This is my very first posting so I am hoping somebody can help please:attention:

My brother has learning difficulties and I have his mail forwarded to my address so that I can help him to manage his affairs.

I stepped in to manage his affairs because my brother was unable to stand up to telephone salesmen

who were bombarding him with calls in his own home.

The situation was so bad (he was falling deeper and deeper in debt) that he has now gone into sheltered accommodation

where he has some protection from people who take advantage of vulnerable people like him.

When he moved into the shelter last October I helped him to sort out his affairs

and found that he had a number of insurance policies from different providers which provided him with contents cover.

One of these policies, from My Cover, provided him with unnecessary satellite TV insurance.

As he was moving I contacted the company to cancel the policy and I was told that the policy could not be cancelled

unless My Cover received this request in writing.

I wrote this cancellation letter (which my brother signed) and sent it to the company on the 5 October 2012.

Shortly afterwards I received a letter telling me that the company would not cancel the policy

unless they received a cheque for £25 to cover the cost of "administration" for the cancellation of this policy.

Again, I wrote a letter dated 12 November 2012 cancelling this policy

and enclosed a £25 cheque from my brother for the administration fee.

My brother signed this letter.

We heard nothing more from My Cover and I thought the matter was settled

until we received a letter from them today which was dated the 24th April 2013.

The letter had gone to my brother's previous address

(as I check the empty house regularly, I know the letter could not have been received any earlier than the 3rd May).

The tone of the letter is very threatening and states that:

'

the insurance is still active (nearly 6 months after our last contact with the company)

because My Cover has not received the cancellation letter

that My Cover is prepared to cancel the agreement if we pay another £25 administration fee within 14 days

(we are already past that 14th day i.e. 8 May 2013)

that, should my brother not pay this additional administration fee the matter

will be referred to their Legal Department and my brother will be taken to Court.

The letter goes on to explain that my brother will be liable to costs etc

and that a County Court Judgement will seriously affect his credit rating etc

Can you advise me on the next best step please?

I have the original letters on my computer and these prove when the letters were typed up

but I can't prove that My Cover has received these letters so what can we do about this?

Also, I am very suspicious about their reasons for not contacting my brother for nearly 6 months.

Surely, if they genuinely thought he was in arrears they would have contacted him before that?

Any advice would be welcome

Many thanks

Wendy

Is your brother subject to the Mental Health Act 1983, at all?

If he is then the contracts are probably void. If he isn't then yo might want to look into this for his future protection.

Has your £25 cheque been cashed? If it has then there is nothing they can do.

If it hasn't been cashed then I think your position is that you did cancel when you say you did but that you still owe them £25.

They have acknowledged your original cancellation letter - and that is enough to be a valid cancellation. They should have written to you for the administrative fee.

They cannot hold your contract to ransom for an administrative fee.

What is the value of the outstanding amount anyway?

The Small claims limit is now £10,000 so if they sued you for anything less than this they would not get their costs back - only their claim fee.

I suggest that you find out if the cheque was cashed.

If it wasn't then send them £25

Tell them that the cancellation was valid when they were originally told about it.

tell them that their threat of costs is dishonest and an abuse.

tell them that it will all be told to the court if they sue

Tell them they are a bunch of bullies and tell them I said so.

yea met this lot before

quite honestly i'd complain to his bank too.

if he was know vulnerable?

then they should have been keeping an eye on the dd's he set up.

dx

Thanks very much for this BankFodder. I will do exactly as you suggest - and I will sleep better tonight having read your advice!

No, my brother is not subject to the Mental Health Act (I don't think so anyway) but I will definitely look into that.

Many thanks again

Wendy

Hi dx

I have no faith in banks in this respect. I have taken issue with his bank for selling him products that were obviously inappropriate for somebody with his income and lifestyle. That put a stop to it, but their salespeople must have known they were not acting ethically when they sold it.

thanks

Wendy

you appear to have a very good mis-selling case here.

its an insurance, the fos will eat them alive

selling this via cold call to this kind of person.

I know someone with a special needs daughter.

she got signed up to mobile phone ins by a cold call

we got the lot back.

worth thinking about,

dx

Moved to the Non-Retail subforums Insurance/Assurance Companies/Pensions section.

If you brother has a power of attorney acting for him, they should send the Insurers a complaint and threaten to involve the FOS. If no power of attorney, then someone will need to write a letter on his behalf and get him to sign it. While the matter is subject to a complaint, the Insurers should not take enforcement action.

I was going to do something about it but it is now some time back (a year or so) but I was fighting so many fires at the time that I did not pursue it. Could I still claim the money back or have I left it too late do you think?

thanks

Wendy

there is nothing in terms of rules to prevent you.

the only thing they could ever use would be statute of limitations act

that's 6yrs!

i'm also wondering if anything in the 'new' bcobs stuff might help

dx