THANKS . Will give it a try.

You could also enquire with the association of British insurers below through the unclaimed assets search, and follow the same procedure with the other organisations.

http://www.unclaimedassets.co.uk/lost_life_insurance.htm

statement checked, balance outstanding constant. Monthly payment only in the region of £140 which appears right for interest only payment.

Thanks for your comments

It's normal for an arrangement to be put in place when the mortgage is taken out but it often happens, a few years later, that someone who is struggling to pay everything over a couple of month is given the option to just pay interest. It's less common for a mortgage to be interest only from the start but that is another possibility.

It's worth obtaining the most recent annual mortgage statement and checking that the details there agree with payments and the balance the lender is saying is outstanding.

Unfortunately we dont think there is a policy as there is no sign of a premium being paid. The A & L say they dont have any record of how my mother in law was covering the capital payment and stated they hope something was in place. The family dont understand why she would not set up some sort of protection to cover the payment of the capital. I am suprised that A & L would NOT want to see prove of protection before giving the mortgage.

It is possible that there isn't a policy.

The lender may have details of the policy but it may not be such a good idea to write to ask "would you rather we paid you £60k or would you tell us about the policy". You may have to make enquiries there if you cannot find any other details. I would expect a policy to be paid by monthly payments although it's possible that it may have been paid together with another item (check the annual mortgage statement against the monthly payments for that).

It is not unusual for insurers to refuse to issue a new life insurance policy for an elderly/poorly person so I would expect the payments for any life or endowment policy to have been made for a number of years.

My mother in law died recently aged 70 leaving an interest only mortgage for about £60,000. My wife and I cannot find signs ( policy documents or direct debits ) of any insurance policy or endowment which would cover final payment of this mortgage. Is there a "body " which holds all data of policies etc held by individuals