My Goodness John,(posted 7814 days ago)How you have been treated is horrendous. Have you asked Royal & Sun Alliance to substantiate their 'debt' by providing a copy of the MIG? The Halifax got R&SA to write a letter, dated 4th OCTOBER 2002, basially saying that I owed them (R&SA) money for a MIG taken out in January 1989 (keys handed back to Halifax 1995). Of course, all the usual story, underselling and not quite doing things the way they told me they had. Anyway, I asked to see the MIG and they kept refusing to send me a copy, saying it was a 'confidential' to start with and then it was a 'block policy - (which incidentally cannot be traced to one particular property/person)', blah, blah, blah. It turns out that the Halifax re-MIGed the property for a higher value AFTER I handed the keys in, it would appear to me that I am NOT liable for an insurance policy I didn't request! But whichever way, the ORIGINAL MIG was mis-sold. The Halifax told me it covered ME against loss, they at no time said the Insurance Company could claim the money back off me. And because I paid for the policy without being made aware of the full '(made up afterwards) facts', they could not prove that I owed money to R&SA.
My line of defence was either 1. they mis-sold the policy at the time by not stating that I would have to pay the Insurance Company back for any loss they suffer as a result of the insurance. Or 2. If the policy was not mis-sold and the insurance policy covered ME for the loss as stated, then R&SA and Halifax were trying to make me pay money that was not owed to them and this is fraud.
It seems to me you can either try the above and call their bluff, or wait another two years and then tell them politely to go away because the debt is 12 years old.
Whichever, you decide, I think I would send copies of the paperwork you have, plus you story to your MP (my usual line, but I still think the more of us that make a noise about the way we have been treated, then somebody HAS to do something about it eventually)!
Good luck.
Tracey