Was I miss-sold when taking out mortgage?

Bam74

Ever since the PPI scandal Ive been saying to my husband that we were missold all the insurances we took out at the same time as our mortgage.
It was a LONG time ago in 2001 with Midland bank  ( who became HSBC)and I can really clearly remember the lady that we had the meeting with advising on the critical illness, life insurances etc ( I think we took about 4 different ones out) and I asked ' Do we need to take these out' and she said...'well if you want to be given the mortgage'
It was a 100pct mortgage at the time as we'd been student bankers with them and we didnt have much money as it was our first proper jobs and I was worried about all the payments.
So my question is- is it too late to complain ( I wanted to do it years ago but we are still with HSBC paying off the same mortgage and husband worried it will impact us someway)and do you think this counts as misselling?
Any thoughts.  

tacpot12

As long as you are complaining in good faith, there is no reason to think that it should impact you. 

The phrase "Well, if you want to be given the mortgage" would make it appear (to me) that you were missold most of these products. What the advisor should have said was "These are the products that we require you to have, and these are the optional ones we recommend". Midland might well have required you have life insurace at that time, but most other insurances would have been optional.

Have you claimed on any of the insurances? Any you have claimed on, might by judged to not have been missold, whereas the ones that have not been claimed on, and that were not required might have been missold.

Are there any insurances that you bought that you would cancel now if you could? If so, I would think carefully about doing so. You won't be able to get the same protection now for the same price. If you do want to cancel, I would do so as soon as you decide that you don't want them. Keeping them going indicates that you weren't missold them, so you have to cancel the ones that can be cancelled. I would not cancel the life insurance, unless it is a decreasing term insurnace and you can cover outstanding mortgage from savings.

 

Hoenir

Without substantive evidence, recollections of what was said many years ago aren't going to gain any traction. What are seeking from making a complaint now? If the policies are still running you've had the benefit of the cover for 23 years. 

ACG

You can complain, it wont affect your current mortgage.
However, you saying the adviser said something but all of the paperwork saying otherwise is probably going to result in the claim being rejected because paperwork will be taken over hearsay. 

You can cancel those policies if you wish, but at the same time it woud cost you a lot more now for identical policies due to you being 23 years older. 

dunstonh

So my question is- is it too late to complain ( I wanted to do it years ago but we are still with HSBC paying off the same mortgage and husband worried it will impact us someway)and do you think this counts as misselling?

Its not too late to complain.    However, 23 years after the event you have some issues.

1 - what evidence do you have to back up your allegation?
2 - why didn't you complain earlier?
3 - 2001 is still in the period when banks insisted on at least life assurance for mortgages (tail end and some didn't any more).  
4 - Its common sense to be insured when taking on a major debt like that.  Why do you think you are different and didn't need the insurance?

I suspect your complaint will fail as you are unlikely to have any evidence to support your allegation, and the insurances are almost certainly suitable for your needs.  That is how they will measure it.

silvercar

I think you will need to specify more what these insurances were. It may, or may not be, that life insurance was a requirement. The others may not have been required. It may be that you took out more life insurance than was necessary, or that it covered for more than you needed eg if it paid out on first death that’s fine. A policy that also paid on second death may not have been needed if you had no dependents at the time. There may be a case of misselling if she insisted you took a policy with her company if you could have got the same cover for cheaper elsewhere.

kingstreet

You can ask yourself simple questions around "do I need?"

If you had a serious illness which prevented you from working, how would pay the mortgage, the bills, maintain your standard of living?

If the answer is, "I don't know", you have identified a need.

The advisor alluding to a conditional sale doesn't remove the common sense of what you need and it would have been easier for her to explain that, although I suspect the justification paperwork will do exactly that...

chanz4

did you miss buy ? adults get mortgages