Shine Lawyers announced that it is investigating a potential class action on behalf of people who bought Aussie Home Loans Mortgage Protection Plan policies.

Shine said policy holders may have been misadvised and sold policies of little or no value.

A notice on Shine’s website says: “If you acquired Mortgage Protection Plan policy from Aussie Home Loans on or after September 2016, you may be eligible for compensation and are encouraged to register for this class action investigation.”

A spokesperson said as many as 30,000 people were affected and a significant number had already come forward. 

The investigation will determine whether the policies were of little or no value, whether Aussie brokers who sold the policies breached their duty of care to act in their clients’ best interests and whether brokers engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct.

The investigation will look at the possibility that many customers may have already had similar or better cover and that there were cheaper products in the market that provided better cover.

Aussie Home Loans was a subsidiary of Commonwealth Bank during much of the period under investigation. In December 2020, CBA announced that it would merge Aussie with online broker Lendi, in a deal that will see CBA retain 44 per cent of the combined business. CBA’s shareholding has come down to 42 per cent since then.