Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 25 April 2018
84. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance the rights an applicant for a mortgage has if the required life insurance to obtain a mortgage is refused on the grounds of a historical medical condition; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18128/18]
View answerThe Central Bank has advised that when an individual(s) applies for a mortgage loan to buy a home, the individual(s) will generally be required to take out mortgage protection insurance. This is a particular type of life assurance taken out for the term of the mortgage and designed to pay it off on the death of the borrower or joint borrower.
It is an underwriting consideration for an insurance firm to decide whether to take on the risk or not. Should the insurance firm take on the risk, it may result in a large loading/premium for the customer. Alternatively, the insurance firm could decide not to take on the risk at all. This would be a commercial/underwriting decision by the insurance firm.
In most cases, a lender is legally required under Section 126 of the Consumer Credit Act 1995 to make sure that a mortgage applicant has mortgage protection insurance before granting a mortgage loan. However, section 126 also sets out some exemptions to the requirement on a lender to ensure mortgage protection insurance is in place and one of these is in relation to "loans to persons who belong to a class of persons which would not be acceptable to an insurer, or which would only be acceptable to an insurer at a premium significantly higher than that payable by borrowers generally”.
