Elderbridge - Urgent help for vulnerable person

macman

But even if your grandfather died intestate, someone must have been responsible for winding up the estate, transferring any assets, settling debts etc. This would not be anything to do with the life insurance company: it's most often done by a solicitor, bank, or spouse/relative.

kaMelo

Okay, I must have misread that part about registration being joint at the LR, that's a good thing and takes away a potentially messy argument.

It's not the best time when a loved one has died and emotions are high but even when there is no will in place someone must wind up their estate. To take care of things like the Land Registry, identify creditors, debtors and assets and such like.  Elderbridge/London Scottish and any other creditors should have been notified at that time which from what you've said they haven't. What impact this will have on the loans I really don't know, there will no doubt be something in their terms about what happens when one party of a joint loan dies but I can't imagine it will cover a scenario with a delay of over ten years.

What life insurance was in place, was it a completely separate product or in some way linked with the loan(s)?  Where they ever notified of his death and a claim made?  That is certainly something that needs more clarification.


There are so many things to look at here, things that should have been done that weren't, without the full information it's impossible to say what the outcome could be and whether any wrongdoing has taken place. It may require the whole scenario unwinding back to the time of death if a life insurance policy was in place to cover the loans, it may change the terms of the loan if they were notified of his death at the correct time, regulatory processes that have changed over time which may or may not apply. 


Legal advice may help but a court of law will implement the law and regulations rigidly, the FOS as an informal resolution service will refer to regulations but doesn't have to follow them quite so rigidly in trying to treat customers fairly. 
I think you've done the right thing in starting a complaint but, as I said earlier, I think this is a long haul. In the meantime try to gather as much information as you can to try and form a complete picture of what happened.

macman

So many questions unanswered here. Did the estate require probate? if so, was it ever obtained?

elsien

It is sounding possible that the estate and debts were never really settled at the time of grandad's death. If he didn't have a will then normally someone would apply for letters of administration to sort everything out - can you find out from your grandmother if that happened? Did they have joint bank accounts or were some just in his name? 

[Deleted User]

Elderbridge didn't sell the product, if they bought the loan book it's difficult to say if they took on liability for miss-selling.

A PPI refund is just paying you back for money you already paid (or your relative in this case) to put you in a position as if you never had it - so you're effectively at a zero position, albeit with the 8% simple interest (15% for some years depending on the age).

The money is great of course but really if you use your head over your heart, is it really worth keeping the charge on the house for someone to deal with in the future vs getting rid of it now and not worrying any more

You will probably end up with some tax paid on interest as well, be careful as larger PPI refunds from old debts can include a lot of interest and you might end up owing HMRC something so check carefully before putting in a claim for the tax on the interest.

Also you talked about ombudsman but also FSCS, which one is it? FOS is the consumer ombudsman, FSCS is a compensation scheme

[Deleted User]

Elderbridge could time bar a new PPI complaint yes though if the selling firm went under and they just bought up the book, they are not liable for the miss-selling. In an ideal world they would restructure the loan to remove the PPI + interest etc but as the selling firm is long gone, I can see why they won't touch it.

[Deleted User]

Who is "someone" looking into this? Hopefully not a third party claims firm who will take 25% of your refund and no doubt have signed you up so they can do tax rebate refunds for you etc?

You are taxed on the interest element of the refund (like if you earned lots of money from savings). You can reclaim some but it's complicated as what you can claim back depends on your income level, how much interest you earn from savings etc. Pop over to the PPI forum and post the exact figures, there are a couple of wise heads there who can explain better than me

Depending on when they look out the loan, interest rates being that high were quite normal - a lot of the 80s was 10-15% BoE base rate

[Deleted User]

Post the exact figures in The PPI Forum - make a topic like "PPI tax refund query" and put an explanation of where it came from

It is likely they have kept 2k as tax but I could be wrong

IF they have deducted tax - check your paperwork - you can potentially claim some back using form R40 to HMRC but as I said, due to the 16k interest you might end up owing them tax - hence post on PPI for advice

The interest rates being high is why the PPI refund interest element is 15% simple for some years, it becomes 8% simple after 1/4/93