Insurance Administration Charges

​

If you have listened to the Consumer Lawyers Live Streams, you will have often heard Dean say "Eyes wide open".  Were you aware of all the additional charges when you signed the agreement, are they listed, can you work out how they are calculated?

 

The same applies to Insurance Admin Charges.  If you listen to Dean on LBC (on this link) you will hear him again reiterate that if Insurance Admin Charges, for taking out your own insurance and not he parks, are not included as a term in your agreement then your are entitled to a refund.

 

But what if they are included as term? There are strict financial regulations about brokering insurance governed by the FCA. You must be treated fairly as a consumer, Brokers and Insurers must be open about commission charges paid to the Park Owner for using their recommended provider. Any admin charges have to be 'reasonable'.

 

Some of the charges we have seen people referring to in relation to Insurance Admin Charges are quite frankly, ridiculous and could never be classed as reasonable. Why? Well the FCA has taken to task many of the country's leading insurance providers for charging excessive admin fees for simple alterations on policies. So when a park charges you a stupid amount for photo copying your insurance and putting it in a folder you can be sure it is in breach of financial regulations.

 

Many owners are savvy to these rules and have made successful challenges to their parks over these charges. Recently many owners across Park Leisure's parks challenged this charge and the company has now withdrawn the fee.

 

Let's face it this charge is just another example of a failure of the Industry to allow free competition so that they can maximise their power in squeezing every penny they can out of you.  Decking, Gas electricity, paving slabs, sheds, repairs, cleaning, gas servicing, electrical testing, disconnection, removal, the list is endless.

 

Owners have to start challenging these hooky charges, and where there are regulators such as the FOS and FCA it makes life easier to do so. So whilst we are very much focused on the CMA at the present, we will be turning our attention to the financial regulators in relation to all the regulated activities these Park Owners are carrying out, including Insurance and Finance Brokering, as there is a substantial amount of evidence to suggest some are breaching regulation and even committing fraud.

 

The Trade Associations save had their chance to clean this Industry up and in our view their efforts have amounted to abject failure. In fact we would even suggest that, as so many individuals, who run those associations, personally benefit from the failures, then there is an argument to be made that they are responsible for orchestrating the failures.

​

Please click the picture at the top for a letter  that you can use or adapt to send to your Park Owners, with regards to the Insurance Admin Charges. Keep any replies or responses safe, as we will be asking you to make complaints to the Finance regulators in due course.

​