CRL warranty not accepted

Midge2020

We've just acquired a replacement policy with ICW (Paul McGale) v helpful. Also London Belgravia Brokers (Johnny Leadsome) v helpful and fast receipt of our new replacement certificate. I would caution anyone off delaying replacement of the duff Alpha policy for too long....the reason being that there are a diminishing number of firms that will retro cover as time ticks by...we had no interest from LABC, NHBC, BLP, Premier. Check the underwriter is A rated and ideally U.K. Based. We have learnt so much from this painful experience: that the market despite being FCA regulated is awash with unrated foreign policies on 10 year structural warranties....the FCA stamp and the FSCS stamp actually represent sweet fanny Adams in terms of a genuine consumer safety net. Buy the new policy yourself and check the underwriter. We are still shell shocked over this and trying to think of ways of recouping any losses.....any advice or thoughts appreciated please!

saira172

Thanks for that - would you mind disclosing how much they charged?

It is likely that the Alpha statement due on March 29th will say that they will divide up premiums paid between everyone who has a duff policy but there are thought to be 21,000 of us - so I don't imagine it will be much.

It appears that part of the problem is lack of information. So the developers have done their bit but then at some point with/between CRL and Alpha the information has been lost - so they have no real idea of who needs contacting and no record of building inspections data.

Ideally we need someone like Martin Lewis on board to help us. I'm sure many people are oblivious and will be until they have a problem or try to sell. No idea how to contact the man himself.

This is a massive misselling scandal as far as I can tell with regulation only in name.

Midge2020 wrote: »

We are still shell shocked over this and trying to think of ways of recouping any losses.....any advice or thoughts appreciated please!

Midge2020

Original Alpha policy £6k, retro new policy £8k ....I don't share previous posters views that you buy cheap at your peril....the CRL Alpha policy wasn't cheap! CRL probably bought it cheap off Alpha and stuck a load of margin and costs on top that they could and ought to refund.
I agree the market as a whole is the Wildwest and CRL are cowboys that have taken advantage of a lack of regulation around disclosure to consumers.
We bought our contract via a JCT (gave the builder money). Unless I've misunderstood the FSCS guidelines it's only homeowners who purchased their warranty directly or builders with a turnover of <£1M per annum that'll get anything - so probably very few policy holders. I am on an unashamed witch hunt as I've suffered material loss here and just feel someone has to take responsibility. CRL was never my choice. I paid solicitors and monitoring surveyors to undertake due diligence ...but they're all wriggling out of it. I wonder if CRL as a broker failed to disclose according to FCA regulation? Or if there are no regulations?

Midge2020

By the way, I really don't think CRL will be too fussed at the unfortunate lack of beneficiary information to issue refunds to! If there are indeed 21,000 policy holders (all Building warranties?) then they won't have anything approaching the sums of money needed to reimburse. If we assumed a meagre £2k refund per policy, that's £42M. The balance sheet figures of both CRL and BCR (companies house) are suspiciously meagre for a business that employs 80 people.......I wonder where all the turnover has actually gone?

saira172

We've been told 100's rather than 1000's as a refund..... what I meant was that surely there should be a duty of care to keep those records. It's the lack of information which was cited as the reason for the FSCS being able to find another company to take the business over en masse.

Midge2020 wrote: »

By the way, I really don't think CRL will be too fussed at the unfortunate lack of beneficiary information to issue refunds to! If there are indeed 21,000 policy holders (all Building warranties?) then they won't have anything approaching the sums of money needed to reimburse. If we assumed a meagre £2k refund per policy, that's £42M. The balance sheet figures of both CRL and BCR (companies house) are suspiciously meagre for a business that employs 80 people.......I wonder where all the turnover has actually gone?

Midge2020

@Saira.....part of the brokers fee / policy cost as I understand it is MANAGEMENT of the policy throughout the 10 year duration. The loss or misplacement of any homeowner details - name, address etc I suppose if proof on a very basic level that they couldn't possibly undertake that task in return for the fees paid. So there could be grounds to go after CRL for that part of the fee taking that angle.
I think cynically that a load of policy holders info probably accidentally on purpose fell through the shredder just to stem the tidal wave of upset claimants. But they might have shot themselves in the foot there if Management of the Policy in lieu of fees taken is something that they couldn't possibly undertake???

Midge2020

Allegedly they had 20-33% market share.....so I doubt if it's hundreds. I wouldn't believe anything they'd say on that anyway!

ras9zg

We've had a few quotes back, which have varied dramatically in price. When I spoke to a broker, they said the estimates they were getting back were usually anywhere in the 3-6k range. The highest quote we got back was 7500, but that was obscene and we've had much more normal quotes in the 3-4k range. But I am still beyond angry, as it doesn't look like we'll ever recoup any of these costs.

Build-Zone have been one of the more competitive options for those still looking and they've put up a section for alpha customers looking to replace policies.

We have a Help to Buy property and I am just ensuring that whatever policy we go with will be accepted by both HTB and our bank before progressing, but this has just been the worst.

Midge2020

I'm sure you will be fine with Build Zone @Ras.....they are a big player and very very widely accepted by most lenders...a safe bet: underwritten by canopius I think?
We are going with Ombudsman claim against CRL and also a no win no fee law firm so we will see where that gets us. Sorry to hear this has been painful for others...everyone's got a tale. Ours was being skint post build and having to beg and borrow off our family for the new replacement warranty cost. It makes me sick that CRL act like they are the wounded party in this. Their people knew full well that the Alpha underwriter was unrated and high risk.....but they liked the low price, didn't ask too many questions, slapped on a big £ resell and made a shed load of margin. The margins CRL made amount to way way more than the actual Alpha premiums that went to Denmark .....that's a smokescreen and a half!

Midge2020

By the way, for anyone out there thinking that having a warranty surely won't matter....it will and you ignore it at your peril. If remortgaging for yourself then you risk the new lenders lawyers declining funds ....so pay for your existing lenders standard variable rate (£ nightmare) - they need it for default step in rights. If you're selling your home or plan to sell your home then if your buyer is "in love" with your home, but it has no valid warranty their lender will either refuse the funds or the buyer will knock a shed load off the asking price and have you over a barrel. Sorry, I think a lot of people don't grasp the implications and are citing the fact that a warranty's not worth the paper it's printed on.