Endowment Nightmare

yeman

Firstly, thank you for all the replies.
Ok, I'll try to explain.......In 1990 my partner and i were in our early 20s. We heard about a scheme run through the council, named: DIYSO (Do It Yourself Shared Ownership). We proceeded to purchase 50% of a more suitable home having 2 dependants. Went through the mortgage process with the Halifax as only they took on DIYSO.
We were given an Endowment Mortgage for 18,500 and paid deposit of 1,500. The person at the Halifax in a Halifax uniform told us we had to take out life insurance with the mortgage and it had to be with Standard Life as well as MPI in case either came out of work. took months for completion(1991).
In 2000 we had financial problems and had heard of people cashing in life insurance, so made a phone call to SL asking if we could cash ours,no problem, 3 min call and cheque for 2,000 recv,d within 4 days.....no payments missed on rent or mortgage......
Due to mis-leading information regarding the endowment mortgage, we had no idea that the SL insurance was actually a pot for paying back the 18,500, to our understanding the monthly payment to the Halifax was paying a percentage of the interest and a percentage into which the Halifax dealt with on the stock/shares market.
After much reading to understand endowment mortgages, we wrote to the Halifax to explain the situation we were in “they were sorry to hear about our problem but it wasn’t them who sold us the endowment “ .......they said it was a IFA .....yet we had no recollection of any meetings with an IFA.
After many years of writing to every Financial Institute going, being past from here to there we have only in the last few months found that the IFA the Halifax mentioned was in fact a tied agent of the Halifax ....it then comes to light that the tied agent employed an unqualified person , which was the person who sold us the endowment within the Halifax building wearing an Halifax name badge and uniform and younger than ourselves.
So, this is now , the Tied Agent who is supposedly responsible has been retired for a few years and is suffering ill -health therefore we can’t proceed any further ( probably retired comfortably with private health care )
However what I find more fustrating is that I cant help thinking the Halifax are responsible , simply because they had a duty of care to make sure their tied agents explained who they were, and that the right and correct information was being given to their potential customers when selling their products on their behalf.
We have been wanting to purchase the other 50% of the property for years as the rent is extortionate, but how can this be done ,with such a dilemma on the mortgage side.
We are now looking to see whats next, write again to the Halifax with the findings ? or look into court action as enough years have been wasted on this
As well as being mis- sold Prudential Pensions , Mortgage Protection Payment Plan, Bank Charges, Loan PPI, its been a financial nightmare , I bet for most of our generation.....Thank god the banks are now being monitored so the next generation have more of a future and can get on with living their lives.

holly_hobby

This sounds very confusing...

May I just check the salient points so that you receive the correct guidance.

1. You effected a shared ownerhship mortgage with Halifax (whom were the only provider at the time who serviced the scheme you entered into)?

2. You effected an endowment mortgage (interest only), whereby you were sold/purchased a supporting Standard Life endowment (which is a mortgage repayment vehicle, with combined life assurance).

3. In 2000, finding yourself in financial difficulties, you subsequently surrendered your endowment policy, and received a surrender value (SV) of £4,000.

4. You state that " due to mis-leading information regarding the endowment mortgage, we had no idea that the SL insurance was actually a pot for paying back the 18,500, to our understanding the monthly payment to the Halifax was paying a percentage of the interest and a percentage into which the Halifax dealt with on the stock/shares market".

I read from that passage, that you believed the payment to Halifax was in respect of mortgage interest on the £18,500, plus an investment into stocks & shares ?

• What did you believe the investment into stocks & shares was for ?
• What led you to believe that the monthly payment to Halifax combined this element ?
• What did you believe the SL policy was for ?
• Why do you believe the information about the SL policy was mis-leading ? And what information exactly do you consider mis-leading?

5. You state that the adviser for Halifax whom arranged the mortgage and SL endowment, was a tied agent, but you claim that you have since discovered that they were not authorised to sell Financial Products. You also state they were younger than you (you were in your early 20s when you effected the mortgage), but that this adviser has been retired for some time ? (I am confused !!).

Notwithstanding that, where have you sourced your information that the uniformed adviser was not authorised to give FS/Invesment advice ? (Halifax don't employ IFAs and certainly didn't in the early 90s - their adviser are Company Reps only authorised to sell and advise on the tied Cos products). And Halifax are responsbile for the advice given by any employee - so its Halifax whom are responsible for the advisers actions.

6. Ok fastforward to today, you claim you were sold a FS policy(already surrendered 11 years ago), by you claim, an unauthorised Halifax Employee. (which I find doubtful if I must be honest, but lets go with what you say for now).

• What would be the basis of any complaint to Halifax (list as seperate points so we can easily digest them)
• What do you want Halifax to do to resolve your compliant ?
• What would be the basis of any court action you may consider inititating ?

Perhaps if we know those details, we can begin to give you relevant guidance and information.

Holly

Trollfever

And two years ago.....................................

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/24467067#Comment_24467067

holly_hobby

Thanks for that Troll (saved a lot of time)....

I amend my above post re the adviser - as it appears that the individual sought advice from a premisis that also operated a Halifax counter service.

OP - having read the contents of your original post, and the replies you received - why have you re-posted and what do you hope to achieve in doing so ?

Holly

dunstonh

I see this is the third thread now. There is another current active one here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/47170519#Comment_47170519

Can board guides please merge if they spot this.

holly_hobby

Thank you Duns.



I won't post further on this thread, which it appears the OP has opened as they weren't happy with the responses recd to the original 1 and the recent one, which you have been kind enough to advise the OP on.



For the record I wholly agree with your comments Duns. in that the OP appears to be unhappy that having surrendered their endowment 11 yrs ago when they had financial probs (with no one preventing them) - that now facing the reality of having to repay the mge of an impending redemption date, are simply looking for an avenue to somehow solve the issue and to place the onus of their choices & actions very squarely on some else's shoulders. (if only life was that easy !)



Thanks again for the heads up Duns.



Over and out on this one.



Holly x