In recent times, it has come to light that thousands of customers were erroneously sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) by financial institutions in Ireland.
In particular, self-employed persons, persons close to retirement and on contract are those more seriously affected having been miss-sold Payment Protection Policies only later to discover that they were ineligible to be insured by such policies.
The Director of Consumer Protection of the Central Bank is investigating and assessing the miss-sale of the such Payment Protection Insurance. Payment Protection Insurance Policies include mortgage, personal loan and credit card payments in the event that policyholders become ill, are involved in accidents or become unemployed.
Healy O’ Connor Solicitors who are addressing queries in relation to Payment Protection Insurance Policies for a number of Clients are concerned that many self employed persons who purchased such insurance later experienced business failure and on doing so contacted their Insurers only to discover that there were unable to invoke the payment protection provisions of the Payment Protection Insurance Policies.
Where it is established that a consumer has been miss-sold Payment Protection Insurance, compensation and a refund in the premium paid will have to be made by the financial institution from whom the Insurance Policy was purchased. A similar situation has arisen in Britain where British Banks have set aside billions to compensate British customers who were miss-sold Payment Protection Insurance. It would seem that that same miss-selling tactics employed in Britain were employed in Ireland by financial institutions.
From the investigations carried out by Healy O’ Connor into Payment Protection Policies purchased by certain consumers, a number of similarities have arisen. Those who sold Payment Protection Insurance Policies to these consumers were trusted advisors to the consumers who encouraged and advised the consumers to purchase these Payment Protection Insurance Policies.
Furthermore, these consumers relied on the representations made by and the advice given by their trusted advisors and purchased the Payment Protection Insurance Policies in many cases being obliged to discharge significant premiums in doing so. The provisions in the Payment Protection Policy documents often did not correspond with the representations made to these consumers who were shocked to discover that the provisions of the insurance policies differed substantially from the representations made to them as to the workings of the Payment Protection Insurance Policies.
Unfortunately, the events against which these consumers purchased the Payment Protection Policies arose and the consumers were shocked and angry to discover that they could not invoke the Payment Protection provisions of these Insurance Policies. In many cases, these consumers were ineligible to invoke the payment protection provisions.
Many consumers have tried themselves to contact their financial institutions to address their concerns with the Payment Protection Insurance but have not received resolution and are frustrated and exasperated by the failure of those who sold the Payment Protection Insurance to resolve the concerns that have been raised. Healy O’ Connor Solicitors encourage all consumers who have taken out personal loans, mortgages or have credit cards to contact us as they may have been miss-sold insurance and, if that is the case, are entitled to a considerable refund.
