Mortgage protection with Irish Life - health questionnaires

katie275

Hi,

Bought a house, ready to draw down, the only thing that's holding up the process is the mortgage protection, bank won't issue cheque until it's in place.
Our broker said the insurers came back and asked me to complete questionnaires in relation to two conditions I declared on the form, which I have done.
Hypertension - well controlled with medication, had investigations done (ECG, 24h BPM) and all clear
Abnormal smear 2 years ago - low grade changes, went for colposcopy and nothing to worry about - just have to get regular smear tests.
I'm 31 and in good general health

I'm panicking now incase this is going to delay everything, we have been so diligent with everything and now the sellers solicitors are wanting to know what the hold up is.

Anyone experienced anything similar?

Thanks in advance

Leprechaun77

If the broker was also involved in the mortgage process, he/she has let you down by allowing you get this far without mentioning your life insurance requirement.....you are where you are however.

Hypertension is quite common and the general rule is that once you have it under control for a minimum of 3-6 months, even with medication, you should be fine. What would concern me however is the fact that you would be deemed quite young to have this condition. The insurer will look at your BMI, family history, smoking status etc in deciding on this. Have you a family history of this or any heart trouble?....have you any follow up appointments or tests?

Abnormal smear: again this is quite common, however the insurer will look for something more than ‘it’s nothing to worry about’. Assuming low grade abnormality, they will look to see the results of subsequent tests....if these were clear etc, it should be fine

Depending on the answers, you may get the ok at normal rates based on the info above. Its very much a positive that you have the BP under control, and you have undergone tests which have given the all clear......however if there is more to this than you have mentioned, a GP report will be needed to fully assess and this WILL delay you.

katie275

Thanks for your reply, yes I do feel like the broker dropped the ball here but it is what it is.
I'm pretty sure my GP would write a report pretty quickly if I need to get one done.
I've read about some companies refusing to insure until there's been a normal smear result (which I haven't got since the previous abnormal one) so I'm freaking out a little
Got the sellers solicitors on our backs now as we have signed contracts and thought we were ready to go! :-(

Leprechaun77

You need to keep on top of the broker to chase the underwriters in Irish Life (or call them yourself!)......Irish Life may need to write to the GP on these issues depending on the detail you disclosed to them...get them to decide one way or the other.

(I am also surprised that your solicitor allowed you to sign contracts without life insurance approved as surely this would have been one of the conditions on the loan offer....but as mentioned, you are where you are and need to just deal with it.)

bri007

Hi, we had similar experience with getting mortgage protection. It took ages to be honest as both of us had health issues so to speak.

We got our solicitor to put a condition when we signed the contracts that it’s depending on bank issuing Cheque for loan, where the bank would decline it if no mortgage protection was in place meaning we wouldn’t lose our deposit. Thankfully it turned out ok and didn’t have to do that but it delayed things a lot. All depends how good your GP is at writing back. I had similar health to yourself in the hypertension and I also had high cholesterol all under control now but they wanted reports and letters confirming same. My partner has health condition and that required reports as well.

In the end we got it, there was a big loading fee on it.

Just keep on to them, and if they require your GP to write out just plague him/her to do it ASAP.

I don’t know about swear tests, but if you are not waiting on any results etc and the GP confirms same you should be ok.

Best of luck, I know what it’s like but keep thinking positive and hopefully it all works out. Maybe ask your solicitor for advice worse case scenario?

katie275 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply, yes I do feel like the broker dropped the ball here but it is what it is.
I'm pretty sure my GP would write a report pretty quickly if I need to get one done.
I've read about some companies refusing to insure until there's been a normal smear result (which I haven't got since the previous abnormal one) so I'm freaking out a little
Got the sellers solicitors on our backs now as we have signed contracts and thought we were ready to go! :-(

notharrypotter

From here it would appear you already have a mortgage.
Do you not have insurance with it?

katie275

bri007 wrote: »

Hi

Glad you got sorted in the end ðŸ‘ðŸ»
God it’s so stressful! We too have a clause in our contract ‘subject to loan approval’ it’s been a long road getting to where we are now so fingers toes and everything crossed!
My GP is excellent so hopefully we get it sorted.
Did you deal with a broker or shop around yourselves?
I know it’s unlikely sellers will pull out due to this (we had to wait a long time for them to get their **** together) but my anxious brain struggles to cope with these things!

katie275

Small update...they want a private medical report from my GP who is going off to get married this week. I’m super stressed and panicking that the sellers will pull out if there’s a big delay!
Worst case our protection gets declined / postponed, would it be crazy to suggest we rent the house on a temporary basis?
I would ask my solicitor about this but he’s off on hols too..

Trish56

The proposal for your mortgage protection seems to have only been submitted recently is that because you only completed the proposal recently or your broker delayed submitting it.

It is normal when there are health issues that the life company would request a medical report from your Doctor. Are there any other Doctors in the practice or can the Secretary just print off your medical report and send back to Irish Life.

Do you have any other life policies ? Is your Income totally reliant on the mortgage ?

Ring the Secretary if your Doctor gone on holidays and explain the urgency.

katie275

Trish56 wrote: »

.

Our broker didn’t get us to fill out the mortgage protection until we had a closing date, and we didn’t anticipate this delay
Probably a combination of naivety on our part and negligence on the brokers part.
I’ve been onto my GP herself (who is super) this morning and she’s going to fill out the report ASAP, she has also referred me for a follow up smear so fingers crossed.
I am the main earner and I could afford the repayments but my partner might struggle should something happen to me. We have no other policies, my partner has a death in service benefit but I don’t think that would make much difference?
We’ll wait for the insurance company to make a decision and apply for a waiver with our bank if we need to

ashes2014

Are you stuck with that insurance company? Can you go to another insurance company who may not be as strict as the one you are currently waiting on? Suppose it possibly depends on if the bank accept a different insurance company?

Might be worth your while making enquiries anyway?

katie275

ashes2014 wrote: »

Are you stuck with that insurance company? Can you go to another insurance company who may not be as strict as the one you are currently waiting on? Suppose it possibly depends on if the bank accept a different insurance company?

Might be worth your while making enquiries anyway?

I have contacted another broker who specializes in cases like ours, I think our current broker only deals with Irish life.
I’m not sure if KBC only accept mortgage protection from certain companies, to me that seems wrong would they be allowed to do that?
I’ll contact them and find out anyhow
Thanks!

bri007

We went with KBC and they don’t mind who your mortgage protection is with once it’s in place.

katie275 wrote: »

I have contacted another broker who specializes in cases like ours, I think our current broker only deals with Irish life.
I’m not sure if KBC only accept mortgage protection from certain companies, to me that seems wrong would they be allowed to do that?
I’ll contact them and find out anyhow
Thanks!

Addle

If your GP says you’re having a follow up smear, will the insurance provider not want to wait for the results of that?

Trish56

All KBC want is a mortgage protection policy for the amount sought and term and this can be from any Life Company in Ireland.

Try Aviva or New Ireland.

katie275 wrote: »

I have contacted another broker who specializes in cases like ours, I think our current broker only deals with Irish life.
I’m not sure if KBC only accept mortgage protection from certain companies, to me that seems wrong would they be allowed to do that?
I’ll contact them and find out anyhow
Thanks!

katie275

Thanks for the replies all, I've sent the information to the specialist broker so hopefully he comes back with some better news.
To add extra pressure, the purchaser of my apartment wants to be in by late May :-( so could lose him

ashes2014

Fingers crossed all goes okay.

Policy Review

Hi Katie,

Sorry to hear of the delay however i can help with some knowledge, The broker did in fact mess up here, they have an 8 month window in which they can action a plan with Irish Life so they could have had this completed ans signed off but not put into force until the draw down was ready. I've seen this quite a lot,and I'm assuming the broker or tied agent has gone quiet but it is their job to help in situations like this.

Your GP will need to fax the additional medical info to the underwriters in Abbey Street as this is the quickest way. They MAY not agree if the GP mentions sending for more tests as they will want the results of them too.
The GP must be careful how they word the extra info so not to imply that you need more tests. otherwise they could push back and this will slow down the draw down of funds.

If everything goes smoothly and it is accepted you can expect further delays as the policy docs will be posted out to the bank and yourself, you can however get round this by writing out a letter of authority signed by both people taking out mortgage protection plan to email the policy docs to the bank directly once they become available on Irish Life's systems.

Both Irish Life and every bank in the country have secure email server so they can securely send this without breach of GDPR. This letter can be hand written and simply take a snap of it on your phone and email over to the guys in Irish life. I would do this asap as they take up to three days to get through admin.

Best of luck and any other questions hit me up.
Regards

katie275

Policy Review wrote: »

Hi Katie,
Regards

Thanks so much for this advice