Guardian in touch again re;misselling

tanith

3yrs ago my complaint for Endowment misselling was turned down and to be honest I was so fed up with It I just shoved it all in a box and forgot about it.. today I got a letter from Guardian telling me that as part of their ongoing commitment to fair and affective complaints procedure they are reviewing the original decision.
Now is this just a 'being seen to be fair thing' or is there a genuine possibility that I may now have my complaint upheld? I don't want to get my hopes up if this is just a PR excercise............

They want full details of my mortgage (not sure I even have it any longer) or they will calculate the compensation on assumptions... the calculations being done in standard industry practice at Halifax B/S rates, where the lender is not known....

Thanks

dunstonh

Now is this just a 'being seen to be fair thing' or is there a genuine possibility that I may now have my complaint upheld? I don't want to get my hopes up if this is just a PR excercise............

It means that the company or the individual that checked your case has been found not doing their reviews correctly and a recheck has been required. It could still result in the complaint being declined but you never know.

They want full details of my mortgage (not sure I even have it any longer) or they will calculate the compensation on assumptions... the calculations being done in standard industry practice at Halifax B/S where the lender is not known....

If you dont have the details, then you cannot supply them and they will have to use the Halifax SVR. The fact they are asking for mortgage details at this stage should raise hopes a little for you.

tanith

I have just read more thoroughly and they are also sent a retirement questionnaire. Including questions about salaries and outgoings at the time . The reason for the misselling complaint was that our Mortgage was going to continue for 7yrs after my retirement age (stoopid mistake on our part of course) . But no advice was given at the time.. and now at 58 I am having to take an ill health retirement anyway.

Now a lot of the info they want I would have to guess at as I do not have any paperwork relating to salary at the time or monthly outgoings savings etc... they want a recent pension statement (would this be state pension or Occupational , or both) ?

As so much of this would be guesswork would it be better if I just signed the form also enclosed authorising them to calculate any compensation based on information they already hold?

thanks

bethyblue612

Hi Tanith

I had mine turned down about 3 years ago too, then a couple of months ago, I read in the paper that they had been specifically slated by the Ombudsman for being too harsh in their decisions. I considered pursuing my claim again, but TBH, forgot about it!
About 3 weeks ago, like you, I had a letter from them saying they would review my case, so I phoned them up and said that i wanted to claim, but didn't have all my mortgage information.
They told me they could calculate it using the Halifax SVR as the interest rate, so I said to go ahead.
Yesterday, i had a letter offering me £4k compensation! And the endowment was only for £39k !!

Give them a call - you can't lose anything by trying.

tanith

Thanks for that , mine was similar size.. so thats good news.. I will wait till OH has at least read the letter tonight before I decide anything...
That would be a wonderful bonus......

bethyblue612

Obviously no guarantee that your claim will be successful, but as you are due to retire before the mortage ends, I would guess that you probably have a stronger case for compensation than I did.

The annoying thing being that it's not a bonus (even though it certainly feels like it!), they are effectively just paying me back my own money that I have been overpaying for the last fifteen years.

It was much more than I'd expected, I would have been happy with £1,500!!

Let us know how you get on.

EdInvestor

tanith wrote:

.. would it be better if I just signed the form also enclosed authorising them to calculate any compensation based on information they already hold?

thanks

Yes.There is no need to give them any new information.

dwsjarcmcd

Mortgages into retirement is exactly the area where the Ombudsman has changed opinion. Again without getting your hopes up, you can be cautiously optimistic

vinno65

Hi All,
The reason Guardian are reviewing complaints is that they have been fined by the FSA for originally miss-handling complaints, not only that they were apparently aware that things were wrong but continued blindly on until the FSA stepped in. They probably hoped that no-one would notice and they could get away with screwing the consumer twice, firstly by miss-selling and secondly by then telling them to !!!!!! when they complained! You couldn't make it up!

regrads Vinno

vinno65

tanith wrote:

I have just read more thoroughly and they are also sent a retirement questionnaire. Including questions about salaries and outgoings at the time . The reason for the misselling complaint was that our Mortgage was going to continue for 7yrs after my retirement age (stoopid mistake on our part of course) . But no advice was given at the time.. and now at 58 I am having to take an ill health retirement anyway.thanks

Hi Tanith, don't beat yourself up over this. Did the SALESMAN point out that the mortgage continued after you retired, and did he find out whether you could afford to keep paying into retirement? After all its not just the premiums but your mortgage interest aswell. Or were you told that the endowment would reach it's target by the time you retired? or not to worry as by the time you reached retirement inflation etc. would make the payments affordable?

Remember when you complain its up to them to prove the sale was compliant and suitable for your circumstances not foryou to prove it wasn't.

regards Vinno

tanith

Hi Vinno, we did realise that the mortgage went into my retirement but the salesman said that this length of mortgage would get the monthly payments down quite a bit and that we should reach our target by my retirement age.
I just believed her... so I am keeping my fingers crossed...

Do you know where I could read up about the FSA fining Guardian I would be interested in reading any articles


Thanks