Chances of getting mortgage without life insurance?

tommydog40

I recently had a mortgage interview with Nationwide.  While I was expecting questions relating to employment / earnings / outgoings etc, they seemed to pitch the interview heavily on questions relating to life insurance.  They kept dwelling on how the mortgage would be paid if I were to develop a serious illness and was unable to work for a few years and had no life insurance.  They also kept raising the question of how the mortgage would be paid off should I die and have no life insurance in place.  They also asked to see my work contract to confirm if life insurance was offered as a work benefit and if not would I consider purchasing it.  I am only in my forties and was quite surprised how much emphasis they placed on life insurance questions.  Is this other peoples experience?

While life insurance is not a legal requirement for a mortgage, I got the impression that they are not keen on applicants who don't have life insurance in place.  What are other peoples experiences of this, have lenders refused applicants because they think they are too higher risk without life insurance?  Maybe I would be wise to purchase life insurance and then cancel once the mortgage is in place?

ACG

Not taking out insurance will not affect your application in the slightest. 
Dont worry. 

Annisele

Life assurance used to be required for almost all lenders - but that hasn't been the case for decades. Where lenders don't require the life assurance, they're not fussed (from a mortgage perspective) about whether or not you take it out.

There are lots of reasons for lenders to be keen on pushing life assurance though. One of them the standard; people who sell things make money when you buy the thing they're selling. The other is that they want to defend themselves against complaints from the heirs of deceased borrowers, and to be able to say they offered life assurance and the borrower chose not to take it.

tommydog40

Annisele said:

There are lots of reasons for lenders to be keen on pushing life assurance though. One of them the standard; people who sell things make money when you buy the thing they're selling. The other is that they want to defend themselves against complaints from the heirs of deceased borrowers, and to be able to say they offered life assurance and the borrower chose not to take it.

I understand they want to flog things, but they even asked me to send proof if I had life insurance prior to the mortgage interview.  It just seemed a bit strange wanting proof of this.

[Deleted User]

if you have existing insurances then it is important that they document what you have already.  They will need to make a documented recommendation on what you should have (which you are then free to turn down) and the recommendation needs to take into account existing cover. 

If you later complain that you werent given correct advice then they wont have a leg to stand on if they arent able to show they gave appropriate advice. 

Its equal part sales and equal part 4rse covering incase of complaints