Mortgage Insurance

[daboyz1]

My sister in law owns a house in Chiang Mai. She's been sick for years, and is probably not going to make it. My mother in law has been paying the mortgage on this house every month even though no one lives there. My mother in law went to the bank to make another payment yesterday, and the bank mentioned that she has mortgage insurance that should cover the payments since my sister in law is disabled and that my MIL should contact the insurance company. Has anyone heard of this? Does anyone have any experience with filing a claim?

I know they have this type of disability insurance in the U.S. but didn't realize they have it in Thailand.

[Hot today]

Banks normally require insurance payments paid up front for the period of the loan. Get MIL to contact isurance company,

[Pacificperson]

Since the bank is being helpful, you are two steps ahead in the game. Get the name and contact information for the insurance from the bank and follow-up. See what the insurance company says and go from there. It seems like your mother-in-law in in luck.

[Pib]

Definitely contact the mortgage insurance company to see what the policy rules are. In fact, I would recommend you get a written copy and have a trusted Thai family member read the policy as the company may leave out some important info if just talking to them on the phone. Mortgage insurance policies can vary greatly...some are written just to cover the bank if the person owing the money can no longer pay, but many times this don't go into affect until the bank reclaims the house. Other polices are written to help the person owing the money make the payment if they lose their job, disability, death, etc. But one thing for sure the policies have very specific rules as to when and why they pay out and tend to protect the bank more than the individual. Get a copy of the policy. Good luck.

Edited January 25, 2014 by Pib

[daboyz1]

Definitely contact the mortgage insurance company to see what the policy rules are. In fact, I would recommend you get a written copy and have a trusted Thai family member read the policy as the company may leave out some important info if just talking to them on the phone. Mortgage insurance policies can vary greatly...some are written just to cover the bank if the person owing the money can no longer pay, but many times this don't go into affect until the bank reclaims the house. Other polices are written to help the person owing the money make the payment if they lose their job, disability, death, etc. But one thing for sure the policies have very specific rules as to when and why they pay out and tend to protect the bank more than the individual. Get a copy of the policy. Good luck.

Thanks for the replies. I've found a mover (thanks to Thaivisa) to move everything out of the house in Chiang Mai to Si Saket. We're going to do this when I go in April. Unfortunately, my MIL doesn't understand all this insurance stuff very well. At least that's the impression I get from my wife. I'll probably just have her keep paying the 8k a month loan payment until we go then try to find someone there to sort it all out.

Talking to my wife more about it, she says the sister paid 1.2 million THB cash for the house, and then later went and got a 600k loan against the house to open a restaurant, which of course went down the toilet. The MIL has been paying for a year, so the loan is down to 500k. Thinking about it, it would be good if I could sell the house for 1 million, pay off the loan, and then use the other 500k for my niece's education etc., since no one is living in the house anyway. I didn't realize the sister had that much equity in the house when I first posted the question.

Seems like this 3 week "vacation" I have planned in April is turning into alot of work.