You are a property owner - well you and the mortgage company between you as a rule!

But before you forget - if you have a mortgage, remember that the repayments must be made regularly.

Have you considered the possibility of being in a situation where you just cannot make those repayments?

Redundancy or involuntary unemployment

Short time working

Illness

Accident

Reduced income

And of course - DEATH!  Bliss for the Christian believer, but  those who have been left behind  will need more than blessed memories if they are left with a mortgage to pay and perhaps deprived of a substantial income.!

Have you seen that notice which appears on every advertisement for mortgages?

Your home may be repossessed if you fail to maintain the payments on your mortgage

But I can't afford the repayments - surely they will understand!

Lenders will, or certainly should be, sympathetic if you do run into difficulties with your mortgage repayments. But only for a time, unfortunately.

Before long they will point out that each of the above eventualities and others which might well arise could - apart from exceptional circumstances - have been guarded against by an appropriate insurance policy.

Please do not adopt the ‘Oh I'll chance it' or ‘It won't happen to me' attitude

People have been reading and ignoring the stark warnings on cigarette packets for years - and we know the tragic consequences that have resulted.

You owe it to yourself and your family and dependents to ensure that as far as possible your mortgage payments are adequately protected. For basic but vital cover, the cost is surprisingly small.

As part of our obligations under the Financial Services regime we are obliged during the mortgage arranging process to bring this vitally important matter to your attention.

But in fact we do so, not because we are obliged to, but because we have experienced so many tragic situations arising in over 30 years of mortgage arranging where a blasé attitude towards mortgage protection has resulted in the most tragic of situations. It is primarily for this reason that we urge all with a mortgage commitment to seriously consider this matter.

If not for yourself - for those you love and who are dependent upon you.

We would suggest that it is irresponsible for a Christian not to take available and appropriate measures with regard to potential liabilities, when the absence of  income from a  main 'breadwinner' for any reason - either temporary or permanent - could bring possible hardship to others.

To be of as much practical help as possible, we have provided a facility whereby you can obtain a completely no oblgation illustratiion detailing the cost of appopriate cover. You will find the mortgage protection illustration button in the menu, on the home page, but before obtaining an illustration it may be helpful for you to know the basics of the different types of cover. Please note that the information provided is not meant to be an exhaustive minutely accurate description of the various products, but simply a layman's guide as to what is available to protect your mortgage repayments

Term Insurance.  Level term - pays out a fixed sum should death occur at any time during  the selected term which is normally the term of the mortgage. Usually aranged on an interest only type mortgage where the capital outstanding remains the same throughout the mortgage term.

Term insurance. Reducing term  - pays out  an amount sufficient to repay the reducing balance on a mortgage arranged on a capital repayment basis.

When determing the amount of cover required for either form of term insurance, remember that additional and  continuing  living expenses will remain even if the mortage liability has been removed.  It is therfore advisable to budget for an additional payment over and above the mortgage liability

Critical illness cover.  A policy designed to provide protection should a serious (but not necessarily life threatening) illness occur, normally resulting in the policy holder being unable to work.  It has long been established that a mortgage payer is at least 3 times more likely to suffer a serious illness than to die during the term of a mortgage, which makes this form of cover particularly important, but the scope of cover varies considerably between providers and great care is necessary when choosing a policy.

Unemployment and/or Disability cover. Comparatively short tem cover, with benefits usually limited to 12 months.  This policy is designed to provide short term relief in the event of unexpected loss of income through involuntary redundancy, loss of employment, accident or illness. Such policies are meant to provide  a 'breathing space' to consider the implications of an unexpected change in financial circumstances and take appropriate action.

Deferred benefits cover. There are a variety of protection policies available to cover what may be a permanent loss of income, but where benefits may not be required immediately.  This policy is  particularly useful where long term disability prevents work being continued but a salary continues to be paid for a specified period, or it is possible for the policy holder to cope for a while before the policy is activated. With this type of policy, the longer the 'deferred period' - that is the time before the policy is required to commence paying out, the lower will be the premium.  This policy  can often be succesfully combined with the Unemployment and Disability cover policy referred to above - that is, the deferred benefits cover would kick in after say 12 months when the benefits of that policy had come to an end.

Please remember that with many  mortgage protection policies, the age of the applicant(s) plays an important part in determining the policy cost and it is important that consideration to obtaining appropriate cover be taken at the earliest age possible, and provision made for not only present but future requirements, bearing in mind that insurance likely to be required in the future would probably be cheaper to obtain in the present!