6 Ways to Avoid Delays with Mortgage Protection Insurance

After months of stress with mortgage approval and finding a place you’d like to call home, you’re finally sale agreed and ready to close.

It should be a breeze from here.

All you need to do is arrange your home insurance and mortgage protection – and your bank said that would only take a few days.

But what the bank failed to mention was the BAJILLION health questions on the mortgage protection application form and what would happen if you answered “yes” to any of them.

A few days can quickly turn into a few weeks and then a few months.

All the while, the vendors lose patience and threaten to put your home (because, in your eyes, you already live there) back on the market.

The stress levels are back up to 90.

It shouldn’t be this stressful so let’s see what you can do in advance to avoid this situation.

1. Do you have any pre-existing health conditions?

If you don’t, super, feel free to scroll down to the next section.

However, if you have a health issue that you feel may impact your mortgage protection, please do the following:

Make sure your GP has your full set of medical records, including all correspondence from any specialist(s) you have seen

The insurer will request your GP complete a PMAR. If your GP doesn’t know your medical history, they cannot complete the PMAR.

This will delay your application by weeks.

Because the insurer will have to request this information directly from your specialist, who may or may not be willing to release it to the insurer.

Things can get very tetchy here as consultants and underwriters rarely agree on the information that should be shared.

The insurer will postpone deciding until they receive all the requested information.

2. Do you have any family history of health issues?

In my experience, parents sometimes don’t fully disclose their health.

Two weeks before you are due to close on a mortgage is not the time to find out your father had a heart attack when you were a young fella and that this particular heart issue is hereditary, so you should talk to your GP.

Naievely you go and talk to your GP, who refers you for a heart scan.

This is more common than you would believe.

In such a case, the insurers will postpone cover until the screening results are back..

This could take months.

Bu-bye house.

3. How well do you know your partner/spouse?

And you thought you’d never have to tell your partner about that one weekend in Amsterdam where you smoked ALL the weed, hallucinated, were hospitalised and had to confess all to your GP when you got back because you thought you were ACTUALLY dying.

But then you see the “drug and alcohol” question on the mortgage protection form.

You may think this is far-fetched and bleedin’ hilarious, but again, it happens more than you think.

Open the closet and find the hidden skeletons before you go sale agreed.

4. If you’re not originally from Ireland, will you have to do blood tests?

It seems unfair and discriminatory, but if you have moved to Ireland recently from certain countries, you may have to do blood tests.

Again, this can delay things by several weeks.

Also, if your medical records are abroad and you have a health issue, the insurer may request to get them translated before they can offer cover.

Weeks turn into months.

5. The big one – upcoming or missed investigations

Remember you had those heart palpitations, and you went to your doctor, who referred you to a cardiologist.

But they went away, so you never made the appointment.

On your medical report, there is an outstanding referral to a cardiologist.

The insurers won’t offer cover until this is boxed off or your GP writes a letter explaining why it’s no longer required.

Trust me when I say GPs rarely write that letter.

If you have any outstanding test results, investigations or referrals, the insurer will likely postpone offering cover until these are boxed off.

Repeat smears cause a lot of grief.

6. And finally – how efficient is your GP?

On average, it takes 6 weeks for a GP to complete a medical report.

SIX WEEKS.

Hopefully, your GP will be more efficient because there is no way the insurer can offer coverage for some conditions without a medical report from your GP.

Some GP surgeries are plain awful and will do anything to avoid completing a medical report.

Over to you

Sorry to be a wet blanket on what should be a joyful occasion, but hopefully, you have stumbled upon this post well before you’re due to close so you can take the necessary steps to make the process smoother.

If this is you and you’d like me to recommend the types of cover you may want to consider, please complete this questionnaire.

However, if you’re in panic mode and need help ASAP, please call me on 05793 20836, and I’ll see what I can do.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Editor’s Note | We published this blog in 2021 and have updated it regularly since