Step may have paid a lot of PPI but no longer with us

Crapwithmoney

This thread started with me asking (in a roundabout way admittedly) if it was worth looking into PPI claim for an old loan as the subject has died.... So far I've been accussed of fraud, trying to get "free money", and making allegations !!
For the record I've had 100's of calls about PPI and have ignored them all, my mother asked me to find out if her late husband's loan may have been subject to PPI and I said " I know just who to ask" ...
When I need some financial advice I hope my advisor understands I ask questions because I don't know the answer and don't expect to be accussed of god knows what ....
Let's hope others, who maybe aren't financial experts, get a friendlier reaction than I did ....

Nasqueron

Crapwithmoney wrote: »

This thread started with me asking (in a roundabout way admittedly) if it was worth looking into PPI claim for an old loan as the subject has died.... So far I've been accussed of fraud, trying to get "free money", and making allegations !!
For the record I've had 100's of calls about PPI and have ignored them all, my mother asked me to find out if her late husband's loan may have been subject to PPI and I said " I know just who to ask" ...
When I need some financial advice I hope my advisor understands I ask questions because I don't know the answer and don't expect to be accussed of god knows what ....
Let's hope others, who maybe aren't financial experts, get a friendlier reaction than I did ....

Mate seriously, allegation is the right word, you are alleging a product was miss-sold - the literal definition is:

"a claim or assertion that someone has done something illegal or wrong, typically one made without proof."

You are alleging that the product was wrongly sold to your step-father - it's nothing sinister!

The problem is your original post has 2 clear points:

1) You have no idea if the PPI was present, let alone miss-sold
2) You are talking about compensation for this product which may not exist

It comes across like you've heard about the PPI miss-sale, heard your step-father had a loan once and want to see how to cash in.

As I posted previously, check through the paperwork you have left, if you have none, all you can do (or whoever the executer of the estate is) is ask the bank if they have any records left.

If no records exist, this complaint will not have any legs

magpiecottage

Crapwithmoney wrote: »

Am I missing something here? I suspect 99% of the people who were missold PPI had no idea they were missold it

Logically, 100% of people who were missold PPI would not know they were missold it. If you knew it was being missold, you would not do it.

Also most people don't even know they had it

There were some cases with unsecured loans where it was added to the loan and might not have been clear to the borrower that this was happening. In the case of credit cards this is not true because the premium was specified on the statement each month.

In the case of secured loans, that security is the value of your home. If necessary, the lender can kick you out, sell it and get their money back. If they then add the cost of an insurance policy premium onto the top, that reduces the chance of getting all their money back if things go wrong - and that is generally more important to them than a bit of commission.

In the case you refer to, this would be even more so because the lender was expecting the loan to be repaid within a few months at most.

It is possible that PPI was sold by a broker who arranged the loan but your complaint would be against the broker, not the lender - and the lender would probably no longer have any record of the loan after all this time, let alone the broker.

So the personal legal representatives would need to approach the broker - if they can find out who it is and they still exist.

They would then have to hope the broker was willing to accept the complaint. At the time any such policy was sold , independent brokers were not subject to statutory regulation for general insurance so the Financial Ombudsman Service cannot consider such a complaint unless the broker volunteers to allow it - which virtually none will.

If that is the case you must go through the courts. You then have lots of problems. The first is proving that a policy even existed. You then have to work out what the loss was.

Then, since general insurance was not regulated at the time, the sale cannot have been "illegal" in the sence you infer. So you are reliant on demonstrating a negligent misrepresentation. Since you were not present at any discussions relating to the purchase of such a policy, you have no evidence as to what representations might have been made and a court will operate on the basis that you are making the assertion so it is for you to show that it is more likely than not - and not merely equally likely - that what you say is true.

The pigs are grounded by fog today, so I can't check - but even if you could demonstrate a negligent misrepresentation, section 14B of the Limitation Act 1980 allows any court claim for negligence to be "timebarred" after 15 years.

So I do not believe any PPI existed. If it did, any dispute would be with the broker, not the lender. The broker may no longer exist, FOS would have no jurisdiction and they could timebar and action in court.