Equity release lifetime mortgage

direct137

Can anyone confirm or offer some guidance as to whether or not a claim can be made against an equity release lifetime mortgage taken out in 2004???
From the paper work that i have looked through they are charging some large repayment fees if you wanted to repay it early to clear the debt from the property???
Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated!

magpiecottage

The idea of a lifetime mortgage is that it will never be repaid within your lifetime (the clue is in the name).

Therefore your complaint would be one of unsuitability against whoever advised you to take it out.

There was no statutory regulation of mortgages until 31 October 2004 so FOS may not be able to assist you.

dunstonh

From the paper work that i have looked through they are charging some large repayment fees if you wanted to repay it early to clear the debt from the property???

Lifetime mortgages do carry heavy repayment charges. That is because they are not designed to be repaid that way and are designed and priced with long term in mind.

There were some issues in the early 90s with some really poor examples but for quite a long time now the product has done and been set up exactly as intended.

IFAs consider equity release to be an option of last resort. Typically a solicitor is involved (or recommended at least) to verify the risk issues. So, it is difficult to complain about these things later on when they were disclosed and discussed during the process.