Forced to take mortgage insurance ?!?

louish

I took out my first mortgage in 1998, I took advice from the finincial advisor in the Edward Mellor estate agents.
I remember she told me I 'had' to take out insurance for my mortgage to be completed, If I did not take out the insurance policies she told me too then I could not have the mortgage.:(

I do remember taking out two policies 'income replacement' & 'critical illness' both with County Wide Assured.
I was in a full time job with full sickness pay at the time.

After all the recent publicity about loans and credit cards with missold ppi - I dont know where I stand with this? can I claim? Who would I claim against ?

Thanks for any advice.

dunstonh

I remember she told me I 'had' to take out insurance for my mortgage to be completed, If I did not take out the insurance policies she told me too then I could not have the mortgage.

Three things that could be
1 - deals of that era often required an insurance cross sale. That is allowed.
2 - The estate agent only offered mortgage advice if you bought the insurance products through them. Again that is allowed.
3 - you didnt have to have the insurance and were told porkies but that is difficult to prove and rarely works as a complaint in isolation.

After all the recent publicity about loans and credit cards with missold ppi - I dont know where I stand with this? can I claim? Who would I claim against ?

Critial illness cover is not PHI and is common sense to recommend a single person with a mortgage. Income replacement sounds like PHI rather than PPI and again, common sense to recommend.

There is nothing wrong with having insurance. What you were told to have seems quite sensible and correct. Do you think you have any reason to complain? What evidence do you have to support your complaint?

roonaldo

14 years ago?

they are likely to be out of FOS jurisdiction anyway, so any complaint now is just going to be time barred.

PasturesNew

It sounds to me like a Mortgage Indemnity Guarantee. This is an insurance policy for the benefit of the mortgage company - that you pay - it was usually about 1% of the purchase/mortgage price.

MIGs were required if you were borrowing more than 75-85% of the purchase price.

The way they worked was: You pay for the insurance, mortgage company stick it in their drawer. If you are ever repossessed and are in negative equity, and there is a shortfall, they take the insurance policy out of the drawer and make their claim for the difference. The insurance company can then claim that difference from you up to 12 years in the future.

It was certainly something that was almost impossible to avoid having to pay back in about 1995-2002 or so.