Claiming back BG Homecare DD

BrokenPepsi

Would I be able to claim back payments that were made to BG Homecare for 4 years?  During this time her house was empty as she was in a nursing home.  The direct debits continued to be taken from her account as I was unable to stop them.

marcia_

BrokenPepsi said:

Would I be able to claim back payments that were made to BG Homecare for 4 years?  During this time her house was empty as she was in a nursing home.  The direct debits continued to be taken from her account as I was unable to stop them.

 Why were you unable to stop them? 

Did you phone BG and explain the situation? 

p00hsticks

Did the fact that the house was empty invalidate the contract conditions ? 
Were BG aware of the fact that the house was empty ?

BrokenPepsi

marcia_ said:

BrokenPepsi said:

Would I be able to claim back payments that were made to BG Homecare for 4 years?  During this time her house was empty as she was in a nursing home.  The direct debits continued to be taken from her account as I was unable to stop them.

 Why were you unable to stop them? 

Did you phone BG and explain the situation? 

It was for my mum's property and I wasn't aware that she was paying until my brother, who lived closer and was dealing with her post gave me all the bills (that's another story!).  But we also didn't have PoA so couldn't act on her behalf.

Olinda99

Unless your mother has lost capacity then she presumably knew about the homecare plan and wanted it to continue

BrokenPepsi

p00hsticks said:

Did the fact that the house was empty invalidate the contract conditions ? 
Were BG aware of the fact that the house was empty ?

I didn't get chance to let them know until Sept last year by that time she had passed in Aug 23.  

I did however manage to successfully claim back house insurance payments for this time as the house was unoccupied

BrokenPepsi

Olinda99 said:

Unless your mother has lost capacity then she presumably knew about the homecare plan and wanted it to continue

She was admitted to a nursing home aged 68 with early onset dementia in August 2019

p00hsticks

BrokenPepsi said:

p00hsticks said:

Did the fact that the house was empty invalidate the contract conditions ? 
Were BG aware of the fact that the house was empty ?

I didn't get chance to let them know until Sept last year by that time she had passed in Aug 23.  

I did however manage to successfully claim back house insurance payments for this time as the house was unoccupied

One could argue that house insurance would be even more important if the house was unoccupied, as it makes it more vulnerable to things like break ins, water leaks etc. However chances are that the run-of-th-mill house insurance taken out when your mother lived there will have been invalidated by the fact that it was empty, which is why they may have been willing to give you a refund - if you had needed to make a claim it would have been rejected. 

Th same argument may apply to the Homecare agreement, you'd need to look at the T&Cs. 

Keep_pedalling

The house insurance would have been refunded on the basis that it was invalid, as no one had informed the insurance company that the property was unoccupied. Had the house burned down then they would almost certainly not have paid out.

Boiler cover is also an insurance policy, so if they would not have covered a leaking boiler because no annual services were carried out then you should be able to get a refund, but if they would still have come out to fix it then maybe not. 

Qyburn

It doesn't sound like these would be covered by the Direct Debit guarantee, as there was no mistake by either the bank or by BG.

silvercar

BG Homecare includes an annual service. What effort was made by BG to book one? You may be entitled to a refund of that portion, if nothing else?