I'm looking for advise for my 86 yr old Mum, (this posting is slightly relating to a previous one today regarding Swinton). Mum and my late Dad had their house and contents insured through Swinton for many years without changing to anywhere else. This year Mum was told when renewal time came that another company had taken over insuring the property and her Direct Debit was changed to pay the new insurance company.

However in the last few weeks she hasn't been too well and I have had to take over various aspects of her financial circumstances, one of which was getting her Gas / Elect. account D.Debit brought up to date with EOn. Whilst talking to them we realised she did not have any Gas Service Cover so I organised that and someone came out the next day to check her boiler and do some adjustments to it. They also sent out someone the same day to read her meters.

Today Mum has phoned me in a flap stating that she has looked at her Bank Statement received today and found a little Direct Debit payment of £6.50 to Swinton Insurance. As she could not understand why she was paying Swinton this amount when, to all intense purposes her house and contents insurance had been transferred by them to a different company, she telephoned Swinton who told her it was an ONGOING Gas/Electricity Breakdown Cover Insurance for the property.

She explained, or tried to, that she didn't know she had this and that she had just taken out a new Service Policy with her supplier and as she didn't want Swinton's which she had not received any renewal letters or anything to do with it, she wanted to cancel it immediately.

The person on the other end of the phone told her it would be £54 cancellation fee.

If my Mum did not have any renewal letter about this policy or has no knowledge of any paperwork about it other than when it was included within the house and contents policy which my late Father took out - can Swinton charge her to cancel this supposed Policy?

Sorry if I've gone on a bit but it's a bit of an issue and I'm trying to sort out Mum's financial affairs which in recent weeks have got, shall we say, a bit confusing and this latest sudden Swinton problem is totally unexpected. Thank you for your time.

firstly, your 86-year-old mum must be pretty on the ball to have noticed this kind of thing – so well done, her.

The £54 cancellation fee is a complete rip-off and I'm sure it is not enforceable.

Begin by writing to them, formerly bring the contract to an end and asked them on what basis they are seeking to charge £54 cancellation fee. Tell them that your letter is a formal complaint and that you wanted sent to the insurance ombudsman.

This sounds like an unacceptable piece of conduct by Swinton Insurance.

Normally I would simply advise you to cancel the direct debit and to claiming a previous payments on the direct debit guarantee. However because your parents are old, it is probably better to sorted out more carefully – in case Swinton start leaping into debt collection mode and start giving your elderly parents a hard time.

Lots of these companies seem very nice and approachable when you're trying to buy something from them. As soon as you try to cancel the agreement, they can get very unpleasant indeed.

Also, you should complain to Trading Standards anyway. Do this now at the same time that you are beginning your complaint to Swinton. The more people who know about this kind of thing, the better.

Oh thank you very much for your quick reply - I'm new on here and didn't expect such a quick response. Yes Mum is on the ball to a point, but then if things get difficult which they seem to be doing with this Swinton thing she just pays out her money because she thinks she has too.

I've just got her back £300 + from her bank which was a total of £25 each month for an current account she'd agreed to have because the Manager told her it was better for her. This account paid for Worldwide Travel and "Special Winter Sports Insurance" amongst a lot of other things - given Mum's age and fragile health I doubted if that particular part would be of use so I wrote to the banks HQ and low and behold they reimbursed her everything she had paid, her account was cchanged too!! My problem is that Mum is determined not to cause any problems, agrees to anything she is told and just wants to pay up and get the Policy stopped and out of the way. I told her to wait whilst I had chance to look around and see if there was any way she could not have to pay because I thought firstly the amount was a bit steep and secondly she didn't even know about this "seperate Policy" for gas/elect breakdown which was "included" within the old house and contents insurance.

I'll have to ring her and let her know what your advise is - given her financial situation I don't want her to have to pay if legally she doesn't have to.

thanks again for your response.