Are Halifax customers able to re-open rejected mortgage ppi claims?

mistee77

I made a written complaint to Halifax 2 yrs ago after realising we had been paying ppi.
We were first time buyers and very green, we bought our house through Halifax estate agents so thought it would be better to take the mortgage and home insurance from them too.
It was all arranged face to face with their mortgage advisor in 2001.
I moved our insurance 2yrs later when I found out that the mortgage advisor had sold us 2 separate policies 1 for buildings and 1 for contents instead of 1 cheaper combined policy and we moved our mortgage from them in Dec 08.
I wrote to the Halifax about 2 yrs ago to ask if the'total mortgage protection' payment was a ppi product as the mortgage advisor had told us we had to have it. If we'd known it was an optional policy we wouldn't have taken it! The mortgage was based solely on my husbands salary and he would get 6m full sick pay if it was needed. We had no other financial responsibilities and just wouldn't have taken it.
The response we got from Halifax was that yes it was a ppi product, but the product was not missold to us so our claim was rejected.
I was not happy with this at all and contacted the ombudsman but before I'd completed the info pack they sent me, I was in a small motor accident and also suffered a bereavement. By the time I'd sorted my head out and felt ready to take it back up, the time scale had passed so I wasn't able to pursue it.
I've heard a few people mention that Halifax wrongly rejected a large number of claims and that customers could re-open their cases but I haven't been able to find out for definite how true that is so I wondered if anybody might have any information or experience with this?

dunstonh

I wrote to the Halifax about 2 yrs ago to ask if the'total mortgage protection' payment was a ppi product as the mortgage advisor had told us we had to have it. If we'd known it was an optional policy we wouldn't have taken it! The mortgage was based solely on my husbands salary and he would get 6m full sick pay if it was needed. We had no other financial responsibilities and just wouldn't have taken it.
The response we got from Halifax was that yes it was a ppi product, but the product was not missold to us so our claim was rejected.

Technically, it is a multi-segment policy that caters for different types of insurance and just one of those segments is PPI. Not all of them. e.g. life assurance, critical illness, income protection and MPPI.

A rejection is unusual for Halifax. They normally only reject the non-PPI segments and auto payout on the PPI segment. maybe you didnt have the MPPI segment.

I was not happy with this at all and contacted the ombudsman but before I'd completed the info pack they sent me, I was in a small motor accident and also suffered a bereavement. By the time I'd sorted my head out and felt ready to take it back up, the time scale had passed so I wasn't able to pursue it.

The FOS will overrule a timebar if you can justify the whole period of the delay. The bereavement has to typically be a direct family member. For accident, you would have to be incapacitated for the whole period. Could you meet that sort of criteria?

I've heard a few people mention that Halifax wrongly rejected a large number of claims and that customers could re-open their cases but I haven't been able to find out for definite how true that is so I wondered if anybody might have any information or experience with this?

They wouldnt be talking about MPPI, if that is what you do have (and there is some doubt there). Most MPPI complaints are rejected. Even the FOS reject most MPPI complaints. Indeed, your complaint reason seems flawed as 6 months sick pay is not long and the FOS have been rejecting complaints where people have used 12 months sick pay. So, from a financial need point of view, it does look like it was needed. With your other reason being an unprovable allegation, you can see why it was rejected.