Taking a claim for mis-selling through Court

EdInvestor

MortgageMamma wrote: »

So Ed, do you or do you not condone lying as a form of obtaining compensation not rightly due?

No.

Could you explain your point about the structure of the industry at present making it difficult for practitioners to operate properly?

To put it simply, the practice of "commission bias", where advisors are incentivised to earn more money by selling products which pay higher commissions, injects a major conflict of interest between the advisor's duty to do the best thing for the customer and his natural desire to make more money.

EdInvestor

dunstonh wrote: »

Its not just £120 though. If you lose, you will have to pay their costs as well.

Not so according to the CAB if the amount is under 5k.

If you are the claimant and you win your case, you will get the court fees back as well as the claim, and you can ask for certain expenses also. If you lose, you will not get the court fees back. But it is unlikely that you will have to pay any other costs.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_rights/legal_system/small_claims.htm

dunstonh

Hmm, you dont pay costs, I didnt know that. Thank you.

However, it does appear that the court used for the hearing is the one closest to the defendent. In this case, one assumes that it is the one closest to the head office of the building society. Hopefully not a Scottish office if you live in Southampton Although you can choose not to attend if you wish. However, that could leave you open to not being able to answer questions that counter evidence has raised.

MortgageMamma

EdInvestor wrote: »

No.



To put it simply, the practice of "commission bias", where advisors are incentivised to earn more money by selling products which pay higher commissions, injects a major conflict of interest between the advisor's duty to do the best thing for the customer and his natural desire to make more money.

Yes Ed but you seem to think every adviser will make a recommendation based on commission, and its absolute rubbish we just cannot do it, we are so heavily regulated and scrutinised by our compliance departments that it would be spotted immediately if we were commission biased.

I had an MSE'r approach me this morning to sort out a complicated mortgage. He thought he would have to go self cert, and at first glance so did I. I went off and found him a 95% self cert, and the commissoin was £2750. I then went away and thought some more - and had a look on full status just on the off chance a lender could do it, the chances were slim but I think I have found a high street lender who may do it, the deal is 0.20 less and offers incentives, and the commission was only about £995. Which one do you think I recommended?

Yes, correct, the high street full status with £995 commission, even though he'd already come back and said he was happy to proceed on the self cert deal.

I know lots of advisers, perhaps 40-50, all working in different capacities all around the UK. I don't know a single one of them that would have pushed the self cert.

Unless you can actually prove that the entire industry is commission biased I would think the best in people before you make assumptions. Most brokers offer the client the option to pay a fee and have the commission refunded in their IDD's, me included. People dont want to pay upfront for our services, as it would prevent them shopping around. In an ideal world we would all be fee based as it would mean us brokers get paid for EVERYTHING that we do and a lot faster to boot. But thats not going to happen - if it did all it would do is push consumers back into the hands of a direct sales force and then they start making mistakes as they have to do the comparisons themselves. Then who gets sued? the banks and building societies?

Mr_helpful

EdInvestor wrote: »

What makes you think the provider will still have the files?Mostly they have destroyed them and will have no evidence to show.

That's why so many complaints are won by default.

Winning a claim by default hardly proves miss selling does it? And stating they will have no evidence to show rather shows you are prepared to use this to make a bogus claim as the seller cant defend himself.

EdInvestor

MM

I refer to the investment life and pensions side, rather than to the mortgage business.The regulator himself - and the insurance providers - have publicly stated many times that the problem is ruining the industry.

troutangler

Lifestore wrote: »

I wrote to the Nationwide complaining about my Standard Life endowment policy back in 2003. They rejected my claim and I did not appeal to the ombudsman within 6 months. My plan has just matured with a £4900 shortfall, so I have decided to take out a claim through the small claims court. Has anyone any assistance or experience with the proceedure as I am sure they will try to defend the claim.

Thanks:A

Hi Lifestore

The exact same circumstances apply to me. I complained and Century Life rejected my complaint on the basis that the agent denied he mis-sold the policy. My mother-in-law was terminally ill at the time and I also missed the deadline to go to the ombudsman.

I am going to court firstly because the agent lied when the complaint was getting investigated and secondly because the agent is my brother.

My tactic is to file a Summary Cause action against the agent for the commission he fraudently received when he sold the policy.

When I win that action I will file a County Court action against Century Life because their agent mis-sold the endowment.

Fight for what you believe in regardless of what other people think.

I will be raising my action very soon in the Sheriff Court in Scotland and I wish you all the very best when you file your case.

Good Luck

Tony

dunstonh

troutangler wrote: »

Hi Lifestore

The exact same circumstances apply to me. I complained and Century Life rejected my complaint on the basis that the agent denied he mis-sold the policy. My mother-in-law was terminally ill at the time and I also missed the deadline to go to the ombudsman.

I am going to court firstly because the agent lied when the complaint was getting investigated and secondly because the agent is my brother.

My tactic is to file a Summary Cause action against the agent for the commission he fraudently received when he sold the policy.

When I win that action I will file a County Court action against Century Life because their agent mis-sold the endowment.

Fight for what you believe in regardless of what other people think.

I will be raising my action very soon in the Sheriff Court in Scotland and I wish you all the very best when you file your case.

Good Luck

Tony

As I responded with your duplicate post, you havent got a hope in hell with the way you are doing it. The court will throw it out before it gets there. You would be treated as a vexatious client.

troutangler

dunstonh wrote: »

As I responded with your duplicate post, you havent got a hope in hell with the way you are doing it. The court will throw it out before it gets there. You would be treated as a vexatious client.

Hi Dunstonh

What should I do if different if you were in my curcumstance?

What options are open to me other than the one I choose to go down?

If you could provide me with an alternative I would certainly like to hear it.

When my mortgage is due to be repaid in Oct next year I will not be able to repay the shortfall and I could lose lose my house.

On the other hand my brother is an Independent Financial Adviser at present and owns a property company with a portfolio of in excess of 70 houses.

Cheers

Tony

dunstonh

Your problem is that you are targetting the individual. Yet he has no liability. He was effectively the employee of the retailer. If you dont like what an employee has done you complain to the retailer. You cant take action against the employee personally. So, your action should be against the insurance company he worked for.

You do need to be aware that complaints that sound vindictive are more likely to be rejected.

Also, court action is statistically likely to fail and you would incur costs. There is a greater onus on you to prove mis-sale and that is harder in the courts than it is using the internal complaints process. This is a decision you need to make almost with the expectation that you will fail and face costs. You may get lucky but you need to be prepared in case you dont.