Very expensive AH MPP (Mortgage Protection Policy)? Alternatives costs 5 times less!

T

tevion

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I bought an affordable home 5 years ago.

I recently found out that I am paying over €60 per month for mortgage protection to the council.

Having shopped around, I can get a similiar policy for €10 euro per month.

The council have informed me that I must continue to pay into the current policy an cannot stop, as I tried to cancel it, and take out the cheaper one, as 50 euro per month is a big difference for me for just mortgage protection.

Surely the council cant insist on this, if one were to challenge it?

I'd imagine that is in breach of consumer/borrower rights?
 
As a matter of interest, how much did you save on buying the house at below market value?

What is the opposite of "rip-off"?
 
Brendan Burgess said:
As a matter of interest, how much did you save on buying the house at below market value?

What is the opposite of "rip-off"?
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Irrelevant questions, sounds like you have a chip there, but, not quite sure, probably around 50K at the time.
But its worth a lot less now than what I paid for it at the time, and also what I owe on the mortgage, if that makes ya happy!
 
I agree with you tev. I got rid of my AF property a few months ago and bought another second hand property.

I am getting life and serious illness cover now for cheaper than I was getting life only from the council. My mortgage rate is also much better than that from the council.
 
tevion said:
Surely the council cant insist on this, if one were to challenge it?
I'd imagine that is in breach of consumer/borrower rights?
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Don't know about the legalities of the case, but it might be worth making a formal complaint to the council, and then (if they don't fix it) referring the matter to the Ombudsman. She kicks ass.
 
Complainer said:
Don't know about the legalities of the case, but it might be worth making a formal complaint to the council, and then (if they don't fix it) referring the matter to the Ombudsman. She kicks ass.
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Thanks for the tip, I'll do that so.
 
Currently in the process of tacking the council over the same issue.

I bought my home through DCCs shared ownership scheme and am paying a large amount on money to their Friends First Mortgage Protection Policy.

Got a much cheaper price from Canada Life and currently have my solicitor onto them.

They have put me in touch with the Dept. of the Environment as apparenlty they deal with this... will let you know how it pans out :)

Ericsson :)
 
Would be very interested in seeing how this goes.
If I could pm you, i would be interested in taking the same action and using the same solicitor if it goes well?
 
Complainer said:
Might be worth taking a case to the Ombudsman, if the council aren't doing anything for you.
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I tried this a while ago and failed. Also failed with the Competition Authority. "Policy" reasons. :rolleyes:

In saying that OP are you absolutely sure that the alternative policy covers everything the council policy covers? One of the things I found when I was looking into it was that the council policy covers a lot of things that most people wouldn't normally take out in their mortgage protection; and when you did figure those things into other policies, the cost was actually higher from other providers. It seems the issue to me was that you had to take out coverage for things that you didn't really need.
 
My A/H mortgage went up again, 2 months in a row, which means the mortgage protection also went up as its a % of your mortgage.

Also, as you get older this increases.
I'm talking to Caledonian to see if they have any experience in the area of A/H MPP (Mortgage Protection Policy)

As (i believe) all A/H mortgages are variable throughout the life of the mortgage I think we are in for a rough few years. My 1bedroom "Affordable Home"/dogbox will have cost me about 300k by the end of the term.... One has to think, was this a well thought out plan all along?
 
I am paying €85.00 a month to the council for my protection policy and when I asked them to could I choose my own, they said NO! Just like that! I am most interested in hearing from anyone who can let me know of any let up here. I simply cannot afford this and I lost my job in 2006 and not secured a job since but they don't give a dam!
 
The council are making A/H clients pay through the nose for FULL Mortgage Protection and FULL Mortgage Payment Protection so that their behinds are covered should you fail to make payments on the loan. This cant be legal.

Has onyone here actually seen a copy of their insurance policy with the Council.... yes, me neither.

Mozart24
Do the math of 85euros over a 25 year mortgage (based on no increase)..... €25,500.00.... (minimum) holy molly (I could use stronger language...) Do you take home 25.5k per year? If not you are working for about one year for mortgage insurance. I think we should go to the ombudsman or better, get a solicitor.
 
Please keep this discussion on topic.

It relates to Council Morgtgage Protection rates and alternatives.
If you have a specific question about AH, etc then please post a new question.

OT posts and some responses to them have been removed.
 
zen said:
The council are making A/H clients pay through the nose for FULL Mortgage Protection and FULL Mortgage Payment Protection so that their behinds are covered should you fail to make payments on the loan. This cant be legal.

Has onyone here actually seen a copy of their insurance policy with the Council.... yes, me neither.

Mozart24
Do the math of 85euros over a 25 year mortgage (based on no increase)..... €25,500.00.... (minimum) holy molly (I could use stronger language...) Do you take home 25.5k per year? If not you are working for about one year for mortgage insurance. I think we should go to the ombudsman or better, get a solicitor.
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I already tried the ombudsman, had no luck, they said the council were within their right to do this, which makes me think how messed up the whole system is.

The only hope is by using a solicitor I think.

It would be intereresting to see how Ericsson gets on, I tried to contact him by PM to see if he had any luck, but didnt hear back.
Alternatively, if enough people were to refuse to pay their mortgage until this ridiculous rip off clause is removed, maybe they would listen then!

This practice of not allowing a borrower to switch mortgage protection is illegal under the Consumer Credit Act 1995.

There is specific legislation that applies when purchasing a mortgage and mortgage protection from a commercial lender, that prohibits the linking of services, which is the Consumer Credit Act 1995 – and in particular Section 127.

However, local authority mortgages/loans are not subject to Section 127 of the Consumer Credit Act 1995.

So it seems that it is illegal for a commercial lender to act like this, but perfectly acceptable for a local authority to enforce such a rule.

I would think that if this was brought to court, the case would be won quite easily.
 
Might be worth contacting Labour or Fine Gael about this - see how many people you can get together that are concerned about the issue (Facebook group maybe) and go to the parties with a proposal for legislation to fix this.
 
tevion said:
I already tried the ombudsman, had no luck, they said the council were within their right to do this.
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Hi tevion,

Could you reproduce here the exact correspondance you had with the Ombudsman.

In otherwords the exact wording of the complaint and the exact wording of his response.

Which ombudsman was it?

aj
 
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