Mortgage Protection Cover for someone who has recovered from a serious illness

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scaryeire

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Hi

Can anyone please advise me, I am looking to get mortgage protection cover, but I am a previous cancer patient. Can anyone recommend an insurance company that gave them mortgage protection cover having previously had cancer or know of any that would?

I am 34 I had Low grade stage 1 non-hodgkins lymphoma, I had an operation to remove the cancer and did chemo but it wasn't the tough regimen, thankfully. I am now 3 years cancer free and every scan has been clear since.

I also have €156K death in service benefit with my job.

Can anyone please advise me on which company is best to approach and what way to approach it.

Thank you.
 
Thanks dewdrop, was just seen if anyone might have got a policy who was a former cancer patient. Thankfully mine was low grade only stage 1 hadn't spread and hasn't been back at all scans completely clear but I suppose it may be difficult to get, ill try a broker so.
 
Hi Scary

If you don't have any dependents, you don't need a mortgage protection policy, although the Consumer Credit Act forces it on you.

I think it will be hard to get at a reasonable price.

If that is the case, the act waives the need for mortgage protection, but the banks are likely to look for a larger deposit.

There was an interesting thread recently, where it was suggested that the borrower lie about their medical history and thus meet the requirements of the lender for getting a mortgage. If I recall correctly, they had some issue 3 years ago but couldn't get insurance until they were 5 years free of the issue. So it was suggested that they lie for the moment and then make a full disclosure after two years. In the end, I think that they just increased their deposit.

brendan
 
Thanks for that Brendan, it really is a difficult situation i can see from the insurers point of view, but obv having to pay a couple of hundred a month if i did get cover (im just guessing the figure haven't tried yet) is not possible.

Would they let me waive my half of say a 250K mortgage, and my wife get normal cover or cover for the full amount? we both have death in service benefit of around €160K each in our jobs, no dependants.

Or the other option is to not disclose and proceed as normal.
 
Check with each bank what their policy is on this, I know in the past certainly some had no difficulty whatsoever with waivers of cover in cases like this.

I have never in my experience seen anyone get cover with a previous illness like cancer, I had a particular case of a malignant melanoma which had been textbook in that it was removed on time, no follow up treatment just check ups etc but still could not get cover anywhere. A family member has joint mortgage where partner is diabetic, could not get cover at any reasonable price so had to go ahead with cover on one only. The fact that you have death in service benefit is a bonus and your wife would be taking out cover on the full amount.

What percentage of the purchase price are you looking for?
 
Thanks Wbbs, as I say I can completely see where an insurer would be coming from, but from my perspective as you say yourself I had it removed it was low grade stage 1 hadn't spread and i've been clear for every scan since for 3 years and counting thankfully. But i do suspect i wont be able to get insurance or at a ridiculous price that wouldn't be possible.

We are looking to get 90% of the amount.

So our options if I disclose would be:
1 try get cover for a not so ridiculous price (which seems very unlikely)
2 try to get a waiver on my side of the amount, with my wife getting single cover for half (i guess with 90% needed they'll prob want more deposit, as a previous post said that they got their waiver in the end but they reduced loan from %92 down to 70-75%, which again is not feasible)
3 try to get a waiver on my side, and my wife get full cover herself

Or not disclose and try a full disclosure in 2 years time, which has its own issues obviously.

its very frustrating as we are both in good long term permanent jobs with combined salaries of 130K and death in service benefit in both jobs of 160K.
 
There are no halves in this, you both normally would be getting full cover on each of you for the full amount so your side/her side amounts is not relevant.

What you will need is a bank that will allow you do a waiver based on the fact that you would be unable to get cover at a reasonable price if at all. Your wife will be taking out full cover. They will probably insist that you apply to a couple of companies and either get a refusal/deferral or high premium before you can use a waiver.
 
Hi Brendan,

We would be looking to borrow between 250-280K max with around 90% of purchase price needed of a mortgage, I am not sure if that can be assigned to the mortgage lender, it would be great if it could be, we're both in our perm jobs over 7 years. I would have to check it out, but its a mine field as if we were going for the second option of not saying anything how far can I dig without getting noticed, but I will have to find out I suppose.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
How much are you borrowing?

Can the Death in Service Benefit be assigned to the mortgage lender?
Click to expand...

In the case of BOI they wouldn't accept this when I asked, even though they were the ones providing the policy and it covered more than the mortgage value. They wanted another separate policy. I'd assume it is due to the regs that they have to follow.
 
Death in Service benefit is linked to occupational pension schemes and therefore cannot be assigned against borrowings
 
If your job pays out in the event of your death then the bank might be more willing to waive the obligation to insure. This would demonstrate to the bank that your wife in the event of your death would have sufficient income to repay the mortage.
 
Hi scaryeire,

It may be possible to get cover with a temporary loading, e.g. you pay extra for 2 or 3 years and then the premium reverts to a normal rate. This would depend on the specifics of your medical history. I'd suggest that you contact an experienced broker, give them details of your cancer and then they can go around the various insurance companies with details even before you apply, to find out which companies would be the best fit.

Last resort is a specialist insurer. We deal with Pulse in the UK, who underwrite at Lloyds. Most Financial Brokers who arrange life cover would probably have access to them also. They can issue policies for most "non-standard" risks (health history, dangerous occupations, work in a high-risk country etc.) so someone who has been free of cancer for three years should be no big deal for them. But they will only issue policies for 10 years, so you'd still need agreement from the lender, as presumably your mortgage is longer than a 10 year term. But your lender might be happier to agree this than waiving cover altogether.

Liam D. Ferguson
 
My husband has a heart condition and was refused life cover. We had to get a waiver signed when taking the mortgage. At the time my salary covered the mortgage on it's own so not sure if this helped. Our mortgage amount was for 205000 back in 2003. We tried several times since to get life cover for my husband but failed. Our outstanding mortgage now is 145000.
 
Fobs.

If you still wish to obtain cover call into your local broker and ask him to obtain a price from Pulse Insurance as stated above by LD Ferguson.
 
Thanks LD, I will need to check things out and see what is the best option for us to proceed, I really appreciate everyones help, thanks.
 
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