Morgage + Long Term Illness + Life Insurance Query

I will explain our position below

We remortgaged our house in 2006 and took out a new tracker mortgage for approx €290K. When doing this we were advised by the bank we both needed Life Insurance (LI) to cover the loan which is fine.

To try to keep costs down my wife took out LI for the full amount and I took out LI for half the loan and offered the Life Insurance attached to my pension policy at work as the other half. This was accepted by the bank at the time and the loan was issued.

The bank have now come back 5 years later to say that the LI Policy from my pension is not acceptable and under the T&C of the contract I am supposed to have full LI insurance to cover the loan they now want me to take this out to cover the shortfall not covered, roughly €110K.

The issue is the bank accepted the Policy from my work at the time and issued the loan - I accept that maybe they should not have accepted this ...........but they did.

My position is I now am unable to work due illness for the past 2 years, this is potentially life threatening over the lifetime of the illness, it is a long term illness. The bank are now insisting i get the extra cover, they are not aware i am unable to work. the mortgage is being paid no arrears etc....but I am sure no one will give me extra life cover at this stage with my illness.

Q1: is where do i stand with the bank. Can they insist I now take out the extra cover even though it was their oversight not mine and maybe if i had known this at the time, (the extra life insurance needed) we might not have taken out the mortgage.

Q2: if i cannot get insurance due to my illness which i presume i wont how does that leave me with the bank. I feel like saying guys this is your problem you issued the mortgage with full knowledge of what LI was in place but i presume this will get nowhere. T&C of contract etc

Q3: I am aware they all want to get rid of trackers at the moment could they use this as an excuse if i cannot provide the life cover as per the T&C of the mortgage contract to remove the tracker

Q4: If by chance i can get additional LI it would probably cost a fortune due to my illness and we cannot afford any extra at this stage, can i refuse to take anymore LI out as i cannot afford it. MY LI from work is still in place through pension fund etc even though this is unacceptable to them.

I will need to get back to the bank in the next week or so as they want to arrange new insurance either through their broker or one of our choice

Any advice gratefully appreciated

1. Chance 1 - if you read the T&C of the pension you'd have seen it could not have been assigned. Chance 2 If the bank had read it they would have seen. Chance 3 if the bank tried to get an assignment on cover they would have been refused. Chance 4. In the end under your loan agreement t was up to you to ensure cover was in place.

2. You have life cover only they can't get their interest noted. If you die the amount will be paid to your estate but not the bank.

3. Possibility.

4. Try and get cover. Go through the bank. If you can't get it at an affordable premium then you will both have your cards on the table and see if you can find a solution. If you fail try lodging a formal complaint - ask them for a copy of their formal complaints procedure. If the complaint isn't answered to your satisfaction try the Ombudsman.

But remember T&C of loan agreement clearly state it is your responsibility.

If your finances at the time were on such a knife edge that you couldn't afford the loan plus the necessary protection policy then I'm sorry to be blunt but wasn't it rather reckless of you to proceed?