Mortgage Protection refused in error. Mortgage declined

Me and other half applied for mortgage back in October, got approved, applied for life assurance, got a quote. So off we went house hunting and picked a second hand house which wasnt ready to go til February/march.March came and
We were ready to sign and a couple of days before the closing date, we got a call from our insurance broker to say that the three months had lapsed since we got our life assurance quote so we had to re apply. Same company, same form, same answers etc...
Anyway they then send a letter back to say they are not willing to issue life assurance as i had an slightly abnormal smear two years ago and am still being followed up. these changes are minimal and havent progressed at all overr the last two years. As you can imagine it was panic stations as we couldnt get our mortgage cheque to close etc. We tried to get guarantor, bank wouldnt accept, tried to find someone else to take my half of the mortgage etc. It was sheer hell for two weeks. We were ready to lose our deposit of 35 grand.
After numberous calls to the insurance company i got nowhere. So i decided to ring Blackrock Clinic to see if i could get a colposcopy really quickly to show the insurance co. that i was ok.
Clinic said yeah we could, wil cost xyz.
SO.....
I rang teh insurance co to see if they would accepth this as proof i was fine. I spoke to a differnt girl who looked at my file and said 'hang on a minute, smear tests dont really bother us , let me look at you rfile and get back to you'
Half hour later she rings to say 'yeah youve got your cover, policy gone in the post!!!'
When i asked what had happened to change this, she said, 'oh it would have been a junior underwriter who looked at your application, she didnt know smears are not something we worry about!!!'
So after putting us thru two weeks of hell by declining us, they finally gave our policy.
My point is if it wasnt for me persevering with the company and ringing numerous times they would have declined us and we would have lost 35 grand.
SO IF YOU GET DECLINED FOR LIFE ASSURANCE, PESTER THE HELL OUTTA THEM UNTIL YOU TALK TO SOME ONE SENIOR, AND YOU MIGHT GET A DIFFERENT ANSWER!!

Re: Mortgage Protection-read This First!!

Any reason you didn't shop around when refused second time around?

Re: Mortgage Protection-read This First!!

Well because we were told i would be on a register and if i had been declined by one the chances are we would be declined by the rest? the bank advised us this way.

Re: Mortgage Protection-read This First!!

whcih bank ?

was it their tied product ? eg was it AIB trying to sell you Ark Life because AIB are tied to Ark Life and only sell Ark life.

In that case you were badly advised and have a case to go to the IFSRA for compensation because from what I see you could have gone to ANY Mortgage Protection Insurer at that point but the bank wanted to keep their commission and lied to so do .

Re: Mortgage Protection-read This First!!

If you are declined for life cover most lenders will allow you to sign a waiver and produce the letter of decline to get your cheque issue, so you would not have been in a position of loosing your deposit

Re: Mortgage Protection-read This First!!

lucylou said:

the bank advised us this way.

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Don't expect independent, objective advice from somebody with a vested interest in selling you something.

Re: Mortgage Protection-read This First!!

lucylou said:

Well because we were told i would be on a register and if i had been declined by one the chances are we would be declined by the rest? the bank advised us this way.

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There is no such register, all insurance companies have their own underwriters who assess each application individually.

Re: Mortgage Protection-read This First!!

CathyK said:

If you are declined for life cover most lenders will allow you to sign a waiver and produce the letter of decline to get your cheque issue, so you would not have been in a position of loosing your deposit

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Believe me we tried every angle on this!
We sent the declination letter to the bank,
We got in contact with the IFRSA and they said it is up to the individual bank who they issue the mortgage to, basically if it is in their terms and conditions they can request you have life cover, and if you are declined they dont have to issue a waiver form.
After speaking to the bank they werent prepared to issue the cheque unless
(a) we had joint life cover, or,
(b) we got a guarantor who had to be earning at least 120,000 a year to qualify as a guarantor for my half of the mortgage.

So we actually were in quite a fix.

Re: Mortgage Protection-read This First!!

brodiebabe said:

There is no such register, all insurance companies have their own underwriters who assess each application individually.

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Our insurance broker told us this!!

Re: Mortgage Protection-read This First!!

Hi Lucy

This is confusing and worrying.

Let me clarify a few facts, as I understand them:

A lender is obliged to demand mortgage protection insurance if you are under 50. They can waive it if it is abnormally expensive due to ill health.

The lender may waive it, but they are not obliged to waive it and they are not obliged to lend to you if you can't get insurance.

When you apply for life insurance, you will be asked if you were declined by another insurance company.

If you have a problem with the way you were treated by your bank, your insurance company or your insurance broker, you should complain to them first, and then you should complain to the Financial Ombudsman, and not to IFSRA.

The bank is trying to get your business, so they would not be obliged to tell you that someone else might be willing to lend to you.

The insurance broker should have been aware of the possible waiver of life insurance where it is expensive. This is particularly so if they are also a mortgage broker.

Did you use a mortgage broker? They would definitely be at fault if they did not shop around for you.

Brendan

There IS a general register that insurance companies refer to to see if proposers have been rated or declined by other companies.

It is possible to waive life cover under the Consumer Credit Act if you are declined or heavily rated for life cover HOWEVER the lender may withdraw the mortgage offer if they feel it is too risky to lend without cover being in place.

Sarah

www.rea.ie

Thanks Brendan. thats sound advice.
we got our mortgage independently (am i allowed to say which bank?)
We got an insurance broker to get us our life assurance, he shopped around and told us this company were our best deal and to stick with them. I suppose we got a bit panicked when they came to us a couple of days before closing and refused us then. We were worried about all sorts of implications with interest due etc.
It did get sorted in the end and we will close next week but my main concern is the treatment we got from the insurance company. They put us thru hell and then they tell us it was all a misunderstanding?? In my opinion if somebody is so 'junior' in the firm they should not be allowed to make decisions like this, which ultimately could have had a detrimental effect on our financial situation, not to mention our relationship! The stress they caused us was incredible.
It was exremely unprofessional of the company to make me aware of discrepancies between underwriterrs and the fact that they disagree on issues.
i am going to make a serious complaint to them as soon as i have my policy in my hand.!

I agree with Sarah W - there is a register that is shared between all of the life assurance companies - I should know - I worked on the development team that designed and built the supporting system for one particular life assurance company.

Hi Sarah

That's interesting and thanks for the correction. I have amended my post accordingly. Where is it kept? Presumably it is accessible under the DAta Protection Act?

Brendan

Re: Mortgage Protection-read This First!!

There is a register. Our broker advised, that my boyfriend was listed on it, thats why he got a 75% loading.

lucylou said:

Our insurance broker told us this!!

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This can be split off into another thread if need be, but it relates directly to LucyLou's post.

I myself had an abnormal smear and treatment (colposcopy) for the same 4 years ago. Surely you should never be penalised for attending non-obligatory health screening checks? Smears are used to check for pre-cancerous cells, not cancer, and I would have expected a record of attending for smears to be a sign of someone who took good care of their health, and not vice versa.

As I said, this can be split. I do appreciate that neither myself or lucylou were (in the end) declined, but the stress associated with the process just heaps on top of the associated stress of the tests/treatments to begin with!

sun_sparks said:

Surely you should never be penalised for attending non-obligatory health screening checks?

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Sometimes insurance application forms don't take into account all the nuances of such a situation - they might ask if you have ever attended a doctor in relation to a specific issue without taking into account that the outcome might have been an all clear!

Sun sparks and clubman,
Thats what i was trying to get at, the fact that these cells were in fact really mildly abnormal, that the doctor and consultant weren't even bothered with them. Plus the fact that cervical cancer is so easily treated nowadays, and my regular voluntary attendance at these tests should stand to my favour because it shows im vigilant, and god forbid it ever does turn to cancer ive caught it extremely early, thus my chances of beating it are huge.
I mean, without being morbid, any joe soap who applies for life assurance could have any disease festering inside them.
Clubman,
you are so right that they never look at the outcome, I even begged a consultant in Blackrock Clinic to treat these cells at any cost just so i could go back to the insurance company and say 'its gone'! He was horrified and said there was no way he would do anything because the changes were so mild they did not warrant any treatment. Why could the insurance company not take the word of a doctor who obviously knows what he is talking about??
On a final note, the girl who dealt with me first and declined just looked at the fact i had an 'abnormal' smear and put a red flag up straightaway. Surely if she is so junior she should be at least checking with a senior person before she declines. Should she even have the authority to decline?

Lucylou & Sunsparks

when I went for my first mortgage with my boyfriend our broker said to put down the fact I had been having regular smear tests as per "best practice". The insurance company came back to me with a bigger questionnaire and I had to get records from the hospital as I had also had a colposcopy and all my further smears had been fine so once I'd sent back that questionnaire they issued the cover. Although I agree, it's a bit off-putting having to detail where and when you've had your treatments when in fairness all you're doing is looking after yourself as you'd think they'd want you to!

M

For what it's worth if I was asked a question whose answer did not reflect all of the nuances of the situation then I would annotate the form/answer with any additional information that I felt was relevant in case it helped. For example Q: "have you ever been tested for <condition>?" A: "Yes - but given the all clear". No harm in trying.