and assist with all elements of your claim. If you do not want to receive details of our other services, you can instruct us not to contact you.
Under the terms of The Data Protection Act 1998 you are also entitled to a copy of your personal records held in our computer files and certain other relevant files. Please contact us if you wish to see a copy. We will correct any inaccuracies you point out to us.
We observe a strict duty of confidentiality. We will not disclose information about you to a third party except under compulsion of law or regulation, with your consent or where it is necessary for your claim.
 Complaints Procedure
You can download our complaints procedure here:
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Terms
The following terms constitute the Terms of Business (the “Terms of Business”) of Focus Finance to provide personal consultancy services as described below. They will apply to all transactions between both parties, unless varied in writing.
1 Interpretation
For the purposes of these Terms of Business:
1.1 references to “we”, “us” and “our” are Focus Finance (“Focus”)
1.2 references to “you” and “your” are to the person or persons to whom our Terms of Business is addressed;
1.3 “compensation payment” means an amount of compensation, redress payment or refund amount agreed to be paid by the product provider, bank, building society or selling agent;
1.4 “consultancy services” means the services to be provided in accordance with these Terms of Business;
1.5 “Letter of Authority” means the letter to be signed and returned by yourself to our legal team in order to authorise us to act as your representative in all dealings in respect of your claim against a product provider and confirming acceptance of these Terms of Business 1.5 “product provider” means an insurance company, independent financial adviser, investment Management Company, bank, building society or other third party offering investment products or services and is not restricted to the specific definition of these words in the FSA Handbook.
2 Conduct
2.1 We shall carry out your instructions in accordance with applicable professional standards. We shall act in your best interests in pursuing any claim for compensation and obtaining for you the best result reasonably obtainable.
2.2 We shall conduct consultancy services for you only when you have instructed us to do so.
3 Scope and basis of our work
3.1 The consultancy services that Focus offer will include advice on your complaint against a product provider in respect of any financial product or service.
3.2 We will rely on the information and documents that you provide us with as being true, correct and complete. You should let us know immediately of any changes that might affect the service and advice we provide you.
3.3 We will agree with you in writing, periodically and when necessary, the scope of our services.
4 Communications
4.1 Unless otherwise instructed, we shall communicate with you at your home address, normally by letter sent by normal postal services or, where appropriate, courier services.
4.2 To enable us to provide the optimum service to you, there may be occasions when we need to contact you without your express invitation, and you agree that we may do so. We shall contact you only between 09:00 and 20.00 Monday to Friday and between 10.00 and 16.00 on Saturday
5 Fees payable if we are successful with your claim
5.1 You agree to pay Focus Finance a fee equal to 25% (including VAT) as commission of any compensation accepted if we are successful with you claim.
5.2 We offer our Bank Charges, Credit Card Charges and Mis-Sold PPI policy claims on a no win no fee basis. This means there are no upfront fees at all paid to us and there are no fees if we are not successful with your claim unless you cancel the agreement as in 12.4.
5.3 You agree that we may receive compensation from the product provider on your behalf and then pass this minus our commission to you on their behalf.
5.4 We reserve the right to negotiate on your behalf with your product provider in connection with any individual case.
5.5 In cases where a product provider pays the compensation directly to you, you agree to notify us of this in no more than 5 working days and pay our commission no more than 14 days from the date we send our invoice to you.
5.6 For each piece of correspondence that we have to send to you after the 14 days as set out in
5.5 we will charge a penalty of equal to £12 and any outstanding balance will accrue interest at the Barclays base rate plus 6% until the debt has been settled or terms agreed for the payment of the debt.
5.7 We reserve the right to pass your case on to a debt collection agency after 30 days. At this point we will be unable to accept or negotiate payments directly.
6 Client Service
6.1 If at any time you wish to make a complaint about any aspect of the advice or service you have received from Focus the matter will be dealt with through our internal complaints handling procedure, a copy of which is available, through our website or upon request.
7 Data Protection Act 1998
7.1 During the period of our engagement we shall request information about your personal and financial situation from you. It may be appropriate to obtain some of the information about your personal and financial situation from third parties.
7.2 The information that we obtain about your personal and financial situation may constitute “personal data” or “sensitive personal data” under the Data Protection Act 1998 (“the 1998 Act”). By signing the Letter of Authority, you expressly consent that we may:
7.2.1 Carry out such processing (whether obtaining, recording or holding) of such data as is necessary to enable us to carry out your instructions;
7.2.2 Disclose such data to such advisers or other third parties as is necessary to enable us to provide our advice to you.
7.2.3 Hold such data in our files for as long as necessary for the purposes of providing the consultancy services; and
7.2.4 Using our knowledge of your personal and financial situation, bring to your attention, from time to time, information that we believe may be of interest to you.
8 Confidentiality
8.1 Subject to paragraph 7.2.2 above, we shall not, without your prior written consent, disclose any confidential information concerning your personal or financial situation to third parties (except to other professional advisers) whom we may consult in relation to our work (save to the extent that the information is in the public domain), unless otherwise required by law, a court of competent jurisdiction, HM Revenue and Customs or any other government or regulatory authority.
8.2 All information and advice written or oral, of whatever nature, made available by us to you is for your sole use and shall not, without prior written consent, be disclosed or made available to any third party (save to the extent that the information is in the public domain otherwise than by breach of this clause) unless otherwise required by the law, a court or arbitrator of competent jurisdiction.
9 Liability
9.1 Focus will perform the consultancy services with reasonable skill and care and acknowledges that it will be liable to you (up to the level of any fees received by Focus in respect of providing the consultancy service to you) for direct losses, damages, costs or expenses (“losses”) caused by its negligence or willful default, subject to the following limitations:
9.1.1 Focus will not in any circumstances be liable to you for loss of profits, revenue or other types of economic loss; loss of business or contracts; loss of anticipated savings or goodwill; losses arising from loss of data; any losses which arise other than directly and naturally from a breach of contract, or other losses which a court holds to be consequential, special or indirect; any losses suffered by you arising from any claim against you by a third party for any of the aforementioned types of loss;
9.1.2 Focus will not be so liable if such losses are due to the provision of false, misleading or incomplete information or documentation or due to any acts or omissions of any person other than Focus; and
9.1.3 Focus shall have no other liability of any nature, whether in contract, tort or otherwise, for any losses whatsoever and howsoever caused arising from or in any way connected with the provision of the consultancy service.
9.2 Nothing in these Terms of Business shall exclude, restrict any liability arising from fraud or dishonesty or other liabilities, which cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.
10 Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000
10.1 On receipt your Letter of Authority we will regard ourselves as acting on your behalf.
10.2 You have the right to cancel your instructions to us, without any cost to you, within fourteen days of our receiving these written instructions. You would cancel the agreement by either delivering a note canceling your instructions to our office or by sending it to Focus by post, fax or e-mail.
11 Third Party Rights
11.1 A person who is not a party to this agreement has no rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any terms of this agreement.
12 Commencement, variation and termination
12.1 These Terms of Business may be varied or superseded at any time, in writing, by us.
12.2 These Terms of Business may be terminated by either party, with immediate effect, by giving notice in writing.
12.3 If you seek to terminate this agreement after the initial 14 day cooling off period you agree to pay our fee of projected commission upon success, or if we can not calculate this figure a fee of £100 to represent the work that we carry out for your claim. This fee is to be paid within 14 days of the date of our invoice sent to you.
12.4 We reserve the right to cancel this agreement with no fee payable to you if it is found you have given false or misleading information to us or we feel that the claim is unlikely to succeed or will be uneconomical.
13.1 If any provision (whether in whole or in part) of these Terms of Business is held to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable under any enactment or rule of law, such provision or part shall be deemed not to form part of these Terms of Business, and the legality and enforcement of the remainder of these Terms of Business shall not be affected.
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