Diagnosed with Leukemia - remortgaging, and do I tell my mortgage protection insurers?

J

Joe90

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I was recently diagnosed with Hairy Cell Leukemia (HCL), a rare form of cancer of the blood. I have gotten over the shock of this, and I am very positive about treatment; my consultant says that it is very curative. I will be going for chemo later in the Spring, and I expect to be free of this chronic condition after the treatment.

I am concerned about the impact of this on our future prospect of re-mortgaging getting away from our current mortgage providers PTSB. We really want to leave them, as we are being fleeced on their SVR and we are currently hovering at about 90% LTV, having been in NE of about €150K. We are currently saving for legal fees to shop around. We had decided to remortgage prior to the diagnosis, and I wonder now if anyone will touch us with this condition? Our mortgage protection insurance is life cover only, there is no critical illness aspect to it, so we will not be able to claim on this policy.

My other concern is do I inform BOI/Lifetime who I arranged this cover with 11 years ago when we first took out the mortgage on our current home. I'd be concerned that later down the road they might refuse a claim from my wife if I were to die from some other form of chronic illness if I do not inform them of the current condition and treatment.

Apologies of this is the wrong forum for this one. If anyone can advise, it would be appreciated.
 
Perhaps you should postpone remortgaging until your treatment and recovery are complete.

I would think that the existing mortgage protection insurance is separate from the mortgage, even if you bought the two together. You own the benefits of the policy, PTSB may have a claim on them but that is a different issue.

If you get a new mortgage, the existing policy can be kept up, it may be used to support the new mortgage or you may need a new policy. If you do need a new policy, it may be wise to keep the old one as well.

I dont know if it is necessary to inform BOI/Lifetime of your diagnosis, but equally I don't think that it would have any effect if you did. But I am no expert on this.

Any new policy would require full disclosure of your diagnosis.

Again I would suggest that you put sorting PTSB down as a goal for when you are fully recovered. Good luck with the treatment.
 
Hi Joe

Sorry to hear that.

I don't think that lenders ask their borrowers about their health? Obviously insurers do.
 
Joe90 said:
My other concern is do I inform BOI/Lifetime who I arranged this cover with 11 years ago when we first took out the mortgage on our current home. I'd be concerned that later down the road they might refuse a claim from my wife if I were to die from some other form of chronic illness if I do not inform them of the current condition and treatment.
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Again, I don't see why you would inform them of anything. That is why you took out the life cover.

If you wanted to borrow more money and increase your insurance, then you would need to tell them.

Brendan
 
That's the plan. I presume I'll have to declare the illness on the application form?
 
If you are not working and not in receipt of income, you will have to say so.

But is there a question about health on the application form for a mortgage?
 
Brendan Burgess said:
If you are not working and not in receipt of income, you will have to say so.

But is there a question about health on the application form for a mortgage?
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I work in public sector and took out income protection cover when the rules regarding long-term illess were amended in 2012(?). I'll not have to claim as treatment will be during part of the school holidays, so I won't have days to miss.
I too am wondering if there is a health question on a mortgage application. It might be an issue as I am nearly 47, if I were a mortgage underwriter, would I take on a new proposal like me?
 
My other concern is do I inform BOI/Lifetime who I arranged this cover with 11 years ago when we first took out the mortgage on our current home. I'd be concerned that later down the road they might refuse a claim from my wife if I were to die from some other form of chronic illness if I do not inform them of the current condition and treatment.
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If at all possible, do not cancel your existing policy! Continue to pay the premiums. It will cover you up to a certain amount, which your insurer should be able to tell you. You should be able to assign your existing policy to a new mortgage provider. For a remortgage, work out what the difference is between the total borrowings and your existing cover. Then apply for a new policy to cover ONLY the additional amount borrowed. Your current health condition is only relevant when applying for that new cover.
 
There are a few different parts to your question-

Firstly you do not have to inform the existing insurers of this diagnosis, your policy was taken out years ago before this diagnosis so nothing changes with that policy or any future benefits of it.

The policy is probably separate to the mortgage so while it may be assigned to your lender it still remains as a standalone policy if you clear that mortgage and move to another lender. Make sure this is the case and that the policy is separate and can be continued on by you in the event of the existing mortgage being cleared.

Remortgaging now with another lender is still possible assuming you are still working etc, however one of the conditions of the new mortgage will be that you have sufficient life cover, now if you are just swapping like for like as in remortgaging for the exact same amount and same remaining term as existing mortgage then the existing policy should do fine.

However if you are increasing the amount or extending the term in any way then the new bank will look for a policy that matches that term and amount, this will cause you difficulty as you will be unable most likely to take out any new policy until you are several years clear after treatment, you will deferred at best by an insurance company or possibly declined for cover.

If this was the case and you needed the higher policy then you would need to be sure your new lender would allow you sign a waiver for the life insurance based on being declined. This wouldn't affect the existing policy you have which you must keep at all costs as future cover is always going to be difficult for you. The bank would probably be happy enough with the waiver and the back up of the existing cover on the existing policy.

So in summary make sure the existing policy can be continued on by you as a standalone policy if existing mortgage is cleared and secondly if your new borrowing varies in any way from the existing term or amount make sure the new lender is ok with waivers in cases like yours bearing in mind you would have the back up of the existing policy even if it wasn't for the full amount or term.

Best of luck with your treatment.
 
Thanks Monbretia, you have addressed all of the concerns I have about this situation vis a vis my mortgage protection. We are looking for a re-mortgage away from PTSB as we are unhappy with their treatment of people like us, and the current life cover is sufficient for the mortgage sum to be taken on by a new lender.....
 
If you have salary protection through your job it generally pays 75-80% of your wages.

Is mortgage protection necessary in that case? I think mortgage protection only starts to pay out after a couple of months anyway.
 
quadrangle said:
If you have salary protection through your job it generally pays 75-80% of your wages.

Is mortgage protection necessary in that case? I think mortgage protection only starts to pay out after a couple of months anyway.
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I think there is a bit of confusion between life assurance and Mortgage protection insurance. One pays a lump sum on death the other pays a monthly amount on the occurrence of an event - redundancy.

Joe90 sorry for your news. Lucky to the the Permanent health insurance to take that strain off your mind.

Good luck.

PS I'm the other Joe_90.
 
Mortgage Repayment Protection usually pays out on a combination of the following, Accident, Illness, Redundancy or sometimes hospitalisation for self employed as obviously they can't be made redundant.

Life Assurance or actual mortgage protection pays out on death or any other insured risk as well such as critical illness cover for example which can be an added extra benefit to the policy.
 
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