Received the letter back and now completely confused

kimmoss88

We were sold PPI insurance on our mortgage in 2000 which we paid until 2007. I sent a template letter last week to claim it back, and received a reply today.

The letter states that we were not mis-sold the policy, because the insurance was compulsory on that particular scheme (because some sort of discount was given), and there were other schemes available that didn't have compulsory insurance.

They used this point to dismiss the first three of the reasons why I thought we had been mis-sold:

• not told the insurance was optional
• led to believe our application for credit would be rejected if we had not taken the insurance
• policy exclusions were not explained and therefore we were not able to make an informed decision as to whether this insurance was appropriate for us
  

If this is true, then fair enough.

The main point why I thought we had been mis-sold, however, was that "the policy was unsuitable for us as my husband was self-employed when we took out the cover, and we were not made aware of the specific exclusion relating to unemployment cover."

Their reply was: "A recent Financial Ombudsman Ruling found the wording on your policy to be suitable to be self-employed policyholders and therefore request that you advise us why you feel your specific policy excluded you from making a claim"

My husband (a self-employed plumber) broke his hand in the summer of 2006, and was unable to work for a few weeks. We tried to claim on the PPI for our mortgage repayments, and were told that my husband was not eligible to claim as the policy did not cover this.

Were we mis-sold the policy or not? I thought that we were mis-sold because we had no chance of claiming on it. But now the bank has confused me and I'm doubting myself.

Does anybody understand the situation any better than I do? I feel like I'm stuck in a legal/financial maze, and I can't find my way out!

Edit: Oh and we cancelled the insurance in 2007, because somebody in the bank eventually said "Oh no it's not compulsory, you can cancel it if you like".

di3004

Bumping thread up for you, hope someone will be along soon, good luck with this.

kimmoss88

Thanks Di. Does anybody have any ideas?

kimmoss88

Still don't know what to do - any ideas?

magpiecottage

If you attempted to claim in 2006 and it was declined I think the point at which you had grounds to complain arose then.

You would have been permitted to make the complaint up to six years from the date of the original advice (which had already more or less passed) or three years from the date at which it became apparent that you had cause for complaint, if later. As I say, it would have been apparent in 2006 so I think that your opportunity to complain probably expired in 2009 and they can now timebar it.

Sorry.