Urgent advice please

Just_Joe_2

Response from Scottish Life is that "approximately 200 in total" have been written to requesting that the overpaid money be returned.

I was asked to pay back £700 but "in light of the problems that you have encountered the Company wishes to offer to waive the sum of £100 from the overpaid amount for out of pocket expenses incurred and inconvenience caused".

.........Another Ombudsman referral methinks.

Pobby

Joe.Check out your pm.

FairyElephant_2

Hi Pobby.

Well done for not giving in to them....keep fighting! This sum of money is a drop in the ocean to a big financial institution but a fair amount to li'l old me & probably to you too!

If the FSA etc don't come to your aid and all other avenues are exhausted, and if they then insist that they are going to take legal action (which, as other posters have said, I doubt it will get that far) then before they do I would write to them along the lines that: you disagree with their inpterpretation of the situation etc etc and do not accept that that you are liable to repay this money which they CLAIM is due to them following an error on their part, but...... as you have spent the money already, there is no possible gain to them from taking you to court and incurring legal costs, but that as a gesture of goodwill on your part you are willing to undertake to pay the amount they request at something like £1.00 per week, which is all that you can reasonably afford blah, blah, blah, and if they will send you bank details you will set up a standing order for same.......

Then of course, if you feel vindictive, you can keep messing about with the standing order.......

melonhead

Curiouser and curiouser. I was also cited the case of Sottish Equitable v Derby '95. I do not believe this is relevant, but am open to correction...
1) In this case Derby was paid £202,000, incorporating an overpayment of £172,500! This clearly would have been a _visible_ mistake to him. He would have been expecting around £30,000 and gets a cheque for £202,000. Alarms bells should start ringing. In our case the mistake was _invisible_ and I believe is a form of "common mistake" in contract law and that SL have no right to recover the money.
2) Further, SL are trying to renegotiate a closed contract. When were the Surrender Values correct? The reason I kept my endowment for another year or so was because it was making a little money. I based my decision _not_ to sell because the value was slowly creeping up. I believe we should be entitled to negotiate a surrender based on accurate MVA quotations. It is SL's mistake, they should offer an acceptable alternative. This may take a surrender effectively back to the beginning of 2007.
3) Register your complaint with the FSO. SL are bound by the Ombudsman's decision. If SL try and sue before the Ombudsman makes his decision, tell the court and the court will _probably_ let the Ombudsman decide. We have 6 months within which to register your complaint with the Ombudsman after SL issue their final decision.

Pobby

We I have registered and will respect nay advice/decision from the FOS.If ,in my line of work,I negotiate a contract which is detrimental to me I cannot(or indeed even consider) asking my customer for money back.
Joe talks about approx 200 people have been written to.Guess that is from the time when the computer got it wrong.

To site the case of Derby is quite amazing for all the things that melonhead has mentioned.

Frankly,it was a rubbish performing endowment and if they have screwed up on the surrender well tough.

Pobby

A little follow up

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/columnists/article.html?in_article_id=446063&in_page_id=19&in_author_id=5

martinman3

Now if all those policyholders who repaid the "overpayment" and read the Daily Mail, but don't visit this site, were now to contact the FOS, if they haven't already, then Scottish Life will look even more foolish and the outcome will be more favourable to policyholders.

Pobby

Yes it wll be interesting to see where this ends up.

skoolmaster

Firstly take up the matter with Scottish Life ...

if the payment was in full and final settlement according to contractual terms ... their error is their problem ...

however if you and they are disputing the payment then you need some professional advice firstly from the life office providing the policy or the brokers who sold the original policy to you ...

http://www.scottishlife.co.uk/scotlife/web/site/sitetools/ContactUs/ContactConsumerPage.asp

if not satisfied take up your complaint the Financial Services Ombudsman

this covers both misselling by a broker, IFA or a tied representative :

FSA Financial Services Authority http://www.fsa.gov.uk/
Financial Services Ombudsman http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

melonhead

New development. SL have said there was a mistake in their first few claims for repayment. They originally said the overpayment was due to a mistake in their MVA. 6 months later they are saying an MVA does not apply to my policy, and there was a problem in the surrender value calculation instead. Can they change their argument in mid-claim? Also they are using the principle of unjust enrichment, which requires visibility of calculations. However SL are saying they will not provide details of the calculations. Back to the ombudsman.