Halifax Building insurance-CON???

S_Asare

We have had our mortgage with Halifax for the last 19yrs. We have always understood our building insurance to have been included in the monthly payment. We have claimed on it a few times. However last month we booked a meeting to find out why our mortgage payments are so high (considering it is in its latter stage). We were told the mortage had gone up by £12,000 because we have never paid insurance so they have been adding the insurance monthly payment to the morgage.

This, they say is called a B loan. Is this lawfull?? In all of 20yrs they never even wrote a letter to ask about the "so called" missing payments.

airforce_beret

I have been with Halifax for the last 2 years and Im quite sure my insurance was just included in my mortgage payments but I never saw any statements for it. I have now changed to M&S buildings and contents. I rang Halifax to cancel there policy and they just said it would be taken off the total amount for my mortgage, my monthly payments did not change

Noz

Surely on your mortgage statements, you would see where the insurance has been added to the mortgage?

S_Asare

I think they are misleading customers. Some people think the monthly mortgage payment includes the monthly building insurance payment. But it dosen't. Halifax have added it to the original mortgage amount you borrowed.

S_Asare

Noz wrote: »

Surely on your mortgage statements, you would see where the insurance has been added to the mortgage?

The statments come yearly and more to the point we have always known the payment to be included as part of the monthly payment so it never really occured to us to look at the stament in great detail. I don't know why they didn't write to us to tell us. During the meeting they told us many customers are also unaware.

In speaking to nation wide they had no idea abou this practice. They told us there policy is to write to customers to inform them.

Noz

Just rereading the OP, I don't think the Halifax would have contacted you about missing payments as far as their concerned, the premium were paid by adding it to the mortgage account (similar to paying to a credit card I guess).

Have you examined your original documentation is establish if the Halifax have made error(s)?

dmg24

Noz has a good point. It is not the bank's fault that you do not check your statements, and irrelevant that they only come once a year.

S_Asare

Noz wrote: »

Just rereading the OP, I don't think the Halifax would have contacted you about missing payments as far as their concerned, the premium were paid by adding it to the mortgage account (similar to paying to a credit card I guess).

Have you examined your original documentation is establish if the Halifax have made error(s)?

What type of error do you mean i should look for?

As far as not writting to me, i think this is the con because other banks do inform customers(eg Nationwide). By adding it to the end mortgages it becomes like a fee. They said other customers are unaware. This means they are probably making lots of money in this way-almost banking on their poor communication to customers. And i am being sincere when i say we thought it was being paid monthly.

Noz

S_Asare wrote: »

What type of error do you mean i should look for?

Sorry S_Asare, I misunderstood - you're not actually saying the Halifax have made any errors. My apologies.

S_Asare wrote: »

As far as not writting to me, i think this is the con because other banks do inform customers(eg Nationwide). By adding it to the end mortgages it becomes like a fee. They said other customers are unaware. This means they are probably making lots of money in this way-almost banking on their poor communication to customers. And i am being sincere when i say we thought it was being paid monthly.

This is where your original documentation comes into play, you need to examine how you agreed to pay the insurance and by what method - this is where the confusion may arise from, what did you actually sign up to.
As already noted, the details about your insurance being added to the mortgage would have been included in your mortgage statement that you recieved annually.
I don't doubt your sincerity for a second and you have my sympathy.

regularsaver1

The insurance department have received the money - by debiting the mortgage once a year

you do have a choice to pay on a separate direct debit to the mortgage

the mortgage statements will show a debit once a year, - and statements are only produced once a year

say your mortgage was £500 and your insurance £30 then the direct debit can take £530. it will not be inclusive within the £500. The transactions show on the mortgage statment what the money is for

S_Asare

If the contact appears to show that fee agreed to pay monthly (eg if mortgage is £500 and insurance is £30- total for trhe month is £530) Do I have a case aganst them? at the moment they are saying we never paid a single monthly insurance payment so they have added 20yrs worth of insurance to the mortgage. My argument is they should not have been adding extra funds to the original mortgage of £90,000 without consulting me. Is there no case here for court??