I don't think there should be a time limit on justice. With Friends like Friends Life who needs enemies?

Well it seems that #compensation for my mis-sold #endowment mortgage policies is not for the likes of me.

The #FinancialOmbudsman agrees they were mis-sold, but I did not apply for compensation within the required time. I knew that I hadn’t applied within the required time, and I had good reasons for not doing so (one being I didn’t know anything about it due to circumstances beyond my control) but unlike the UK Government who created this problem by lax financial regulation, and produced and enforced the compensation rules I don’t think there should be a time limit on justice.

My reasons for believing I was mis-sold these policies were as follows…

1. I was a first time buyer and had no previous investments.
2. At the point of sale I was a single person with no dependents and had no need for life cover.  
3. I was not prepared to accept any risks with the repayment of the mortgage.
4. Other options for repaying my mortgage we not fully discussed - This was the only method mentioned. 
5. I would have chosen a repayment mortgage if correctly advised as it is quite clear given the information I now have that this was the most suitable at the time, and now. 
6.  The term of either of the endowment policies is not the same as the mortgage as can clearly be seen from the dates quoted.
7. I was told that the endowment policies would repay the mortgage loan and that I would also get a lump sum in addition to this although the amount of the lump sum would vary according to the value of the investments. This has obviously proved not to be the case. 
8. I was advised to start an endowment more that 6 months prior to taking out a mortgage. In my case this occurred for the initial one about 10 years before the mortgage, and in the case of the second one within a year of taking out the mortgage. I understood from previous advice on this subject that I should only ever have had 1 policy – I should never have been sold 2 to cover the same mortgage. 
9. I do not feel that the advisor discussed what kind of risks I was prepared to take with my mortgage and I was not advised that there was a likelihood of a shortfall so that I would have to find other money to cover the mortgage. As it is when I was made redundant I used the majority of the enhanced payoff (enhanced because I was ill due to company negligence and inaction) to pay the majority of the mortgage off.

So there was never any argument with the policies being mis-sold. They most definitely were, clearly and inescapably.

The Financial Ombudsman did not accept my illnesses at the time (i.e. work related stress, #anxiety, #depression, #ME/ #CFS and #fybromyalgia ) as a good enough reason for my non application within the required time. I do have the letters from Friends Provident (now Friends Life) which mention the compensation offer and the date by which it had to be applied for. However I did not see this because…

1. The application for an appeal regarding my incapacity benefit was made on my behalf by someone else, as I was not capable of dealing with it. I just wanted to hide away and not deal with anything, and couldn’t have dealt with it anyway even if I had wanted to. I was told that this was happening and it was done for me. 
2. I required to be represented by someone else in the actual tribunal and shook as I felt I was on trial. 
3. The tribunal was successful as were nearly all of the others for incapacity benefit for the understandable reason that I was actually ill!

 

Therefore compensation is available for all but ill people for mis-sold endowment mortgages.

This experience has only lost me about £20000 and I am still paying for one of the flaming policies (it earned a £1 last year in addition to the money I paid in). This may not be much to someone on a MPs wage but to me it is now an unimaginable amount of money to have lost, given that it looks as it will be quite a while until I can work again, if indeed I ever can.

With friends like #FriendsProvident (#FriendsLife) who needs enemies? 

With Friends like Friends Life who needs enemies?

Why have the Financial Ombudsman if, due to the rules they are required to follow, they are incapable of rectifying blatant and confirmed wrong doing? What is it they are actually for, except to be window dressing to placate those worried about a monetary system which is corrupt and as usual heavily weighted in favour of the big corporation.

This is just yet another item in a long line of disasters in my life over the last 10 years or so. This certainly comes high up the list of financial ones particularly as I am currently living (existing) on just over £100 Employment and Support Allowance with no immediate change in circumstances imminent (except of course if I get miraculously cured, and therefore lose my miserly weekly benefit, when I next go for a medical on the behest of the DWP as seems to happen on an almost annual basis as standard).

 http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/
 http://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Ombudsman_Service
 http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/action/how-to-take-a-complaint-to-the-financial-ombudsman-service
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20858236