How to make a complaint.
We aim to get things right. When we don’t, we want to hear about it so we can put things right and improve.
At Vara, we aim to provide a good service to everyone we work with. We recognise that sometimes things go wrong. If you’re unhappy with our service, we want to hear from you so we can put things right and improve our service for the future.
Get in touch
How to contact us.
By phone
Call us on 0333 091 3663 — Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm.
By email
Send details of your complaint to complaints@vara.insure.
In writing
Write to us at: Complaints Department, Vara Commercial Insurance, 101/6 Pearson Square, London, England, W1T 3BJ.
Before you contact us
What information we need.
To help us investigate your complaint quickly, please provide the following where you can:
1
Your full name and address
2
Your policy number, if you have one
3
A description of your complaint and the circumstances around it
4
Any relevant documentation or correspondence
5
How you’d like us to resolve the matter
What happens next
Our complaints process.
This process covers complaints about our own service — how we’ve dealt with you, the advice or information we’ve given, or how we’ve handled your policy or claim on your behalf. Where your complaint is about a decision an insurer has made on a claim, see Complaints about a claims decision below.
Step 1 — Acknowledgment
We’ll acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days of receiving it.
Step 2 — Investigation
We will:
Handle your complaint about our service directly within Vara
Investigate it thoroughly and fairly
Keep you informed of progress
Aim to resolve it as quickly as possible
Step 3 — Resolution
Where we’re able to resolve your complaint within the first 3 business days, we’ll send you a summary resolution communication confirming it’s been resolved. Where a complaint takes longer than 3 business days, we’ll aim to send our final response within 8 weeks of receiving your complaint. This will:
Detail our investigation findings
Explain our response to your complaint
Outline any action we’re taking to put things right
Tell you about your right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you remain dissatisfied, where your business is eligible to do so
If we’re unable to send our final response within 8 weeks, we’ll write to explain why and let you know when to expect it.
Timescales
We aim to resolve all complaints within 3 business days
Where that’s not possible, we’ll write to explain why and keep you updated
You’ll receive our final response no later than 8 weeks from when we received your complaint
If you’re still not satisfied
Financial Ombudsman Service.
If you’re not satisfied with our final response, or if 8 weeks have passed since you first complained, you may have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, depending on the size of your business. Not all commercial customers are eligible — the Financial Ombudsman Service can confirm whether your business qualifies. If you are eligible, you must refer your complaint within 6 months of receiving our final response.
The Financial Ombudsman Service is a free, independent service that investigates complaints about financial services firms. You can contact them:
Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Phone: 0800 023 4567 or 0300 123 9123
Post: Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR
Eligibility
Who can complain?
We accept complaints from:
Our customers
Potential customers
Representatives acting on a customer’s behalf, with written authority
Who is an eligible complainant?
Not everyone who complains to us can take their complaint on to the Financial Ombudsman Service. An eligible complainant to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) in the UK must generally be a:
1
Private individual (consumer) — acting outside their trade or profession.
2
Micro-enterprise — a business with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet not exceeding €2 million.
3
Small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) — a business with an annual turnover of less than £6.5 million and fewer than 50 employees.
4
Charity — with an annual income of less than £6.5 million.
5
Trust — with a net asset value of less than £5 million.
6
Guarantor — an individual who has guaranteed a loan for a business they are involved with.
If you are not an eligible complainant, you can still complain to us and we will handle your complaint under the process set out on this page. You may also benefit from seeking advice from an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provider, such as the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) or ADR Group.
A note on claims
Complaints about a claims decision.
Our claims team helps you through the claims process from start to finish, but the decision on a claim itself is made by the insurer, not Vara. If you’re unhappy with how a claim has been decided, tell our claims team — we’ll help you raise it with the insurer and progress your complaint, and we’ll keep you updated throughout. If the insurer’s own complaints process applies to your complaint, we’ll make sure you know how to use it alongside ours.
If your complaint concerns a claim, it also helps to have your policy documentation to hand — specifically the policy wording and terms and conditions for your insurance. If you can’t locate these documents, contact us using the details above and we’ll help you find them.
Vulnerable customers
Additional support.
We’re committed to treating all our customers fairly and making our complaints process accessible to everyone. If you need additional support in making your complaint, please let us know. We can:
Provide information in alternative formats
Offer additional explanation where needed
Make reasonable adjustments to help you access our products and services
Accept complaints via a nominated representative
Our approach
Our commitment.
We see complaints as an opportunity to:
Put things right when they go wrong
Learn from our mistakes and help ensure they don’t happen again
Improve our service
Treat our customers fairly
All complaints are taken seriously and handled with care. We’re committed to:
Investigating complaints thoroughly and independently
Acting fairly and reasonably
Treating all complaints confidentially
Learning from feedback to improve our service
Providing our customers with good outcomes
Data & records
Record keeping.
We keep records of all complaints to:
Monitor the quality of our service
Identify any recurring issues and deal with them appropriately
Make improvements to our products and services
Comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
All personal information will be handled in accordance with our legal and regulatory obligations and our privacy policy.
VARA
Vara Commercial Insurance · 0333 091 3663
Vara is a trading name of Koral AI Operating Company Limited. Vara is an appointed representative of Innovative Risk Labs Ltd, under Firm Reference Number 1060955. Innovative Risk Labs Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, under FRN 609155. We are registered in England and Wales under Registered Company Number 17256222.