Hi there. I'm new to this site and wondered if someone a lot cleverer than myself could help out. We have recently been told by West Bromwich Building Society that we could have been mis-sold PPI . I have looked at all the paperwork and we had PPI with them for 2 years between 2000 (when we took the mortgage out) and 2002. I see for the firstyear they paid it for us and the second year we carried it on of our own free will. I do wonder if we'd made a claim during that year whether it would've paid out though as my husband was self-employed at the time. I'd really like a copy of the terms and conditions when I rang the mortgage company the lady didn't answer my question and said all I needed to do was make a complaint and they would look into it for me. I don't know as I'm really happy with that though as they could make up any story about the terms and conditions at the time and I'd be none the wiser. Am I being cynical here or not? Is there any way I can get a copy of them? The other thing I stumbled across when looking through the paperwork was that we had building insurance with them for the first seven years of our mortgage. On the conditions of offer letter it states we had to have the policy with them for 5 years and then when we changed to another fixed-rate mortgage in 2005, we had to have it again for a further two. Should they have made it compulsory to take out with them? When I spoke with the lady she said with regards to paying the insurance for the first 5 years we would have to take the issue up with the broker who recommended the mortgage to us and for the other two years it had been our own free will to choose that fixed-rate package with those conditions attached. Does anyone know if that seems right or not? Many thanks in advance.

How do all, hope I can get some advice on this one. On buying our first house in September 2011, my partner and I took up buildings and contents insurance with Axa. On 2nd January this year, we were hit by 90mph winds and all of the ridging tiles and a number of roof tiles were blown off. The ridging tiles plummeted off the roof, tearing off a section of guttering and landing in my conservatory, bursting two of the roof panes in there. Not the best start to the year. I got in touch with Axa an hour or so after the damage and their adviser was pretty helpful, they broke the claim down into two parts, dealing with the house roof and the conservatory roof separately. The company dealing with the conservatory roof, Solarglass, were pretty efficient and sent someone round to assess the damage and arrange replacement parts. The insurance company are paying for the repair. Unfortunately, the parts can't be fitted until the roof is fixed, in case further damage is done while the roof is fixed. The fixing of the house roof is causing us serious headaches. The surveyor, from a company called Building Valuation Solutions, couldn't make it out until a week after the damage was caused, which was understandable, given that they must have been dealing with a few similar claims. The earliest we could get a roofer out to give a quote for the job was over a week as well. So the surveyor came out, looked at the damage, took a couple of photos and agreed the claim within about five minutes of turning up. He calculated the cost of repair as about £670 and had been instructed by Axa to sort a cash settlement, minus our excess. So we were issued £570 by Axa. The day after the surveyor came out, we had 3 contractors round to give us quotes, the average quote for repair was £980, with very little difference between all three. This has left us with a bit of a problem, the money that Axa have issued us is £300 short of what we need to do the work. We're of limited means, given that we're not long in to a new house, so not in a position just pay the extra to get the work done and fight them for recompense. We went back to Axa to let them know the situation, they told us to get back in touch with BVS about the survey. BVS however don't answer the phone. After calling back Axa, they agreed to contact BVS and passed us on an email address for them. Numerous unanswered phonecalls and three emails later, and now 3 weeks after the damage was caused, still no response from BVS. Meantime, we've had continued poor weather, which is causing further damage to the roof and inside the house. Any advice/suggestions. I pay my insurance so that I don't have to sit in a house without a roof, and my excess is only £100, so I don't think I should be picking up the extra £300 to get the work done. Still, it's extremely difficult to get it resolved when we cant get any response from the surveyors and Axa are only willing to refer us back to them. Any advice welcome. Gav

On May 23rd 2011 the side wall of my garden which faces on to a road was blown down by a wind gust. Initially they said that they take the wind speed at Farnborough, which is approximately 15 miles from where I live in Bracknell was only measured at 41mph and therefore the wind could not have blown the wall down. Initially they said that it has to be greater than 45mph and subsequently changed this to 47mph. I explained that this did not take account of wind gusts and was also measured some 15 miles away, to which they said can I prove the wind gust. They then told me to get a builder to take a look at the wall and give a cause of damage report, which I did. He stated that the wall was well constructed and that there was no other reason why the wall should have come down. He also said that he had seen other damage from the wind in the area. I also told them that I had obtained from a website a record of the wind speed in Farnborough at 46mph. They still say that the wind was not strong enough to blow down a wall. I also pointed out that the weather forecast for the day gave warnings of severe storm and wind conditions. I also told them that nowhere in the policy does it state that the wind has to be at a particular speed for them to pay out. They said it is not policy and no one includes it. I thought the policy was a contract!