Bradford and Bingley mortgage that ended in 2000

[Steve C]

Just wondering if someone could offer some advice please. I took out a mortgage with the Bradford and Bingley for £25,000 in 1991, in the year 2000 I was made redundant and decided to sell my property and buy a smaller property. I was in a fortunate position where I was able to pay off my mortgage (with the proceeds of my redundancy and profit from the rise in house prices at the time) and purchase a smaller dwelling.

 

I have just found my mortgage details from 1991 and it mentions a life protection plan underwritten by General Accident Life and Assurance Limited for Bradford and Bingley Building Society for which I was paying £10.91 per month.

 

Could I possibly make a claim for mis-selling against Bradford and Bingley bearing in mind they have been taken over by Santander?

 

Many thanks in advance for all replies.

[dx100uk]

yes

there is no time lmit

 

dx

[Steve C]

Many thanks for your prompt response dx.

 

I look back and think we were definately taken advantage of. We openly admitted to B&B that we had been turned down by other building societies we had approached, because we were vulnerable and desperate we agreed to anything they suggested just so long as they provided us with a mortgage.

[martin2006]

I had a mortgage around that time and the most popular type back then was the Endowment mortgage. Are you sure this wasnt the case?

if it was, then you would have had to have some type of investment policy to pay off the capital as your mortgage payments would have been for interest only.

If it was a repayment mortgage you could have a case for the life policy being mis sold.

 

Can you post up some more details regarding the mortgage itself, obviously without a/c no.s and any i.d. info?

[Steve C]

Thankyou for your reply Martin,

 

I have found three old mortgage statements from 1992, 1993 and 1994 and it does state at the bottom of each statement the period of time left on the mortgage together with "Endowment fixed loan of £20,000". It doesn`t mention the life protection plan underwritten by General Accident Life and Assurance Limited for Bradford and Bingley Building Society for which I was paying £10.91 per month, so I assume I was paying that seperately.

 

The statements do however give my name, address, account number and details of the monthly payments I have made. In addition it also lists debits to include interest, buildings and contents insurance, interest change, admin costs but the big bonus is it also lists payment protection figures. The payment protection figures are added to the end of the statement as a yearly sum which varies from £50.00 in 1992, £124.14 in 1993 and £41.76 in 1994.

 

Looks like I`ll be drafting out a letter to Santander this afternoon.

 

Many thanks for your interest and reply to my post

[martin2006]

You can certainly look into reclaiming the PPI if it was mis sold.

The life assurance side would have been a separate policy. They would have normally run for the same period as the mortgage was intended to run and on maturity, would have paid off the original mortgage loan and left you with a lump sum to do as you wish.

 

It became apparent that these policies would rarely make enough to cover the original loan and many people were forced to increase their monthly payments substantially.

 

That said, you should still be able to get a return on the policy if you havent done so already, although cashing it in would not get you the full value had it proceded to maturity.

 

Did you simply stop paying the life assurance policy when you repaid the mortgage?

[Steve C]

Thanks very much for your last reply Martin.

 

To be honest I`m surprised I have kept the statements that I have in my possession, I thought I had shredded all these a long time ago, but at least they prove and show I was paying Payment Protection.

 

Your assessment must be correct, the life assurance must have been a seperate policy as there is no mention of it on the statements. I can`t honestly remember but I assume the policy ceased when we paid off the mortgage , are you suggesting there would be a surrender value to that policy, even now?

[martin2006]

There should be if you havent already cashed it in. It would have lapsed when you stopped paying the premiums but should still have a cash in value.

 

Worth a letter to find out. it would help if you had the policy number when you write to them to help speed things up.

[Steve C]

Thanks very much Martin for your reply, I will be sending off a letter today, I`ll let you know to outcome.

[martin2006]

Check on your bank statements if you still have them, often they would use your policy number as the DD reference

[Steve C]

Just to bring this topic upto date and to let everyone know this present situation.

 

I`ve had a response from Santander who have requested I complete and fill in a questionaire (same as the one that can be printed off the Financial Ombudsman Service website) which I have done. The form was returned to Santander on 23.09.2011 in their prepaid envelope but I did obtain a proof of posting. Santander have mentioned that they will aim to handle my complaint as quickly as they can and will supply me with updates on their progress every 20 working days.

 

Regarding the life assurance, I`ve found the original documents/policy which was issued by General Accident. I wrote to General Accident at 2 Rougier Street, York. YO1 1HR (which is the address given on the policy documents) and sent the letter by recorded delivery on 15th September 2011. I`ve just checked the Post Office track & trace records and my letter was delivered but signed for with an unrecognisable signature on the 16.09.2011 and company name Aviva. At the time of writing this post I have not had the courtesy of a reply.

 

Should I wait a little longer for a reply? Did Aviva take over General Accident?

 

Many thanks in advance for all replies and offers of advice.

[martin2006]

GA merged with commercial union in 1998 forming commercial general union or CGU PLC, this has since become Aviva and think may even have been Norwich Union somewhere inbetween.

 

Nonetheless they will still have records and should easily be able to find it.

 

Did you give them a timescale to reply by? If you didnt i would try ringing them to see where its at. Then follow up with another letter if you need to.

[Steve C]

Unfortunately I didn`t set them a timescale. I`ll do as you suggest and ring them in the morning and follow that up with a letter to confirm the details of the telephone call.

 

Thanks very much Martin for your continued interest and help with this topic.

[Steve C]

Sorry for the delay in responding to this topic but here is the latest situation.

 

Eventually got a response from General Accident who say :- The policy was a term assurance policy that was set up to pay out on death of either of the lives assured during the term of the policy. It did not have a cash value and a surrender value is not applicable to this type of policy. Had the policy been allowed to continue to run until the end of term without any death benefits paid, it would have expired with no value.

 

Regarding Santander, I`ve now received a letter back on Bradford and Bingley letterheaded paper basically saying they have carried out an investigation but can not find any proof that the original PPI was mis-sold. They confirm that the policy was purchased to protect against redundancy, sickness etc and would have paid out in addition to any sickness benefits paid by my employer of the time. They go onto to mention that they can find no evidence that I would have been able to continue to pay the monthly mortgage without the help of this policy should I have found myself out of work due to redundancy or due to sickness. They therefore conclude that the policy was suitable for my circumstances as well as being affordable to me. They can find no evidence that the policy was inappropriate for me or that the policy was mis-sold therefore these aspects of my complaint are rejected.

 

Is this rejection letter from B&B standard practice in a hope that the claimant won`t pursue the matter any further? At the moment I am fuming with the tone of the person writing the reply. My wife and I were there at the loan and PPIs conception, he wasn`t. In addition we also took out life assurance (GA plan as mentioned above) as well as buildings and contents insurance.

 

Does anyone have any comments or thoughts on my next move please. Many thanks in advance for all replies.

[dx100uk]

both of those are std bog off letters to put you off and wear you down with rubbish.

 

if you were clearly told you must have them by the staff

 

endoff!

 

dont give up

 

dx

[Steve C]

Many thanks dx for your reply.

 

I responded to their letter requesting they review my case but have received a reply back from them today saying unfortunately they must advise that their decision to reject my complaint remains unchanged. If I am still unhappy I should contact the Financial Ombudsman Service.

 

I will be contacting FOS this afternoon.

 

Any savings I had with Santander will be transfered elsewhere.

[dx100uk]

ok well thats going to cost them £450 anyhow!

 

dx

[Steve C]

Thanks very much dx for your reply.

 

I didn`t realise that! Is £450 the standard fee/charge for companies to pay when complaints are sent to the FOS?

[caro]

Not all PPI was mis-sold, but if you would have got full sick pay from your employer I think it's debateable that you needed it. Also did you have any health issues that may have invalidated the PPI?

 

My recollection of being offered PPI way back when, is that I don't remember ever being told that I could shop around for PPI and it didn't have to come from the mortgage/credit provider, or that you might get a better deal elsewhere.

[Steve C]

Thankyou for your reply caro,

 

That is my argument also, we were not given the option to shop elsewhere for prices. It was strongly insinuated that it would also assist and help our mortgage application ( as we were previously turned down by other mortgage providers at the time). We were also strongly advised to take out the General Accident Life Assurance policy as well as buildings and contents insurance.

[big fish]

Hi

 

I had a same response from Bradford & Bingley re mortgage PPI. Complained not clear regarding options and already paid fully from employment. How does one prove verbal advice - cannot see any way forward please advise or is it just FOS and hope?

 

Big Fish

[Steve C]

Hi

 

I had a same response from Bradford & Bingley re mortgage PPI. Complained not clear regarding options and already paid fully from employment. How does one prove verbal advice - cannot see any way forward please advise or is it just FOS and hope?

 

Big Fish

 

Nothing has changed since post #16 on 18th November 2011 13:24.

 

I contacted the FOS and filled in the appropriate forms regarding this issue. They sent a letter back confirming the case number etc but also informed me that I may have to wait upto 1 year before this case comes to its conclusion due to the cases that are now being investigated by the FOS.

[big fish]

Hi

 

In regard to the above is miselling due to sickness/death benifit at work being paid a valid reason for PPI complaints to be upheld by FOS. It is difficult to prove what was /was not said at the inception of any agreements.

 

Big Fish

[dx100uk]

no the botto line is YOU DID NOT NEED IT.

 

as you had cover from works .

 

there have been hundreds of successful PPI claim regarding this, a cant see why a mortgage is any diff.

 

 

in-fact, i would have thought the 'questioning' by the advisor, would have been more detailed than for say a loan.

 

you cant get a mortgage without having means to repay it,

they eould have KNOWN your employer & the benefits you got as a public sector employee .

 

i'd also question the necessity of the life and buildings/contents ins too

 

if you had them elsewhere, you dont need others..

 

only BUILDING insurance is more or less compulsory on mortgages

 

the rest ARE NOT.

 

dx