DRAFT – for review by The Buyback Service Limited before publication.
These terms set out how brokers may use the Little Business Loans broker portal at littlebusinessloans.co.uk (the “Portal”). By registering for or using the Portal you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Portal.
1. Who we are
The Portal is operated by The Buyback Service Limited, trading as Little Business Loans (“LBL”, “we”, “us”). We are a company registered in England and Wales under company number 08457011, with our registered office at 152 Halesowen Road, Cradley Heath, B64 5LP.
You can contact us at [email address] or on [phone number].
2. Who can use the Portal
- The Portal is for business introducers and brokers (“you”) acting in the course of their business. It is not for consumers or for businesses applying on their own behalf.
- You must hold any authorisations, permissions or registrations needed for the services you provide to your clients, including FCA authorisation where it is required.
- We only lend to private limited companies registered in England, Scotland or Wales. Applications for sole traders, partnerships or companies registered elsewhere will be declined.
- We may refuse, suspend or close any Portal account at our discretion, including where we have concerns about the quality, accuracy or legitimacy of applications.
3. Your account
- Your account is personal to you. Do not share your login details or let anyone else use your account.
- Each time you log in we send a one-time code to your registered email address. You must keep that email account secure.
- Tell us straight away at [email address] if you think someone else has accessed your account.
- You are responsible for everything submitted through your account.
- Keep your contact details up to date in “My account”.
4. Submitting applications
When you submit an application, or any further documents, you confirm that:
- you are acting on the instructions of the applicant company and have its authority to share the application and documents with us;
- to the best of your knowledge, all information and documents are complete, accurate, genuine and have not been altered in any way;
- each director named in the application has agreed to us carrying out credit and identity searches on them personally, and has been told how we will use their information (see our Privacy Notice);
- the applicant has agreed that we may contact it directly about the application, including the security call described below; and
- you have provided the applicant and its directors with any information you are legally required to give them, including a link to our Privacy Notice.
Submitting false, misleading or altered information or documents may be a criminal offence. We may report suspected fraud to fraud prevention agencies, credit reference agencies and law enforcement, and we will close the account concerned.
5. Decisions
- The Portal may give an automated decision on an application. Decisions are based on the information and documents provided, checks with Companies House, credit reference agencies and other sources, and our lending criteria at the time.
- An “Approved in principle” decision is not an offer of finance. It means an LBL underwriter will contact your client to discuss the business assets that will secure the loan. The final loan amount, term and repayment terms are confirmed only after that call, if approved.
- No rates, repayments or loan terms should be quoted to your client until we have confirmed them in writing.
- We may refer, decline or withdraw any decision at any time before a loan agreement is signed, including if new information comes to light. We do not have to give reasons beyond those shown in the Portal.
- All lending is at our sole discretion. Our current maximum loan is £30,000 over a term of up to 12 months, with daily, weekly or monthly repayments.
6. Commission
Any commission or fee payable to you is governed by your separate broker or introducer agreement with us, not by these terms. Where no such agreement exists, no commission is payable. You must disclose to your client any commission or fee you receive where the law or your regulator requires it.
7. Using the Portal
You must not:
- use the Portal for any unlawful, fraudulent or misleading purpose;
- upload anything containing viruses or harmful code, or anything other than the documents requested;
- try to access any part of the Portal, or any information, that is not yours, or try to get around its security;
- copy, scrape or extract data from the Portal by automated means; or
- pass yourself off as LBL or suggest you are our agent. You act for your client, not for us.
8. Information and confidentiality
- Information in the Portal about our decisions, criteria and processes is confidential. You may share a decision and its reason with the applicant concerned, but not otherwise.
- For the personal data in each application, you and we each act as separate data controllers. Each of us is responsible for complying with UK data protection law. Our Privacy Notice explains how we use personal data.
- We keep application records and documents for as long as we need them for lending, legal and regulatory purposes, as set out in our Privacy Notice.
9. Availability of the Portal
We aim to keep the Portal available, but we do not guarantee that it will always be available, uninterrupted or error-free. We may change, suspend or withdraw the Portal or any feature at any time. If the Portal is unavailable you may still send applications to us by email.
10. Our liability
- Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything that cannot be limited by law.
- We are not liable for any loss of business, profit, commission or opportunity arising from your use of the Portal, any delay, or any decision on an application.
- Subject to the above, our total liability to you in connection with the Portal is limited to £100.
- You will compensate us for any loss we suffer because you have broken these terms, including by submitting information or documents you knew or should have known were inaccurate or not genuine.
11. Ending your use of the Portal
You can stop using the Portal at any time and ask us to close your account. We may suspend or close your account at any time, with or without notice, including if we believe you have broken these terms. Sections 4, 6, 8 and 10 continue to apply after your account is closed. Applications already submitted will continue to be handled under these terms.
12. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms from time to time. The date at the top shows when they were last changed. If you keep using the Portal after a change, you accept the updated terms. For significant changes we will try to let you know by email or in the Portal.
13. General
- These terms, together with any broker or introducer agreement between us, are the whole agreement between you and us about the Portal. If they conflict, the broker or introducer agreement takes priority.
- If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest remains in force.
- If we do not enforce a right straight away, we can still enforce it later.
- No one other than you and us has any right to enforce these terms.
- These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.