Hello,(posted 8430 days ago)When the mortgage is arranged, the solicitor is supposed to check (on behalf of the lender) that you have an endowment policy set up.
If you read the small print, you'll see that the lender says that its your responsibility to have a suitable "repayment vehicle" in place. Back in the 80's lots of people cashed in their policies when they needed the money - as a result, they've nothing to pay the mortgage when the term is up. Nowadays, the lenders are a bit sharper and that is why the endowment policy is assigned to the lender, to stop you getting at the money.
Yes, your solicitor is at fault, he should have checked this. The lender was incompetent because they should have checked all their paperwork before completing the mortgage, but you should also have realised when you saw just your lender's payment and not the insurance company (endowment) payment on your bank statement, that there was a problem.
Endowment policies have had a bad press lately, if you still own your home, then I would suggest that you look at remortgaging with your current lender or see what other lenders have on offer and choose a capital/interest mortgage.