One down, two left running

I refer of course to my three PPI claims that I set in motion at the end of January.

The one that has failed was the least likely of any success. I was pursuing it as executrix for my late father. He died ten years ago, in 2009, and the claim was about unnecessary PPI he might well have been saddled with when taking out a small mortgage on a house in Hampshire in 1980. The only definite things I knew (from Dad's meticulous handwritten accounts book, in which he listed out his monthly bills in columns, spreadsheet-style) were that (a) there were mortgage payments in 1984, which continued to 1996 when the mortgage must have been paid off; and (b) Dad would have got that mortgage from Girobank, who were insisting on PPI without the option in the early 1980s (it happened to me, with my own Girobank mortgage in 1983); (c) Girobank was taken over by Alliance & Leicester. But I had no mortgage reference, no PPI policy number, and no old bank statements that showed premiums being paid during the 1980s and 1990s.

It was however still worth a shot.

But today I got a letter from Santander (who eventually absorbed Alliance & Leicester, and are now responsible for any PPI claims) telling me that they can't trace any PPI in Dad's name, and that they won't do more research without some documentation to identify the policy and/or the linked loan. Which I lack.

Although I felt justified in asking Santander to look into the question of PPI, Dad's accounts book is not enough on its own, especially as he never mentions PPI in it. It's only my own supposition that PPI was included in his monthly mortgage repayments. I think it's pointless taking the claim further - to the Ombudsman perhaps - without a scrap of original documentation to show that there definitely was a PPI policy in force. So I'm letting this particular claim go.

I still have my two personal claims to pursue, and these are much more promising. I have some original documents; mortgage and policy references to quote; and a complete run of old bank statements to prove in each case that premiums of a definite amount were actually paid for several years. Surely sufficient to trace whatever there may be in the cobwebby vaults of Alliance & Leicester and NatWest Bank. But failing that, enough for the banks handling the claims (Santander and Royal Bank of Scotland) to agree there was PPI, and to get on with computing what I should get back.

This evolving saga is demonstrating what I thought at the outset - that claiming PPI might well be hard work. And with no certain chance of success, despite all the stories of big yields. I believe my two remaining claims should succeed, but I'm not counting on it. I should know something definite about them before the end of this month, because there's a two-month time limit on giving me a proper reply. Beyond that, I can take matters to the Ombudsman. And I think I will probably have to.