DLA are claiming on behalf of Abbey National £30,000 they say I owe in shortfall debt. After many weeks of letters from me asking for all documentary evidence(and them making various excuses not to hand anything over!), they are now asking why I want to see the mortgage deeds. They also say "it is not within our power to provide a copy of the MIG policy as we do not have the insurers authority to release this information". Any advice at this point would be welcome. I think this website is absolutely brilliant, it's turned me from a quivering wreck 3 months ago to a strong, take no crap woman today, Thank you!!

-- Trish Urmston (trish5493@aol.com), May 09, 2001

Answers

Two distinct things here. 1. The 'Why' question. It is absolutely f-all to do with DLA why you want the document. It's obviously relevant and therefore you are entitled to have it. They are possibly angling to find out what plans you have. If you felt really bloody minded you could write back asking why they want to know why you want the document, otherwise simply restate your request, note their query and regretably decline to answer. 2. Release of MIG. Lots of others seem to have had the same problem, MIG sightings have been very rare. In court you could argue the relevance of the document because you want to see what obligations the MIG provider puts on the mortgagor to chase up old debt, and to find out if the debt been paid off by the MIG. If the debt has been met by the MIG then the supplementaries are a) are the Abbey chasing on behalf of Mr MIG rather than themselves b) the debt become simple contract debt (ie subject to the six year rule) etc etc. c) who is calculating interest and how;plus how were you notified of the charges... note we are now onto Mr MIG's interest charges not the Abbeys, because Abbey's debt was met. You can see why they're reluctant just from these few questions.

In the very least you could ask DLA to name the insurer, then write to them direct... threaten to make them a party to any action.

Finally, you could possibly write to Abbey asking for a copy, as, after all, you paid for the damn thing (and like most of us you were probably told it protected YOU).

Way to go.

-- Andy T (Andy.turner@ramesys.com), May 09, 2001.

Excellent answer above.

I would just add that I found out who the MIG company was in my 'case' through SARNing my lender (Abbey) and the agent (Eversheds). This information was on one of the screen dumps. (It's Sun Alliance, by the way.)

-- Eleanor Scott (eleanor.scott@btinternet.com), May 10, 2001.