Mis-sold Life Insurance Help

transformer34

Hi guys, new to the forum, sorry if I've posted this in the wrong place. Really need some advice.

Long story short, I've recently discovered I've been missold a life insurance policy for £150,000, to which I've been making monthly £30 payments for the last 3 1/2 years.

When I took out my mortgage at that time, the broker insisted I needed it as a condition of my mortgage. I've checked through all the paperwork and this is incorrect.Nowhere does it stipulate that I need life insurance cover. The broker was a friend of a friend. Naively I took him at his word, but he must've seen me coming. I would like to claim these premiums back but have been given conflicting advice on how to do this. Please can someone advise how I do it and what is the likelihood of success.

Thanks ever so much.

di3004

transformer34 wrote: »

Hi guys, new to the forum, sorry if I've posted this in the wrong place. Really need some advice.

Long story short, I've recently discovered I've been missold a life insurance policy for £150,000, to which I've been making monthly £30 payments for the last 3 1/2 years.

When I took out my mortgage at that time, the broker insisted I needed it as a condition of my mortgage. I've checked through all the paperwork and this is incorrect.Nowhere does it stipulate that I need life insurance cover. The broker was a friend of a friend. Naively I took him at his word, but he must've seen me coming. I would like to claim these premiums back but have been given conflicting advice on how to do this. Please can someone advise how I do it and what is the likelihood of success.

Thanks ever so much.

Hi and welcome

Will leave this one for Dunstonh to help.

Who should be along soon, good luck.;)

transformer34

Thanks, I look forward to their reply. I've since found out my broker is a bit dodgy and he wasn't entirely honest with me when I took out my existing mortgage - Northern Rock's Together - so now I'm stick with them or risk a 15% charge on the unsecured part. What a week trying to sort all this stuff out.

Rainbow_Liberty

Sorry to read you've been duped, hope you manage to sort it out without too many headaches.

Annisele

When the policy was sold to you, were you single with no dependants?

Did the policy match the amount and term of your mortgage?

If you were married/taking out a joint mortgage/had children, it will be very hard for you to show that you didn't need life cover.

Did the broker put in writing that he'd recommended the life cover because it was a condition of the mortgage?

transformer34

Annisele wrote: »

When the policy was sold to you, were you single with no dependants?

Did the policy match the amount and term of your mortgage?

If you were married/taking out a joint mortgage/had children, it will be very hard for you to show that you didn't need life cover.

Did the broker put in writing that he'd recommended the life cover because it was a condition of the mortgage?

Hi Annisele,

Yes I was single, had no dependants and it matched the amount and term of the mortgage. He put nothing in writing. It definitely wasn't a condition of the mortgage, and I have that in writing too from Northern Rock contained within the offer of loan and loan illustration. Indeed, in the statements I receive from NR the only insurance they've ever recommended to me is buildings insurance - which I have.

I pay into an occupational pension that covers me in the event of death. The broker knew all this but still insisted that I would be unable to obtain a mortgage without taking the additional life cover from Zurich and said it was standard practice these days (this was back in 2007).

dunstonh

Normally proving mis-sale on life assurance is very hard. Mainly as you will have no proof to support your claims that it was mis-sold.

However, in this case, as you were single with no financial dependants then you have no financial need for a life assurance policy. So, on that reason alone it shouldnt have been sold to you.

I pay into an occupational pension that covers me in the event of death. The broker knew all this but still insisted that I would be unable to obtain a mortgage without taking the additional life cover from Zurich and said it was standard practice these days (this was back in 2007).

Sounds like it was a tied agent of Zurich (previously known as allied dunbar, on in the trade as allied crowbar). You should put a complaint in. You can mention that you were told you had to have it, although its unlikely it will be upheld on that basis but make sure you state you were single with no financial dependants and had no financial need for the policy. Thats the winning point for you.

transformer34

dunstonh wrote: »

Normally proving mis-sale on life assurance is very hard. Mainly as you will have no proof to support your claims that it was mis-sold.

However, in this case, as you were single with no financial dependants then you have no financial need for a life assurance policy. So, on that reason alone it shouldnt have been sold to you.



Sounds like it was a tied agent of Zurich (previously known as allied dunbar, on in the trade as allied crowbar). You should put a complaint in. You can mention that you were told you had to have it, although its unlikely it will be upheld on that basis but make sure you state you were single with no financial dependants and had no financial need for the policy. Thats the winning point for you.

Thanks so much for the advice. Zurich said that they will deal with this for me and contact the broker. Would you recommend that I do this or should I pursue it myself? Also, what's the likelihood I'll get all my premiums back?

Annisele

If the broker was a tied agent of Zurich, then Zurich is responsible for the advice, not the broker. If Zurich is offering to deal with it, then the broker was almost certainly a tied agent - Zurich isn't that kind!

Whether or not Zurich will pay up does depend in part on the paperwork - sometimes advisers try to cover themselves with some sort of 'Mr X is single with no dependants, but wants live cover anyway because he wants to leave his property debt-free to his parents/siblings/local cats home'.

On the face of it you have a strong case, but if there's something in the paperwork that suggests that the broker told you that you didn't need life assurance but you insisted you wanted it anyway you may struggle (especially if you've signed that something).

For now, you might want to wait to see what Zurich says. You can then thing about whether its response sounds reasonable - post here if you want some more opinions - and then refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you think Zurich is wrong.

transformer34

Annisele wrote: »

If the broker was a tied agent of Zurich, then Zurich is responsible for the advice, not the broker. If Zurich is offering to deal with it, then the broker was almost certainly a tied agent - Zurich isn't that kind!

Whether or not Zurich will pay up does depend in part on the paperwork - sometimes advisers try to cover themselves with some sort of 'Mr X is single with no dependants, but wants live cover anyway because he wants to leave his property debt-free to his parents/siblings/local cats home'.

On the face of it you have a strong case, but if there's something in the paperwork that suggests that the broker told you that you didn't need life assurance but you insisted you wanted it anyway you may struggle (especially if you've signed that something).

For now, you might want to wait to see what Zurich says. You can then thing about whether its response sounds reasonable - post here if you want some more opinions - and then refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you think Zurich is wrong.

Hi Annisele, there's definitely nothing in the paperwork to show that I wanted to take out life assurance. I've pored over everything I have and can't see anything. I'm going to write to Zurich tomorrow and then wait and see what happens. I think they said that the broker has about 6 weeks to respond.

I don't want to accept any other outcome than getting my money back. With interest, this will come to around £1300, and I could really do with it right now. Thanks for your reply and I'll keep everyone posted on progress in case others are in the same boat.

Cheers and thanks again.

transformer34

Sorry, one more thing. Does anyone have a tempplate of a letter for this kind of claim or give me some advice as to the content?