school fee protection insurance

mattie5

a while ago i posted a thread regarding insurance for private school fees, yes i got bit dissed for private school etc etc.

but anyway my son was told to leave 3 weeks into summer term 2008 as we could not find the money to pay for fees, although my partner lost his job he still carried on to find work and pay the mortgage etc. anyway we tried the insurance route which we paid through the school but he could only claim if he signed on and then they would pay out after 90 to 120 days. well we hve struggled on without turning to the state and mortgage got behinid cand other payments began to get behind too.
we were taken to court by the school for the fees in £4000 in January but we put in a claim for the insurance, the school's claim was stayed until our claim was heard. We are still carrying on with this battle over the insurance as it does not seem to be worth the paper its written on because if he signed on who would pay the mortgage ie we would lose out home, so whats the point. this is another con for stand alone insurance.
well what has shocked me and i dont know if im seeing things but a letter with enclosures came from the solicitors by way of evidence nd it turns out that the first invoie when my son joined the school is a fake. it just dont stack up the head office was different then, the board of directors had the headmistresses on it then, and they have forgot the allowance paid by the council he was 4 when he started and you get a small amount back like you would at nursery.
what do i do they have made up a false document is it fraud what can the law do about this. funny thing is the owner not the headmaster of the school is standing as a prospective mp and leader of a local council

g1hsg

Firstly IANAL. Could you provide the Court with a variety of independent written proofs that indicate the document is not genuine ? Do you still have your copy of the first invoice ? The reason I ask this is because I've brought an action in the CC for a Warrant for Possession when a tenant of mine produced as a defence a forged rent receipt. The forgery was quite good but unbeknownst to the forger I had recently changed my reference system. The DJ was persuaded of this by sight of my various other records. Upshot - tenant fled hearing and then my property in short order.

One of the maxims of equity is "he who comes to equity must do so with clean hands" http://law.jrank.org/pages/8487/Maxim--He-who-comes-into-equity-must-come-with-clean-hands.html

Are you proposing to represent yourself ? Judges are always keen to avoid "an imbalance of arms" and will allow you latitude as I have no doubt that the School will be legally represented. I understand that your financial position makes it unlikely thst will be able to afford a solicitor but at this stage it is worth seeking a consultation, many High St sols are happy to give the first hour for free - times are tough for many of them at the moment as well !

dacouch

Did you pay much to the Insurer in premiums as there is a slight possibility you were miss sold it especially if the school have given you any advice on it and they were not properly regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

mattie5

i have not got the original copy of the invoice but i have the next one which and a few others up to 2008. the company changed reg. office address in 2005 2006 and changed the board of directors. and e mail address changed too at that date. but up until then no mention of whats on this invoice. we have already taken legal advice but not on this matter unfortunately. as far as misselling yes we are in touch we hsbc the bank who is selling this insurance to most of the private schools. i wonder what makes this insurance so attractive to the schools we have asked this question to hsbc but they have said a small administrative fee, but they more than likely get a subsidy of some kind somewhere.

mattie5

as to the amount we paid it was roughly around 3,000

dacouch

Did the school give you any advice or put you in contact or recommend the policy? If so they normally have to be regulated by the financial services authority.

The FSA do not take kindly if they are not regulated and have been involved in any way. You can check if the are regulated (There are a few different levels of regulation) here

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/home.do

Let me know if they are not as they or HSBC could be in for a big fine if they are not (Depending on what exactly happened) and you may be able to get your premiums back

mattie5

this is the whole point of the invoice in that they inserted the word optional
as to FSA regs i have been told by the FOS that the school does not have to have it as it is a sort of block policy and they put the names on it. the people who i probably would have to sue are hsbc and i have asked the FOS for the form and it was received today to make my complaint.

as to the school they are trying to cover their backs by stating it was optional and thats why we have the problem with the invoice because they have adjusted it but forgot about the head office etc etc which i mentioned before, but in their terms and conditions it states you have to have it so we are going round in circles. the school want to say that we had the choice we are saying we never. we never signed anything wih hsbc in fact we never knew who the insurance was with until we tried to claim last may.

dacouch

Do you have a copy of the terms and conditions advising you have to take the Insurance as I don't beleive they can insist you take out any insurance? If you do have you advised the Financial Sevices Authority of this?

mattie5

yes i have copies of the terms and conditions and it does state that we have to have this insurance but they do contradict themselves. i dont think i have contacted the FSA, but the FOS stated that they cannot do a claim the school because they are not registered and dont have to be according to the hsbc letter which the solicitors for the school have sent me. i wish MARTIN could take this one up really at the end of the day its a 9 year old boy not cars, washing machines etc but a child and the state system cant cope although hes considered to be at a good school and that took 8 months to get him into it after appeals so he was left at home with me., i did my best but its not like school.
this insurance is widely spread amongst the independent schools and it should be stopped

dacouch

Ring the FSA up as they will be interested in this, they insist that every one who advises or introduces an insurance policy is in someway regulated by them or overseen by a regulated company in certain circumstances to ensure that customers are not miss sold policies. The FSA are very consumer focused and will be very interested in this if rules have been breached

They are incredibly powerful and can levy large fines where people who are regulated or not regulated

Rikki

I know when I paid school fees it was always and option as to whether you took up their insurance or not.
From what I can remember it used to fall short on time scale and restrictions.
Were you advised by the school to take up this insurance or was it read the leaflet and you decide?
How long have you be paying into the policy?

Edit: To add this was only in Prep School it was never offered to me at the senior school.