Can I claim against Halifax for mis selling of my buildings and contents insurance?

hateshousework

I am so cross!!!
In 1994 we bought our fist house with the Halifax and took out our buildings and contents insurance with them. I can clearly remember them saying we couldn't have the mortgage without a policy in place and them offering us theirs.
Never had any problems but it has steadily risen to £1085 pa.
Every year I have called them at renewal time and negotiated larger excess amounts to keep the policy as low as possible.
Today I made the yearly call and FOR THE FIRST TIME the girl mentioned I have an 'unlimited rebuild' policy which for our bog standard terraced house was inappropriate and she mentioned an alternative policy that had a limit of £400,000..........which tbh is still more than we need.
The cost for this new, tailor made policy with everything else the same?
£371.80!!!
That is a saving of £713.20 just this year and I have been overpaying for 26 years.

When I was put through to new sales and had gone through everything I mentioned to the lad on the phone how cross I was that this had never been pointed out before, and that as our first house had cost £37,000 it was clearly wrong. He said that back then these policies were often sold as a package with the mortgage when they were not needed!
Does anyone know if it is possible to claim back any of the many £1000's I have overpaid in the last 26 years?

dunstonh

I can clearly remember them saying we couldn't have the mortgage without a policy in place and them offering us theirs.

That was the norm in the 90s. Even today you still have to have building insurance. Although you are free to shop around.

Today I made the yearly call and FOR THE FIRST TIME the girl mentioned I have an 'unlimited rebuild' policy which for our bog standard terraced house was inappropriate and she mentioned an alternative policy that had a limit of £400,000..........which tbh is still more than we need.

Unlimited or high sum insured plans have been around for 20 years. Today, they are very much the norm.

The cost for this new, tailor made policy with everything else the same?
£371.80!!!
That is a saving of £713.20 just this year and I have been overpaying for 26 years.

The old Halifax plans were full cover. Modern plans allow things to be left out. So that would account for some of it. However, the cost of modern home insurance plans has gone down significantly in recent years. Older ones consequently, have less of a cross subsidy pool as less people have them.

Does anyone know if it is possible to claim back any of the many £1000's I have overpaid in the last 26 years?

You have not overpaid. Every single year, they wrote to you saying what their price was. You could either accept that or buy a different one. You had choice and you chose to stay. There is no mis-selling here.

hateshousework

The thing is I was never told it was for unlimited rebuild costs, surely they have a responsibility to sell you the right policy for your circumstances, the girl today did. So why didn't the person on the phone last year, or the year before. If it is the wrong policy now, it has been the wrong policy since there was another one available.

hateshousework

And obviously we had to have a policy in place when we bought the house, however it was never explained to us that it didn't have to be from the Halifax.

Torry_Quine

hateshousework wrote: »

And obviously we had to have a policy in place when we bought the house, however it was never explained to us that it didn't have to be from the Halifax.

I can understand why you are annoyed but the policy will say what it covered every year.

Originally you were told you needed a policy and were offered theirs but that's not the same as saying that you had to take it.

dunstonh

The thing is I was never told it was for unlimited rebuild costs, surely they have a responsibility to sell you the right policy for your circumstances, the girl today did.

You dont need to be told its unlimited. That is just how they work now. You can still buy the old sum insured plans but they tend to be less common nowadays.

however it was never explained to us that it didn't have to be from the Halifax.

Did you ever ask?
Do you go into Tesco and expect the cashier to tell you that you can also buy from ASDA?

hateshousework

dunstonh wrote: »

You dont need to be told its unlimited. That is just how they work now. You can still buy the old sum insured plans but they tend to be less common nowadays

That's the point, it was the original policy that was unlimited, on a house we paid £37k for, and looking back on my op I noticed I said '94 when it was infact '84

dunstonh

That's the point, it was the original policy that was unlimited, on a house we paid £37k for, and looking back on my op I noticed I said '94 when it was infact '84

Totally irrelevant. That is how policies work.

magpiecottage

hateshousework wrote: »

That's the point, it was the original policy that was unlimited, on a house we paid £37k for

The price you paid for your home is not relevant. You have to insure it for enough to rebuild it.

If you don't then any claim will be scaled down in proportion to the shortfall. The advantage of an unlimited policy is that this cannot happen.

At the same time, the insurer has a fair idea of what it will cost to rebuild and will price accordingly - but it is the insurer, rather than the policyholder, that takes the risk of getting it wrong.