Bad Advice

bazza6

Hi, my sister was mis-sold an endowment mortgage and has succesfully received a payment from the insurance company. however the people with whom she has been dealing regarding this have charged her 30% of the sum paid out from the insurance company. she was not initially made aware of these charges and was completely gobsmacked when the cheque arrived. is there anything that can be done in this situation.

baz

nobblyned

She 'wasn't made aware' as in it wasn't in the contract with them, or 'wasn't made aware' as in she didn't read the contract with them?

She must have been aware of there being some charges?

bazza6

Hi, unfortunately she is not very literate, the company involved did send her a pack of literature, they then followed up some time later with a phone call and said they would send out a representative to fill in the forms, which they did. he fillede out the forms and she signed.

baz

nobblyned

30% is pretty steep.

I do have sympathy for her. As to what she can do, I'm not sure. She should have been made aware verbally of the charges also. But some of these companies aren't exactly 'straight down the line'.

Would she have got the comp without the company? I guess it's better than not being able to claim at all.

bazza6

OK thanks, she was not made aware verbally, and 30% is extortion not pretty steep, would she have got it without them, maybe not, but that surely doesnt make it right. so is there no way of making a claim against the charges ?

dunstonh

30% is not uncommon but it is at the top end of the scale. Some of these companies are pretty unscrupulous with the amount they take and the way they act. However, they do tend to have their contracts pretty well watertight. Whilst there is now some protection in place, I don't know if it is retrospective to cases that commenced before that (which was only a couple of weeks ago).

bazza6

Hi dunstonh, ok thanks, as a matter of interest where would i find the details of this said protection to check if it is retrospective ?

baz

dunstonh

http://www.claimsregulation.gov.uk/search.aspx

Thats the site to see if the firm is now regulated. There is information on that site about regulation as well. http://www.claimsregulation.gov.uk/

I havent found any info regarding retrospective rules. I would read it as being applications after that date but cannot be sure.

silvercar

bazza6 wrote: »

OK thanks, she was not made aware verbally, and 30% is extortion not pretty steep, would she have got it without them, maybe not, but that surely doesnt make it right. so is there no way of making a claim against the charges ?

I agree that 30% is steep but it seems that the choice here would have been 70% of something or 100% of nothing.

defender_of_the_weak

If your sister has paid 30% then there is nothing she can do. Legislation is not retrospective and the company concerned may not even have decided to be regulated and is in the position of winding the business down. I am afraid she just has to forget it and move on