Advise needed - who is responsible?

Poppy_Ploppy

I was sold a Halifax mortgage by a self employed salesman working on behalf of Royal Life (now Phoenix insurance). I was told it was a condition of the morgage that I had to take out a contents insurance policy to qualify for the discounted mortgage rate. The policy was arranged by Halifax but underwritten by General Accident and the premiums I paid were made to General Accident. Three months ago I made an official complaint to Halifax and they have just replied saying that they are not responsible and to contact Royal life. Anyone know who is responsible, can anyone advise me on this please?
Many thanks

di3004

Hi and welcome

I understand its whoever set up and sold you the policy, so in your case the broker, unless someone else can clarify otherwise.;)

dunstonh

I was told it was a condition of the morgage that I had to take out a contents insurance policy to qualify for the discounted mortgage rate.

Not uncommon and that is allowed.

Anyone know who is responsible, can anyone advise me on this please?

Depends on what your complaint is about. Halifax are responsible for the terms of the deals they offer. However, the agent is responsible for the advice they give.

You havent said what your complaint is. So, its difficult for us to say who is responsible. Let us know and we will tell you. Also, let us know the date you did this. It will be important.

Poppy_Ploppy

Thank you di3004 and dunstonh for your replies.

My complaint is that this was miss sold to me as I only wanted the mortgage. The Royal Life sales guy put pressure on me to buy an endowerment mortgage and when I insisted that I would only go for a repayment I was told I would only qualify if I took out a home contents insurance policy along with life assurance (the life assurance of 3.5k was sucessfully refunded to me last year, this was a royal life policy sold by a royal life rep, more straight forward). As I was on a low salary at the time I didnt have a choice of mortgage products and only just qualified for this morgage and as I was broke at the time I would not have taken out this policy. I was covered up to 6.5k but did not have contents worth a quarter of that amount when I first moved into the flat. So not suitable for my needs. This was back in 1993.
Think I will write to Royal Life (the broker) but will probably go round in circles and blame Halifax or General Accident.

Quote:
I was told it was a condition of the morgage that I had to take out a contents insurance policy to qualify for the discounted mortgage rate.
Not uncommon and that is allowed.

If this is allowed why did Royal life refund my Life policy premiums, I thought this was considered to be miss selling as I did not want the products?

Many thanks

dunstonh

This was back in 1993.

General insruance regulation didn't start until 2005.

Think I will write to Royal Life (the broker) but will probably go round in circles and blame Halifax or General Accident.

I very much doubt Royal Life would cover Halifax home insurance products.

If this is allowed why did Royal life refund my Life policy premiums, I thought this was considered to be miss selling as I did not want the products?

I dont know why they refunded it. It wont be because you didnt want it. you said yes to taking it out and then saying you didnt want it wouldnt get you a refund. It would need a failing of some sort. For life assurance, that is typically if you have no spouse/partner/children as then you would have no financial need. Sometimes life companies just refund on small cases as it costs more to fight their corner. Or maybe the whole file was missing (more common than you think with tied salesforces from that era).