GE trying to reposess our house

[cavey01uk]

GE trying to repossess our house (sorry for this long post)

Last summer I started having pains in my ankle, later diagnosed as Osteoarthritis, I carried on working up to December when it became a bit much for me to handle, I thought a short rest would help, and then I’d be able to return to work.

In February this year we made our last mortgage payment due to any savings that we had accumulated having run out.
I couldn’t find anything relating to an insurance policy to cover my illness, so I wrote to GE on several occasions requesting some information in relation to a policy and to let them know my situation.

The only replies we received to start with were very rude and disrespectful and they actually reduced my partner to tears on several occasions, then in June they finally wrote to me letting me know that I did have a insurance policy but it wasn’t through them and basically we had run out of time and they were in the process of going to court for a repossession order.

When we attended the court hearing in August, the Judge listened to both sides and decided to adjourn the hearing until the next available date after 4 weeks in order to allow us time to get the insurance claim processed.

The next court summons arrived with the hearing to be held in September and the insurance claim still not sorted, so along we went to present our side of the story, again the Judge adjourned the hearing for the same length of time as last time.

Along came the next summons with the hearing date of November and still not had the insurance sorted, this time the Judge told the solicitor acting for GE that his client should step in and find out why the policy sold to us through their representative when the mortgage was taken out, wasn’t doing what it was supposed to do and both parties are to submit a statement to the court within 3 weeks outlining our positions and that the hearing to be adjourned for the same period as the last two, the Judge also mentioned that he had heard Martin Lewis on the radio and the miss-selling of PPI was to be the next big issue for the OFT.

Today I received a letter from the insurance company refusing to pay because in the T&C of the policy, it states

No Benefit will be payable to you if:

· Your disability results from any condition, injury, illness etc which came as a result of a Pre-Existing Condition.

Apparently my doctor told them that In October 2002 I had been diagnosed with Osteoarthritis in my fingers and was unable to work because of this and that my ankle pain is related to my fingers/hand.

Their chief medical officer believes my current condition to be part of a Polyarthritis, meaning that I were already suffering with the condition prior to the Insurance start date of October 2004.

This to my knowledge is untrue, when I went to see my doctor about my hand and then found it was my fingers affecting my hand, they couldn’t make their minds up as to what was the problem, at first they thought it was arthritis, but after a blood test decided it was RSI instead.

I also think I were miss-sold the Income Protection Insurance because,

1. I were self employed
2. I Were you sold a ‘single premium’ loan policy
3. The GE representative let us know that the policy was optional, but strongly insisted that I take it out.
4.The mortgage was over 30 years, but the policy expires September 2009

Could someone please let me know what to do now, I’m running out of ideas and only have just over 4 weeks to do something.

As far as I’m concerned I haven’t done anything wrong, but GE wants to take our house away regardless.

[gizmo111]

I'll get someone who is a lot more knowledgeable on PPi to come and have a look.

[cavey01uk]

Thanks, just one more thing that I forgot to mention, on Monday when we got back from court, GE telephoned us to ask how the hearing had gone, when my partner told him that he would need to speak to their solicitors, he then said he had some advice for us, that was to re-mortgage our house with another company (quite a strange thing to say).

GE have also been ringing us on regular intervals for the past few weeks.

[caro]

If you were self employed at the time, that alone is sufficient to say that the policy was mis-sold. Whatever the rights and wrongs of your illness, and whether it was pre-existing, you should not have been sold the policy in the first place.

Do you have copies of the policy, how much you paid, and the interest on it? I think your best bet would be to write and point out that the policy was mis-sold, and that you want your premium back, plus any interest, so that you are back in the position that you would have been had you not had the policy in the first place. Check out as well whether GE have previously been fined for mis-selling. Make sure that you keep a copies for yourself and the court.

I suggest that you also ask them to keep all communications in writing as the issue is the subject of a court case. You could give your email address to speed up communications.

I'm going to move your thread to the PPI forum where more knowledgeable people may be able to help you.

[caro]

Just to clarify, I'm thinking that if you can get some PPI money you may be in a position to pay off some of your arrears and fend off the repossession.

In the longer term do you expect to be in a position to pay your mortgage or do you anticipate that you may need to move anyway? If you can reclaim your PPI it should also reduce your mortgage payments for the future, which might make staying put more affordable.

[hellhasnofury]

Hello,

Would it not be prudent to ask ge money for a copy of the credit agreement and other information they hold on you through the cpr and put in a counter-claim for the mis-selling. Just a thought of the top of my head:o

[caro]

It had occured to me that it would be useful to have all of the information. The judge has obviously picked up on the issue of mis-selling and I don't think a counterclaim would be required.

It might be worth having a proper application ready in court and be prepared to pay for it if necessary, but the judge seems pretty accommodating to me.

I completely agree that cavey could do with seeing the original documentation and should ask GE for copies using the CPR's