Equity release question

Chivas69

My parents took out an equity release on their home some years ago and in September moved house but Aviva (who the equity is released by) put a few spanners in the works and I was just wondering if it seemed fair practise!
Basically, my parents wanted to be closer to family so they had their bungalow valued and found another bungalow closer to family! Their own bungalow was valued at £185,000 (told to accept anything above 180 by estate agent) The new bungalow was also up for £185,000!
My parents home sold for asking price of £185,000 so they then offered the full £185,000 for the new bungalow which obviously got accepted!
Everything was running along nicely and then Aviva got involved!
They sent a surveyer to the new bungalow who reported back it was only worth £175,000! This left my parents £10,000 short. To cut a long story short the other owners dropped the price to £178,000 and my parents had to find £3000 extra to give to Aviva! Aviva then also were to receive the extra £7000 my parents would make from the sale!
A bit of a pain but my parents could just about afford it and went ahead!
After about 3 weeks and quite a few searches and fees paid Aviva sent round someone to the bungalow my parents were selling! A few days later my parents got a letter saying Aviva think their property should be valued at £190,000 and basically this means Aviva need an extra £5,000 pound from somewhere!
My parents just felt like the floor had caved in and my Mom was so upset and could hardly even talk about it. Without my knowledge they pulled out of the deal as my Mom couldn't take the stress! Also they were now a few thousand down due to the fees etc!
Another long story short, I convinced them to get it all back on and I'd give them a cheque for £5000 and as they thought it unfair on me I said they could pay it me back £10 a week!
All in all it all went through and they're very happy now!
I was just wondering if this is right what Aviva did, or if this is normal?
It just seems they plucked some figures out of the air to make themselves 15 grand! It seems very strange that the new bungalow should be worth £10,000 less than asking price but theirs should be worth £5000 more!
Any comments will be thankfully received!

iolanthe07

I think what Aviva did was normal. My parents-in-law were royally shafted (not by Aviva) with one of these schemes, before they became regulated. My solicitor was astonished at what a bad deal they signed up to in 1998.