Top ten property reports: February by Finance News Bulletin

Top ten property reports - Published:08/02/07

News Companies & markets Investing Power collection Campaigns Mortgages & homesMortgage featuresInsurance Consumer advice Broadband & phones departure Saving & banking Credit & loans little business Tax & wills Message boards cash blog Tools & calculators Ask an expert Guides contrast & buyThe start of the year will be remembered by homeowners for the shock bank rate go up that sent many racing for novel mortgage dealsTAKE PART IN OUR SURVEY Tell us what you think of This is Money and help form our future (you could even earn £35)A ONE-MINUTE MAKEOVER If you only have one miniature to learn how to kind your finances, forget the rest and read this>> Our 8-step planThe increased cost of borrowing saw This is Money readers flock to our special speed rise features, but what were the other top possessions stories in JanuaryHouse prices grabbed readers' attention with doubts surfacing that the property market could be set for a tumble amid doubt as to whether 2006's physically powerful gains could be sustainedThis is Money rounded up the predictions for the day ahead and asked if your home would sell in 2007We also took a journey to Britain's only town where the average home costs less than £100,000 and delivered some much needed good information on the crackdown on rip-off mortgage way out feesWindfalls from the surplus cash held in endowment with-profits money came back into center and that hardy perennial, buy-to-let, maintained its spot in the top tenThe first signs of panic in the property market among owners who believe the boom is over were reported by a most important estate agentFiguring out which of the a variety of house price predictions to believe takes some sleuthing This is Money crunches the numbersPundits are predicting home prices will carry on to rise in 2007 - but what does it denote to you We run the rule over the major forecastsThousands of populace will be looking to remortgage as a result of the store rate rise This is Money picks the most excellent dealsMillions of borrowers could receive up to £200 each following a onslaught on unfair mortgage exit fees We explain how to get yours backBargain hunters be careful Just one municipality is left in Britain where the average house can be snapped up for less than £100,000Prices fell for the first occasion in six months during December - was it a symbol that property price inflation may be slowing down or just a blip in a rising marketplaceHouse prices are at their most overvalued for 15 years, according to a novel study that says costs are moving beyond the means of many familiesNorwich Union proprietor Aviva wants to dish out £4bn of surplus possessions We ask its 'policyholder advocate' what the diagram meansBuy-to-let is no longer the headline grabber it once was, but many investors are still keen Read This is Moneys top ten buy-to-let instructions 2007 Associated Northcliffe Digital Ltd Terms Privacy policy promote with us LoansCardsMortgagesInsuranceCompare the best deals around with This is MoneyPlease choose a loan£ Select a loan word 12 months (1 year) 24 months (2 existence 36 months (3 existence 48 months (4 existence 60 months (5 existence 72 months (6 existence 84 months (7 existence 96 months (8 existence 108 months (9 existence 120 months (10 existence GO New credit cardPick your favoured card offer Please decide 0% introductory rate No annual charge Cashback Loyalty scheme All of the above GO Balance transferPlease select a kind of insurance Life insurance Home and contents Car stop working services Health - medical Health - dental.

I deserve Norwich Union cash - Published:07/02/07

information Companies & markets Investing Power portfolio Campaigns Mortgages & homesMortgage featuresInsurance Consumer recommendation Broadband & phones Retirement Saving & banking Credit & loans Small business Tax & wills communication boards cash blog Tools & calculators Ask an expert Guides contrast & buyNorwich Union is confusing policyholders about who will get windfalls if its future distribution of £4bn of spare cash goes aheadTAKE PART IN OUR review Tell us what you think of This is Money and help shape our future (you could even make £35)A ONE-MINUTE MAKEOVER If you only have one minute to learn how to sort your money, forget the rest and read this>> Our 8-step planAviva, the insurer's parent corporation, is telling policyholders whose plans matured before November 21, 2006, that they will not get anythingBut the Policyholder supporter, Clare Spottiswoode, says this decision is hers to make - and she has yet to make it The decision is expected within weeks The stop point is crucial because it could make the dissimilarity of thousands of pounds for someIn Aviva's case, the £4bn 'present at birth estate' is said to have been built up during the Sixties when policyholders were not known big enough payoutsThat extra cash has full-grown over the decades and 90% of the returns it generates are supposed to fit in to policyholders Aviva now wants to 'buy' policyholders' human rights to the moneySpottiswoode's job is to make sure these windfalls are large enough and go to the correct people But Financial Mail - and Spottiswoode's own office in London - is receiving a watercourse of letters from ancient policyholders who are apparently excluded from windfalls because their policies matured before November 21 She has already said she is prepared to consider their correct to windfalls'If there is evidence that policyholders whose plans developed before November have been underpaid, one might argue there is case for them to have a share in the money,' she says 'But if Aviva can demonstrate that those policyholders had conventional everything they should have done then we would say, ''Look, you have been treated fairly'''Aviva says it chose November 21, 2006, as the cut-off as that was the day it announced its plans to slice up the cashFormer policyholder Pamela Jones, 69, the companion of a retired farmer from Tiverton, Devon, is one who wrote to Spottiswoode, proverb: 'I feel that not only current policyholders should have a share of the reserves of Norwich Union'Pamela opened a with-profits retirement fund plan in 1976 and if it were still in force today, it would qualify her for a windfall if the deal went throughBut in 1999 she swapped the with-profits finance for an income-paying pension, though she stayed with the insurer out of loyaltyShe says: 'If there is a surplus to give away, then as a current pension customer whose expenditure for more than 20 years helped to make the surplus, surely I am entitled to a share'Spare possessions in with-profits funds are known back to policyholders in several ways - as cash payouts (as planned at Norwich amalgamation, as extra bonuses additional to policies, or windfalls when mutual companies demutualiseThe Financial Services Authority has told companies they must assess spare possessions and say what they will do with them Policyholders with some funds, such as Phoenix, part of decree, are enjoying payouts boosted by extra assetsAnd one million policyholders with Pearl will receive boosts to their plans over coming existence as £500m is handed out in the form of extra bonusesBut this is little consolation to preceding policyholders, many of whose plans have performed appallingly, who will get nothing by a stroke of awful timing© 2007 Associated Northcliffe Digital Ltd Terms Privacy policy Advertise with us LoansCardsMortgagesInsuranceCompare the most excellent deals around with This is MoneyPlease decide a loan£ Select a loan term 12 months (1 day 24 months (2 years) 36 months (3 existence 48 months (4 existence 60 months (5 existence 72 months (6 existence 84 months (7 existence 96 months (8 existence 108 months (9 existence 120 months (10 existence GO New credit cardPick your favoured card offer Please decide 0% introductory rate No annual fee Cashback faithfulness scheme All of the above GO Balance transferPlease select a type of cover Life cover Home and contents Car Breakdown armed forces Health - medical Health - dental Travel Pet.

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Time to take a stand - Published:30/11/06

Thousands of endowment policyholders may have now weeks to register mis-selling complaints - or lose the chance of getting recompense for everMajor insurers including Prudential, Standard existence, Norwich Union and Friends Provident have imposed occasion bars on policyholders - and some of these are about to take effectUnder the Financial Services power (FSA) rules, policyholders have three years from when they became aware of the problems with their policy to complainUsually, it is supposed that this awareness stems from when the policyholder first received a correspondence warning that their policy may not disburse off their mortgageTime-barring started after companies complained that they could not reasonably expect to have to contract with endowment mis-selling complaints for years to comeBut the system now say the insurer must write to policyholders caution them when there's six months to go until the time saloon approachs inThe letter will approach from the insurer who provides the policy, but the complaint must be made to whoever sold the policy, be it an cover salesman, a bank or building society or an consultant As a huge number of deficit warning letters were sent out in 2003-04, the drawbridge is now being raised for many policyholdersPrudential wrote to 110,000 policyholders - roughly not whole of whom were Scottish Amicable clientele - this summer warning they had six months left in which to complain The first of these time bars will come into effect at the finish of February Norwich amalgamation will by the end of this year have time-barred 150,000 of its 11m policyholders Its actuary David Riddington says that about 50 policyholders a week are being barred from complainingHe adds: 'We're allowing our clientele a year's grace before time-barring them We write and tell them when they have a year to go and we also write to them once more to remind them'We want everyone to have every opportunity if they feel they have a mis-selling subject to pursue it - but we university teacher't want this to go on for ever and ever'Standard existence, which has 11m mortgage endowments, mainly sold by self-governing financial advisers, says that by March next year, 420,000 of these will have been time-barredAnother 190,000 start to be timebarred from May next year However, even when the barrier has come down, there could still be comebackThe Financial Ombudsman Service is receiving an rising number of complaints from policyholders disputing when the clock underway tickingA spokesman says: 'Just because you've had a letter proverb you've been time-barred does not stop you from disputing it'We're considering complex influence on how the time-barring decision was made - such as whether the correspondence detailing a potential shortfall was sufficient caution of a problem and thus should it mark the begin of a complaint'To gain compensation you must prove that you should never have been sold the endowment in the first place Someone with a suitable mis-selling complaint should be able to answer yes to at least one of these questions• I was not told the policy was invested in the stock market and as such, there were risks concerned that weren't made clear to me• I was single and/or was an employee in a corporation pension scheme at the time of the sale and therefore did not require the life cover afforded by an donation• The policy matures after I retire and no check was made on how I'd afford the premiums after I give up work You won't succeed if you middle your complaint on the projected shortfall Always protest first to the company which sold you the endowment This won't necessarily be the insurer: it could be a have an account, building society or adviserThe company has up to eight weeks to deal with your grievance If it's not resolved to your satisfaction, you can then go to the OmbudsmanSelect a loan term 12 months (1 day 24 months (2 natural life 36 months (3 natural life 48 months (4 natural life 60 months (5 natural life 72 months (6 natural life 84 months (7 years) 96 months (8 years) 108 months (9 years) 120 months (10 years)Please select a type of cover Life cover Home and inside Car Breakdown services Health - medical Health.

Top ten property reports: February by Finance News Bulletin

Published: 07/03/07

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Top ten property reports - Published:08/02/07

I deserve Norwich Union cash - Published:07/02/07

Time to take a stand - Published:30/11/06