Insurance surreptitiously added to mortgage account

Akazare

My elderly father seems to have been the victim of slightly sharp practice in that for many years he had his property insurance through the former Building Society where he had his mortgage (paid off many years ago).

About two years ago the insurance renewal premiums quoted shot up so he cancelled his direct debits to Entity A and took out an insurance policy with Entity B. Now two years down the line he has discovered that Entity A has not cancelled the policy as he thought they would automatically do when he stopped paying (by direct debit) but instead they simply added it to his old mortgage account + interest of course resulting in a balance of £750, which even now they do not seem to be too bothered about actually collecting.

He admits that he should have looked more closely at the previous year's statement but I can't help feeling this is rather sharp practice. He certainly did not realise that he was accruing these debts and thus effectively double insured with two different companies. He is in fact prepared to pay the debt but I feel that this situation is not right.

Opinions anyone?

dacouch

Write them a letter explaining the situation and ask for a refund. They may refund the premiums although they are likely to ask you for a copy of the new insurers schedule. They will then refund 50% of their premiums for the period of double insurance. You would then need to send the new insurer a copy of the old Insurer and they would refund 50% of their premiums as well

McKneff

How could the insurance people possibly know that he wanted the policy cancelled. It wouldnt be the banks job to tell him.

It was his responsibility to cancel the insurance before, or at the same time as cancelling the direct debit.

He admits that he should have looked more closely at the previous year's statement

No ones fault but his I'm afraid.

Hope he gets it refunded.

Akazare

Thanks for the replies. As I am not entirely sure of the sequence of events and what documents actually changed hands it is difficult for me to form a solid opinion either way and my father is having difficulty remembering. I do wonder if the bank had any written agreement to charge the mortgage account in this way, when he had been previously paying for his insurance by a totally different method and when the mortgage had long since been paid off (apart from a balance of £1 left on the account)

Also , whilst I could perhaps understand this situation continuing for one year I am surprised that they have not pursued the "debt" in year 2. Would they just have let this accumulate, continually adding interest ?

If I do work for someone I make sure that they know they are racking up charges. Whilst I agree that he is to some degree to blame I feel that the bank do also bear some responsibility here - what proportion is debateable.