FAQs

The equity release provider is accepting your property as security for its loan: this means that the provider needs to be satisfied that your property can be re-sold on the open market – either when you or your executors come to sell it or, in exceptional circumstances, if the provider has to take possession of it (because you have failed to comply with an obligation set out in your contract) and sell it.

Many lenders/providers ask questions in their application forms about your property’s age and how it is built (brick walls/roof slates or tiles and so on).  This is because some types of construction have in the past suffered structural defects.  This doesn’t mean that they are not safe to live in – but it has led some lenders and providers to decide not to accept them for mortgage/equity release purposes, because they are concerned that if there are problems in the future which need to be put right, this may affect the property’s value and its attractiveness to a future buyer.

Properties which are unlikely to be acceptable to equity release providers include:

• Studio or basement flats
• Flats of maisonettes in a local authority or housing authority block of more than four storeys
• Retirement properties
• Static/mobile homes
• Houseboats
• Farms
• Hotels
• Guest houses/B&Bs