When we were advised by union finance to hand our keys back to Abbey National in 1995 we had a Endowment policy to which we had paid into for 4 years,they told us to forget about the policy as this would be used for any shortfall if there was any to make up the difference.We wrote to DLA who are chasing on behalf of Abbey National and ask them what happened to the endowment policy,their reply was who was it surrendered to,we do not know this as we had nothing to do with it after we handed the keys back,any advice on the endowment policy would be much appreciated.

-- Gary Gudgeon (nicola@ggudgeon.fsnet.co.uk), February 17, 2001

Answers

What happened when you handed in the keys? Did you sign something - a form provided by Abbey National, say? If you did, and you haven't got a copy, ask to see a copy. This will give you a starting point.

Who was the Endowment policy with? (It will may have been with a specialist Life company, not necessarily with Abbey National per se.) DLA and Abbey of course *should* know the answer to this, so you could consider throwing the ball back in DLA'a court by saying (politely), 'Well if you and your client don't know what's going on with regard to the very basics of this mortgage account, then how can you possibly expect us to assess your claim? Please supply us with full information about this Endowment, as well as full proof and evidence of your client's claim, in order that we can progress your client's claim against us.' I don't see how you can possibly assess the extent of any liability you might have if the lender (and its lawyers) are unable to answer basic questions like, what happened to the Endowment? I'm not expert, but it seem worth pursuing to me.

-- Eleanor Scott (eleanor.scott@btinternet.com), February 17, 2001.

Union Finance were a bunch of con-artists who financially ruined me with their "advice". I handed my keys back too and got totally screwed. The endowment policy would have been assigned back to the Lender.If you only paid into it for four years, there would have been no real surrender value to be re-couped anyway. It will show on the completion statement, probably as a few quid's credit with the name of the insurance company alongside it.

-- Too scared to say (iwasduped@yahoo.com), February 17, 2001.

We had 4 endowements linked to our mortgage, 3 were assigned/deposited with A.National and surrendered by them under their "Power of Sale" at reposession. The other policy was not assigned, therefore we got the money for this one.

DLA/A.National consistantly deny that any policies were assigned to them (no figures show on their Statement of Account), my personal opinion is that they can't be bothered to look through the paperwork (if any)to find out. We know they had the money for them because we wrote to all Companies involved, we have all the documentation we need in regards to this matter, they even gave us copies of cheques which were issued to A.National at the time.

The point is, write to whoever you had the policy with, tell them your predicament, and make sure they know that the info requested on your reposessed property should be addressed to your present address. Ask for copies of cheques, notices of deposit, date and amount of surrender, if and when cheques were cashed and in who's name the cheque/s were issued.

Good luck

Stephen Pooley

-- (stephen.pooley@ntlworld.com), February 17, 2001.