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.
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:
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 have received all the information they requested.
In my experience, parents sometimes don’t give full disclosure when it comes to 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 feel and that this particular heart issue is hereditary.
This is more common than you would believe. In this particular case, the insurers will postpone cover until all required screenings have taken place.
This could take months.
Bu-bye house.
And you thought you’d never have to tell your partner about that one weekend in Amsterdam where you smoked all the weed, hallucinated, hospitalised and had to confess all to your GP when you got back.
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.
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 you get these records translated before they can offer cover.
Weeks turn into months.
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 occurs 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.
On average, it takes 6 weeks for a GP to complete a medical report.
SIX WEEKS.
Hopefully, your GP is more efficient because there is no way the insurer can offer cover 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
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 make a recommendation on the types of cover you may want to consider, please complete this questionnaire.
However, if you’re in panic mode and need some help, please call me on 05793 20836, and I’ll see what I can do.
Thanks for reading
Nick
As Ireland's leading life insurance broker, we specialise in comparing the rates and policies from the top five Irish life insurance providers and offering the very best value quotes to suit the individual needs of our clients. Our expertise lies in finding a suitable insurance plan for those with specific needs, be it a particular illness, occupation or claim history, we've got you covered in every sense!
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