Mortgage advisor complaint

Edinburghsaver

Hello all,

Apologies if you don't think that this is the right board for this thread, but I couldn't think of where best to put it.

I used a (free to me) mortgage broker when I bought my first flat earlier this summer. At the time, I told the mortgage broker that I would organise my own buildings and contents insurance. I confirmed this in writing by email and this was acknowledged by the mortgage broker.

In October, I noticed that my bank account had been debited for £25 for a buildings and contents insurance policy which I hadn't taken out. It was also debited in September for the same amount, and I imagine that it will also be debited for the same amount again tomorrow.

I complained to the mortgage broker that I did not consent to the policy being set up, or for my personal details - including my bank details - being shared with this company. They have since admitted liability, but because of the length of time since the policy was set up, they cannot cancel the policy. This means that j now need to contact the company and request that they cancel it myself.

The mortgage broker has apologised, offered to refund me for the money debited from my account, and offered £100 in compensation. I can either accept this offer or refer the complaint to the financial ombudsman.

I'm still really angry that this has occured - especially as I'm not even sure at this point if I can cancel this policy 3 months after it was set up, and because I feel that this shows a real lack of care over personal data by the mortgage broker company. I feel that referring this to the financial ombudsman might ensure changes are made to their data protection processes, but I don't know if I'm allowing my frustration to cloud my decision making... What would you do?

davidmcn

Irrespective of how it was set up, it sounds weird if you've never been sent details of your insurance policy. Anyway, it's perfectly normal to cancel home insurance during the policy year (if you had paid annually, normally for a pro rata refund of premium less an admin fee, though might be something additional for you to pay if you were paying monthly).

If the broker keeps you free of costs and gives you £100 on top I'd just take that and run.

steampowered

A no-fuss refund plus £100 compensation sounds like a great result to me.

At the end of the day this is just human error. "Data Protection" policies won't stop this from happening again in future.

As a customer you don't want dealing with a mortgage broker to become a bureaucratic mess of internal policies and box-ticking.

Chandler85

I'd take the refund and the £100.


When you cancel the insurance, you could ask the company how come you never received any documentation, so where did it go and also who gave them permission to setup a direct debit, as there are rules around that as well.


I mean to get to the 3rd payment before realising there is an issue? Really, you could have cancelled the direct debit after the first one instead of continuing to pay.

princeofpounds

Take the money. If you really really feel that this wasn't an honest mistake, you can notify the ICO on the data protection aspect, and the FCA on the financial regulation aspect.


You won't be able to complain to Financial Services Ombudsman as you will have accepted their restitution (and I highly doubt the FSO would give you anything more than that), so that's why I say it would just be a notification.


I know these kind of office environments. It's probably just one checkbox and an honest mistake. It's also possible that it's a systematic behavior on the part of the employee in order to make sales targets, or less likely the company itself.


But you really don't know which it is. The fact that they are offering reasonable goodwill tells me that it's probably not the company, because it would quickly get expensive for them.