11 Aug 2009 12:00 AM:
We purchased our property (an apartment within a block) through a Barclays Mortgage and at the time were sold a Mapfre Buildings INsurance policy for the first year. We were unaware that this was set up as a direct debit for the following year to automatically renew the buildings insurance. Our Community Administrators informed us that our community fees included a portion for buildings insurance and gave us the name of an agent selling through Mapfre who could work out how much our insurance premium would be as a top up. We were saving a great deal of money (approximately 100 euros). We explained that the policy had been automatically renewed the month previously and were told that we would receive a refund of the overpaid amount. He sent us a copy of the Community Policy which we had to sign and send to Barclays for them to attach to our mortgage. As the latter policy was also with Mapfre we thought there would be no problem. However it now transpires through Barclays that Mapfre are refusing to refund the money, although I think it might be Barclays who are refusing to refund as they received the commission originally. So we have ended up paying for buildings insurance twice on the property through different agents to Mapfre. It seems that nobody wants to loose their commission. Can Mapfre legally refuse to refund? Is there a Consumers Association that can sort this out for us? We have been arguing the point for 4 months now. We initially wrote to Mapfre through their contact page and received no acknowledgement. Would appreciate any information on the best way of approaching this.
Thread:
Building Insurance wiht Mapfre
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