Is this weird Is he up to something?

[creamwitheverything]

Hi everyone I need some advice please if anyone can kindly help? I got married in 93 and left in 95. I was young and stupid and I wanted to go, I signed everything,the house everything over to my ex and walked away.It wasnt his fault the relationship broke it was mine and I hurt him badly for which I am bitterly sorry,That was all years ago and life has moved on happily for all of us seperately since.Now out of the blue he has contacted me and said I need to sign some forms left over from the marriage.Now I would have thought everything was done with the divorce but apparently not.So he says we have something called mortgage protection that is both in our names and he needs me to sign this over to him.I have no clue what this is or what it covers or why I am still on the policy as I am not I dont think on any mortgage. He says he has no divorce papers to fall back on as his solicitor retired and died way back.He has demanded I now sign some forms why? It is a bolt out of the blue to hear from him but he says he is now retiring and I need to sign these forms over to him.Is he up to something or am I reading more into it than I should? Can anyone explain to me as I have no documents or anything now as it was so long ago. Can anyone tell me whats what and why and more so why now? Thank you in advance this is most disconscerting him popping up after alll these years,I feel quite unsure,Apparently he has to instruct a new solicitor as there is no record anywhere of what should have been cancelled years ago and he has put in an official complaint.It all seems a bit suss to me,Can anyone help ease my mind please?

Very dodgy, dont sign anything. He should have a copy of the divorce settlement and if his solicitor dies then all their records would have been transferred to another solicitor anyway.

Ask him to send over the papers to you and then see a solicitor with them.

Can you recall if the mortgage was an endowment or a repayment mortgage ? Endowments can have an insurance type policy linked to them which repays the capital sum at the end of the mortgage. They were all the rage in the early 1990s. Ours matured a year or 2 back and we had to sign paperwork for the money transfer

Don’t sign anything. Get a solicitor.

Is he trying to claim for mis-selling and can't do that with you on the policy?

Definitely tell him to send over what he has and take it to a solicitor.

So... around about 25 years then. Could it be that it is paperwork to do with an endowment policy, and he needs the full amount to pay the mortgage off at the end of the term? Perhaps the insurance policy was left in joint names, and you are due to receive half of it.

If I were you, I'd ask him to send you the paperwork, and then what you need to do is consult a solicitor or an independent financial adviser (or possibly both).

Is he saying that if he'd kept the divorce papers then he wouldn't have to ask you to do sign something? If that's the case then, personally, I'd be inclined to just offer to send him a copy of that in the first instance hoping that might curtail any further need of your involvement.

Thank you all so much for your advice. Apparently he is now instructing a new solicitor to send me a form to sign to transfer what ever it is over to him. I will wait,investigate and do nothing till I can check things out officially.

You haven't paid anything towards the mortgage, so why do you think you should have any money from him after all these years?

I don;t. I don;t want anything I never did.I walked away and left with my clothes. I just wanted to know why after all these years he was in contact with me to sign legal I pressume documents that I have no knowledge about and what I would have thought would have been sorted out in the divorce. It just seemed odd to me as to why now? We have had no contact for over 20 odd years. It worried me thats all which is why I asked for advice, Trust me I am no gold digger!

Mortgage protection or just an insurance that would pay out if the person (or one of the people) paying the mortgage was serially ill or lost their job, or whatever unexpected event might make it difficult or impossible to pay.
Ours paid out when my husband had to leave his job due to ill health.

So no, it shouldn't be an issue and I don't see how his action could be nefarious. If you've not been paying the mortgage then you're not entitled to any of a possible payout intended to help him pay it.

Seriously, not serially ill

Ask him to send you the paperwork and get someone with financial knowledge to explain what it means. What you don't want is to end up having to pay out for something that is not your concern iyswim

Also, for the record, I'd totally forgotten about our mortgage protection policy, so I can see how it was overlooked during the divorce. It was something that our mortgage provider insisted on and we didn't think about it again. We'd actually paid off the mortgage early so didn't think about it when my husband was taken ill. I assumed that it expired with the mortgage, but it didn't. I discovered that it was still active six months after my DH had to stop work, so the payout was an unexpected (and much needed) bonus.

Likely scenario - he either needs to claim on the policy, (and you won't be entitled to it anyway but the insurer won't pay until you confirm this).

Or he's claiming a mis-sale and they won't take the complaint or compensate unless you show you have been removed

Even though you don't want anything from him, could you ask him to pay your solicitor's fees for your side of the transaction ?

Mortgage protection is a type of insurance policy designed to cover mortgage repayments if the borrower is unable to do so. As a previous poster says, it is not surprising if it was overlooked. Indeed, he may not even have been aware of its existence.

It is not the same as an endowment policy. An endowment policy will provide a sum on maturity (which is arranged to coincide with the end of the mortgage) which will hopefully be enough to cover repaying the mortgage. A mortgage protection policy doesn't do that. It simply keeps up the mortgage payments if you are unable to do so due to illness, serious injury, redundancy or similar.

These policies were frequently mis-sold. People were encouraged to buy policies when they would never be able to claim against them, and some lenders automatically included a policy with a mortgage without even telling the borrower, but collecting the premiums as part of the monthly payment.

I agree with others that the most likely reason for this is that either he needs to make a claim, or he wants to claim that it was mis-sold.

Thank you all I feel much more reassured.

He might be selling the house and usually buyer's mortgage company ask for seller to sign a waiver form. I can't recall the name of the form and the the purpose of the form that you as ex wife , providing declaration that you have no interest in the property now and in the future.
Mortgage protection is different. I agree with pps comments.