Mortgage Protection mis-selling?

JustAnotherSaver

Enquiring on behalf of my mum who was talking to me about this tonight.

Basically she's wondering if she'd be able to get anywhere with this or whether it's too late.

* My dad took out mortgage protection for them on our house. Probably some time in the 1980s.
* His payments were £11-£14pm she says
* This was with "some company" (she can't remember the name) who then sold it on to another company (can't remember name).

* My dad told the original company right at the very start all his health issues (had had heart attack)
* In 1999 my dad had his 2nd heart attack & required triple bypass surgery the following year.
* He was off work for 6 months & tried to claim on the policy.
* The new company turned round & apparently their words to him were "you should've known you'd need surgery - you can't claim".

* He saw his solicitor about this (so again, year 2000) who told him he didn't have a chance (to fight this) & their advice was to just stop paying the mortgage protection payments, which my dad did.

* A woman down the road who's a good friend of my mums also complained of being mis-sold mortgage protection & pursued it .... winning £5k my mum said.

All this was before all the talk of PPI claims etc etc the past few years.

Unfortunately my dad died late 2011, so any questions that need to be answered by him can't & if it'd need to be him that claimed then my mum is obviously out of luck.


So, people in the know .... is my mum totally out of luck or do you reckon she'd have a chance with this?

dunstonh

* My dad took out mortgage protection for them on our house. Probably some time in the 1980s.

What do you mean by mortgage protection?

* He saw his solicitor about this (so again, year 2000) who told him he didn't have a chance (to fight this) & their advice was to just stop paying the mortgage protection payments, which my dad did.

Depending on where she bought it from, it would probably be pre-regulation. e.g. a broker/adviser/insurance agent is all pre-regulation. Plus, you get three years to complain from being reasonably aware of a problem.

A woman down the road who's a good friend of my mums also complained of being mis-sold mortgage protection & pursued it .... winning £5k my mum said.

It is unusual to win a complaint on mortgage protection. Certainly happens but it is the least successful of the PPI product complaints. However, I'm not sure what type of product you are referring to as mortgage protection can mean a few things.

JustAnotherSaver

So it looks like she's out of luck based on time then.

I'll ask her what she means by mortgage protection then, but my guess is she wont know there are varying types. I also thought mortgage protection was just mortgage protection - in the event of being off work ill or something for example.

If i don't come back to the thread then she doesn't know any more info.

dunstonh

a lot of decreasing term assurances are called mortgage protection. With life assurance being common sense (and mandatory on most lending in the 80s) it could have been that.