I paid off my Woolwich Mortgage earlier this year, but payments to Legal and General continued.

Like a lot of people I thought this was an insurance policy which would pay off the mortgage in case of death, and that it was compulsory.

It turns out neither fact may be true. Apparently *some* banks require a policy *sometimes*, but I have no idea if the Woolwich was ever one of them.

And the payout would be to my next of kin - an unlikely outcome, because I'm single with no dependents and no surviving blood relatives.

I've made contact with L&G but the only signed document they can send me is a medical release form. They don't seem to have - or haven't been able to find - a direct debit authority, or any other application form.

Apparently a capital management company was also involved, and they would have signed paperwork.

(Or maybe not.)

The mortgage was taken out more than ten years ago, so the traditional PPI term has expired. But I'm not sure this is traditional PPI.

Has anyone been in a similar situation and had success reclaiming these payments?

so its some kind of life policy.

you say payments are continuing?

I stopped them when I paid off the mortgage.

It clearly *is* some kind of life policy,

which rather incidentally tracks the mortgage sum remaining.

When I phoned to cancel I was asked if I wanted to continue, to guarantee a payout to my (non-existent) dependents in case of death - even though there was no longer a mortgage outstanding.

So it seems this was a policy solely in my name,

with next of kin as beneficiaries,

and the Woolwich were only involved to the extent that the paperwork for this policy was put in front of me when I signed the mortgage agreement.

My partner had the same policy in place - also on a Woolwich mortgage - so we're curious about the possibility of misselling.

why not go ring you bank and see if they'll entertain a DD guarantee refund of every payment?

I know it sounds weird

but its worked before

if there was no DD mandate then its covered by the DD guarantee

Hi Rleon,

Did you redeem the mortgage on the due date or was it paid off early ?

My first guess would be this is a policy on your life protecting the balance owed on a mgge if you died. It could be a reducing capital sum for a normal repayment mortgage, or a fixed sum for an interest-only mortgage.

You may be able to "convert" the policy so it continues to cover your life, perhaps on a reducing basis over the years. Even if you've stopped paying the monthly premiums, you may be able to reinstate it if less than 12 months have passed from the last payment.

To get the info you need, perhaps a letter to L&G is the best action.

Ask them to :-

1. Confirm the nature of the policy.

2. Confirm if you can continue to fund the policy.

3. If so, on what terms.