Zurich Life Assuarance Policy Cancelled. Stuck with HUGE bill.

kingstreet

magpiecottage wrote: »

Good letter kingstreet but for now I would not admit to ANY liability.

The reason is that although clawback clauses are lawful (I draft them for firms) they have to be very carefully done. If this has not been then they may not be entitled to even two months' worth.

If the OP can force Openwork to FOS then I would not fancy Openwork's chances. In theory at least, the OP could find himself forced to pay two months' worth to the AR then Openwork forced to reimburse the lot - which its contract with the AR may mean the AR had to reimburse Openwork for that and the FOS fee.

Your knowledge in dealing with these issues is greater than mine, so feel free to knock the draft around and re-post an improved version for the OP to submit. I did put it together at half seven this morning!

magpiecottage

OP has sent me a copy of the agreement.

I have passed it on to the FSA as I believe it is unfair and there are other aspects which I do not believe are compliant.

However, that is something for the FSA to take up with Openwork if it sees fit. The OP must pursue his own complaint with Openwork and, if necessary, FOS.

However, that should be fairly straightforward unless the appointed rep starts litigation. Even then, it should be possible to fight.

electribem

On the advice of magpiecottage and some of the other posters to this thread, I have sent a letter of complaint to Openwork. As yet I have heard nothing back from them, but I am hopeful a positive solution will be found shortly.

I will post back here as soon as I get any word.

electribem

I got a call from a nice lady at Openwork this morning. She confirmed that they had received my complaint and that they had investigated it. Apparently the letter from the kings group was sent to me in 'error' and that they had contacted the the kings group and their representative with the outcome that no further action will be taken by them. She told me that a letter of review was meant to be sent instead as the life assurance policy was cancelled and I was obviously left without one. She told me that I should be getting a letter shortly explaining this. So I finally confirmed with her that I do not need to pay that huge inordinate sum of money they were asking for, and she replied with a 'no'. Result.

So many thanks to the previous posters on this thread and in particular magpiecottage for his expert knowledge on the matter. Eternally grateful.

dunstonh

Its a good result for you but the response you got from Openwork is probably not really the truth. Zurich reps have been doing this for years. it was unlikely an error. They just backed down when someone complained.

magpiecottage

What should happen now is you will get a letter from them telling you the outcome of your complaint and that you can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you wish.

Unless that letter is something completely different, it is probably not worth it.

I cannot say whether or not there really was an error - but I would not expect one of my clients to produce an agreement like the one I saw and I would vehemently object to it if they tried.

kingstreet

Good result.

grogdog

i would still go to the ombudsman if i could, reason being the firm will be charged a £500 fee by them for having to investigate.

magpiecottage

grogdog wrote: »

i would still go to the ombudsman if i could, reason being the firm will be charged a £500 fee by them for having to investigate.

On what grounds? - going to FOS purely out of spite to incur the fee will probably result in the case being thrown out as vexatious. The fee will not be charged but there are circumstances in which a firm is permitted by the FSA to charge for vexatious complaints.

vikingaero

magpiecottage wrote: »

On what grounds? - going to FOS purely out of spite to incur the fee will probably result in the case being thrown out as vexatious. The fee will not be charged but there are circumstances in which a firm is permitted by the FSA to charge for vexatious complaints.

So Kings can issue a vexatious claim against the OP, back down and think everything is OK? Let me rob you of £100, you call the Police and I give you your £100 back. Then I say to the copper: "I've given his money back, let's pretend it never happened!"