Vio Home Buyer & Seller Protection Plan

 

Q: What are the benefits of the plan?
A: The plan assists
• buyers
• sellers or a
• buyer and seller,
in protecting their associated costs in the property transaction should it fail subject of course to the normal terms and conditions applying.

Q: Do I need to be regulated to sell this protection plan?
A: No, this protection plan is not an insurance, it is provided through Vio Assistance who’s management have many years’ experience in property and legal service plans.

Q: How many plans are there and what’s the level of protection?
A: There are two plans, the standard plan has benefits up to £2220 and the premier plan £2720. Which includes an allowance for moving expenses reimbursement.

Q: What are the plan costs?
A: The costs are as follows.
• Standard plan £56.50 (Inc VAT) for 120 days protection
• Premier plan £68.50 (Inc VAT for 180 days protection
These are the NET costs charged by VIO to allow you to either build the plan into your services or offer it to your clients as a separate benefit. You may if you wish charge a higher retail cost up to double the NET, but you will need to account for and be responsible for the VAT aspect of that increase.

Q: When does the cover start and what date should be entered as the “Cover Start Date” on the declaration to VIO?
A: The cover starts on the date when the client instructs your company to act on their behalf and you have everything you need including initial transaction fee for searches, in place to start the conveyancing process. The cover only provides protection for costs incurred after the plan came into effect.

Q: How to I report clients taking up the protection?
A: There is a simple weekly declaration submitted to Vio every Monday of clients accepting the plan. Which has a completion guide, declaration report of sales to Vio and a self-billing invoice that this automatically completed as you add client sales which you can retain a copy for your records.

Q: How often do I need to pay the “Agent Self-Billing Invoice”?
A: Your company should pay the self-billing invoice every time you submit a sales declaration to us. We are unable to send out plan certificates until we have received payment for your clients plans. Your sales declaration file name and your payment reference must match so we can reconcile one against the other.

Q: Do the plans provide protection for costs associated with delays in reaching completion?
A: No, the cover provides protection for costs incurred only where a sale fails to complete. Although the client can purchase protection for 120 or 180 days.

Q: When submitting my weekly declaration of sales, what password should I use for the workbook?
A: You should use your account number shown on your certificate

Q: Will this protection plan cover costs in all eventualities?
A: No, for instance, a transaction must have failed for reasons completely previously unknown to the seller selling the property or the buyer purchasing the propert.

Q: Can Vio provide us with any marketing materials?
A: Yes, Vio have a suite of prepared marketing documents which you can use to promote this protection to your clients. On request and at our discretion, branded versions of these documents may be provided to you.

Q: Does my firm need to be involved in any part of the claims process or plan administration?
A: No, Vio manages all plan admin, sending out of schedules, general enquires and claims.

Q: How often should I submit my sales declarations?
A: Depending on your firms’ size, we would expect a weekly file from you. If you require a customer to have cover within a shorter time scale, we can process mid-week files. Once we have received the file and issued the documents, the customers cover will be backdated to the date shown on the declaration to ensure all costs incurred since that date are protected. All Cover start dates should fall within the week preceding the declaration submission.

Q: Does one plan cover a client for both their selling fees and buying fees?
A: Yes, that is correct. If a customer is in the middle of a chain, selling their home to buy another, this protection covers costs incurred for both transactions, subject to the terms and conditions. Any costs which are deemed as “Not Lost” would not be covered.

Q: How quickly are claims made on the protection settled?
A: We will generally need to request various documents from the client in support of the claim. Once we are in receipt of all document’s claims are generally resolved within 1 week. Payments in settlement of claims are currently made twice monthly, so a maximum of 14 days after the resolution of the claim.

Q: Do Vio provide any other products that may be of benefit to our clients.
A: We have a suit of products we will be launching shortly for the new homeowner/buyer such as central heating servicing, Home Emergency Insurance and fund transfer fraud insurance.

Q: What do I do if I have any questions regarding the sales process, protection coverage or partnership with VIO?
A: You can email our enquires line [email protected] and we shall endeavour to answer any query you may have. In an emergency you can also contact our offices at 0330 311 9550.