Income Protection Reclaim

salford_porky

Hi

I'm new to these forums, but hoping somebody could offer me some help/advice. When me and my fiance took our mortgage out, the motgage advisor told us we had to take out income Protection before the bank would allow us a mortgage. After being quoted for a policy from the bank, we managed to find a cheaper policy online, and took this policy(Allianz Insurance). After paying the policy for approx 2 years, i had to have an operation (carpal tunnel release in left hand) and was off work for 4 weeks. i attempted to claim, but it was rejected because on the doctors letters it states i had underlying symptoms of the problem before i took the policy/mortgage. i didnt know i had underlying symptoms as i had never previously seen the doctor about the problem. Can i claim back on the income protection policy as we were told by our mortgage advisor we couldnt have the mortgage without it??

any help would be greatly appreciated..

dunstonh

Can i claim back on the income protection policy as we were told by our mortgage advisor we couldnt have the mortgage without it??

No.

As you never bought the product via the mortgage adviser, he (or his employer) has no liability for any purchase you made off your own back elsewhere. You decided to go with a cheaper policy and it is possible the bank product may have covered you. For example, income protection comes in budget and comprehensive forms. You may have gone budget whereas the bank may have gone comprehensive. However, we will never know as it never happened. Banks operate a salesforce who documented their advice against the sales made. No sale was made and no advice would be documented.

If you feel the online site mis-sold it then you can complain to them. However, it is unlikely that will be possible as one of the reasons online sites are frequently cheaper is that you get less consumer protection as you cant complain the advice was bad as no advice was given. You never sought advice from them and they never gave it. That is how DIY works.

[Deleted User]

salford_porky wrote: »

we managed to find a cheaper policy online.

If you complain it has to be to the company from whom you bought the insurance. You can't complain to them about information you were given by the adviser of another company, though!

You don't appear to have a mis-selling complaint as you BOUGHT the insurance online.

However, I'd be querying the payout refusal on the basis that you had a pre-existing condition. If you can show that there was no way you could have known about this at the time of the sale, you may be able to get a late payout on that.

magpiecottage

I would agree with Moneyineptitude.

It is for the insurer to show you ought to have been aware of the problem when you took the policy out. If it cannot then I would expect FOS to force it to meet the claim.

dunstonh

A pre-existing condition is classed as something you had symptoms of prior to application. So, if the symptoms only appeared post application then they should not reject. If they were occurring before application then they can. Even if a GP/consultant had not been seen yet or you had symptoms but didn't know what they were.