Mortgage life cover - reclaim?

irishdonkeys

My mother passed away in 2003 and left me the property. Before she died she told me that I would not have anything to worry about as the mortgage would be paid off in full so I wouldnt have any big bills.
When the probate was carried out, the solicitor at the time informed me that only a part of the mortgage was covered and therefore I was left with a mortgage of £45,000. The solicitor told me that this was due to my mother taking out a second mortgage at some point and this was not covered.

At the time, I was 23 and was not really aware of many financial affairs other than for normal day to day banking so didnt see that there was anything wrong and trusted the solcitor.

I am now wondering after reading the many topics on this wonderful site, if in fact this was an error by halifax. Could my mother have been wrongly informed that she was covered and yet halifax had not adequatly increased her cover for the full mortgage.
Can this be raised with halifax and possibly reclaimed? Any help would be very much appreciated.

GMS

If the cover was sufficient for Halifax and your mother subsequently took a second charge then she should have increased her cover accordingly.

amnblog

Almost certainly not - but good luck with it.

irishdonkeys

I am not sure whether halifax considered it was sufficient or not however what I am definate about is that my mother would not have told me that the full mortgage would be paid off if she hadnt been sure that she should have been covered. I know she checked all her financial affairs when she found she had cancer so would have thought that she would have been made aware if she was not covered sufficently to pay the full amount off.

TrickyDicky101

It was your mother's responsibility to take additional protection when she took a further advance, I'm afraid.

GMS

irishdonkeys wrote: »

I am not sure whether halifax considered it was sufficient or not however what I am definate about is that my mother would not have told me that the full mortgage would be paid off if she hadnt been sure that she should have been covered. I know she checked all her financial affairs when she found she had cancer so would have thought that she would have been made aware if she was not covered sufficently to pay the full amount off.

When was the life cover taken out? Was the second charge done after?


Did she tell you it was fully covered prior to taking the second charge?

irishdonkeys

As far as I am aware, the life cover was taken out at the time my mother purchased the property when we moved to wales in 1993. The second charge was taken approx 5 years later. She told me the mortgage was fully covered about a year before she died so in about 2002.

Let_Us_See

Adequate life cover to protect mortgage(s) would have been solely the responsibility of your mother and you have no claim against lender. If fully covered what happened to the relevant life policies?

haras_nosirrah

But if you complain and are awarded redress they will put you back in the same position your mum would have been had she not taken the cover at all I.e you would get the premiums back but have to pay them the amount they paid out under the policy - I am guessing this would not put you in a better position

haras_nosirrah

When was your mum first ill? It may be that she was offered cover but was too expensive or if she had health issues already she may not have been insurable for the additional. Why did she take the additional mortgage out?

I sell life insurance as part of my job and the number of people who will happily spend £20 a month on insuring their pet or their phone but will not spend the same on life cover or income protection is staggering.

irishdonkeys

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

But if you complain and are awarded redress they will put you back in the same position your mum would have been had she not taken the cover at all I.e you would get the premiums back but have to pay them the amount they paid out under the policy - I am guessing this would not put you in a better position

I am not sure why you wouldnt think I would be in a better position - my query was that the insurance she took out should have been sufficient to cover the full mortgage. The second charge she took out was for doing some work on the house and was a long time before she was ill so health issues would not have been the issue at the time. I also know my mother would not have skimped on the insurance when she took out the second charge. If the insurance was supposed to be sufficient, surely halifax should pay the 45k so that the full mortgage was paid off?