Endowment Shortfalls

Alison_B

We took out an endowment mortgage 15 years ago of £45,000 along with loads of other people and unfortunately we are now estimated an £18,000 shortfall. I saw an advertisement on the TV yesterday for a company called Claim2Gain and it said to contact them and they would try to get you compensation for the shortfall. Is this worth doing or is there something better we could do?

Luckily, we sold our property 8 years ago and bought a smaller house outright but kept the endowment going as we were going to use the money for our retirement.

Thanks

Alison

Scarlett1

Hiya, I wouldnt employ a company to act on your behalf when you can do it all yourself for free!

Im in the same boat and have used the 'which' website for guidance and Im just getting ready to write my letter of complaint


http://www.which.net/endowmentaction/index.html

dunstonh

read some of the recent threads on the same subject for more reasons to back up what scarlett has said.

Technically, i don't think you have grounds for complaint any more as the endowment is not used for mortgage and hasnt been for 8 years.

Froggitt

I disagree. You have grounds for complaint whether or not its still backing up a mortgage....but only if you were missold, not just because its got a shortfall.

And do it yourself, dont give away 30% of your compo to the ambulance chaser.

shrek101

Its worth chasing up the endowment company that sold you it and complain, ring them first to see if they have to send you any forms.

Its usually slow for an endowment company to follow up though I waited about 9 months or so, but at that time it was busy. I know there was some time limit as to when you could apply so don't leave this hanging around just in case.

Remember the onus is on the endowment company to prove that they didn't miss sell the policy and should have for warned you of any risks.

In my case they didn't warn me so its worth checking up on whether you got a claim you got nowt to loose and everything to gain.

As said I wouldn't pursue this with the sharks of this world they only in it for the money, your money. Good luck

Alison_B

Thanks for the replies. What kind of time limit is there? We will take this up with the Yorkshire Bank but to be perfectly honest, we can't remember the wording they used when we took the mortgage out, so can't be too sure if they covered themselves or not. We were only young at the time and totally inexperenced in these sorts of matters.

Alison

Froggitt

Theres a limit of 3 years from when they first informed you of the shortfall.....must most reputable companies will hear your complaint even if its more than 3 years.

They key question is around your attitude to risk....did they make it clear that it wasnt guaranteed to pay off your mortgage at the end of the term.....other indicators to your attitude to risk are whether at the time you had many stockmarket related investments.....if yes then you are presumed to be open to such risk.