Mortgage Protection after Kidney Removal

P

Prunella

Guest
My partner had his kidney removed in March due to a malignant tumour growth. He is now back to full health after the operation and has no increased chance of recurrance. We wanted to release equity from our mortgage but found out that our policy with Hibernian is not flexible and we would need to start a new policy. How will this affect our chances of getting a new mortage protection policy? Can we exclude this from the policy? Does anyone know what the likely increase in premium will be? in short what are our options?

Thanks in advance, Prunella
 
Bear in mind that if one cannot get any or "reasonable" mortgage protection life assurance (e.g. for medical reasons) then a lender may waive the normally mandatory requirement for this cover for an owner occupier mortgage borrower. This does not mean that all will waive the requirement and there are risks involved in doing so especially if there are dependents or the uninsured party is one of the main breadwinners but it my be an option.
 
Hi Prunella,

I'm a mortgage/life assurance broker and it really just depends on your specific circumstances. Whereas I can't say exactly how the underwriting will go on your policy, it is vitally important that you disclose all the relevant information to the life company so that they can make an informed decision.

If your partner is in good health, it may not have a hugh impact on your policy. He will probably be asked to go for a medical examination with an independant GP. This isn't anything out of the ordinary so don't worry. If the company decided that they would consider him a "higher" risk, then they may put your premium up - how much they would put it up varies from one case to another.

If I were you, I'd apply for the policy BUT don't cancel your existing one just yet. At least then IF it turns out for the worst, you can just keep your existing policy in place.

In the event that the insurer refuses your partner OR you decide that the premium is too high etc etc your alternative option would be (assuming you still want to go for the mortgage) as Clubman suggested; the bank may allow you to waive the life cover(I'd advise you to avoid this though if at all possible).
A better option might be to keep your existing life policy & see if the bank may even agree for you to waive PART of the life cover requirement.

Hope this helps a little but if you need any further advice in relation to this OR your mortgage, don't hesitate to contact me.

Regards,
Caroline.
 
The fact that your partner had a malignant growth as recently as March will affect the underwriting.

I'd expect his application would be deferred for 12 or possibly 24 months.
 
Rather than cancel the existing protection, you could look for a top-up to cover the equity release. You may have to pay higher rates because of the increased mortality risk, but you could change that as the risk recedes as RS2K has indicated...
 
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