My wife and I bought a house together and took out a mortgage. The solicitor told us that, should either one of us die, the house would become the property of the surviving partner. However when my wife died last year the bank said it couldn’t find any insurance to cover my wife’s death. The solicitors haven’t replied to my letter asking them to explain this.
It could be that this is just a simple confusion. The solicitor may just have been explaining that you were named on the deeds as “beneficial joint tenants”, which means that the equity in the property passes automatically to the survivor. It doesn’t mean that the mortgage will be paid off if one of you dies. If you specifically asked the solicitor to arrange life cover see a different solicitor.