Mortgage did not pay on insurance - please help

Ambertron

Me and my partner had a joint mortgage with Abbey about 4 years ago then i unfortunately got ill and was off work for around 10 months and then returned to work.

When I was ill we tried to claim on the insurance we'd payed into Abbey, and we were told that only my partner was covered for illness as we had not both signed the relevant papers. We are 100% positive that both of us signed all relevant papers, and after all the monthly payment was still taken from our account. It does seem rather bizzare as it was a 'joint' mortgage. We feel conned.

We would have tried to sort this out earlier but life has trown us a few challenges in the past few years. This has driven us into a pile of debt and things have been hard. We are now starting to look at this in th hope something can be done.

Can we do anything about this? If so what would we be due? How could we look into this more? Could the Ombdsman help?

MarkyMarkD

It is very common indeed for people to choose to insure only one earner - normally the main earner, but could be the other one if (for example) the main earner is self-employed and hence more difficult to insure.

The presumption that because it's a joint mortgage, it will have joint payment protection insurance is simply not true.

The original quotation for the payment protection will say who was to be covered and at what cost. You should also have had some confirmation of the cover after the cover started.

If any of this documentation states that you are both covered, then you have a case, but simply misunderstanding the extent of your cover would not be a reason.

If you did not sign the proposal form, it cannot have been to cover both incomes. It's not hard for Abbey to prove what they are saying, so ask them to send you a copy of the proposal form.

jill2002

Which insurance are you talking about? - is it the accident and sickness insurance? or is it the Waiver of Premium Benefit on a Life plan?

You don't say whether you took the mortgage and related insurance through a broker or direct from Abbey. If it was directly through Abbey, the Paymentcare insurance would have an option of a choice of percentage covered for each party. If it was a life plan through Abbey - The Waiver of Premium benefit only covers the first named on the life plan - and would only cover the amount of the policy premium.

If it was taken through a broker, then you need to check your original paperwork.

Hope this helps.

Ambertron

If I remember correctly we had to take out two different insurances:
One was the life insurance
the other was mortgage paymentcare?

I would need to check up on that

Both with Abbey

I really need to dig out all paperwork with this issue but it's knowing where to start that is the problem with an issues such as this.

Thank you

Ambertron

Does anyone else have any other info on this, or advice.

Thank you

dunstonh

Its all been said already. You have a problem here that doesnt look good for being resolved in your favour.

MPPI is nearly always on a single person. There are a few joint plans but where they exist it means reducing the primary earners protection. Not all providers issue joint plans.

You would expect that all the documentation issued shows single cover and not joint. So, you are going to have nothing to back up your opinion that it was joint. It doesnt matter that its a joint mortgage or a joint bank account. That doesnt prove anything. Most people insure the main earner and most people will have direct debits or payments on their joint account that only relate to one account holder. So, they wont help your argument.

You need to ask for a copy of the proposal form and hope that Abbey made a mistake.