Equity release

We only look at complaints you've had an opportunity to look into first. If the consumer is unhappy with your decision, or you don't respond to them within the time limits, they can come to us. 

Each case is different, so what we require will vary. But we’ll look at the facts and evidence from both you and your customer. We’ll usually consider:

• relevant laws and regulations
• regulators’ rules in place when the event happened, including the Consumer Duty
• guidance, standards and codes of practice in place at the time of the event
• whether you clearly explained the arrangement and the customer understood what they were agreeing to – including the long-term effect of not making regular interest payments
• how the customer used the money they borrowed and whether they needed to release equity
• whether the customer could have got the money in a less expensive way
• whether the customer’s circumstances at the time made them vulnerable, and if so whether you might have done anything differently because of that
• whether the customer is eligible for care, and the impact of this for example, on early repayment charges
• where a couple has released equity together, whether it’s fair to apply the charge if one of them dies or needs care
• where a customer wants to manage their loan in a particular way – for example, by making overpayments, asking for further borrowing, or asking to move to a new property – whether you treated that request fairly
• whether you’ve acted fairly and sympathetically, for example by allowing reasonable time for probate or a property sale to go through, in recovering a loan balance after your customer has passed away.

In every case, we’ll think about whether you treated your customer fairly.

This will include looking at:

• what you knew or ought to have known about their situation
• the reasons for any advice you gave, or decision you made – and whether that was fair.

If we think you acted fairly, we’ll tell your customer why.

If we don’t think you acted fairly and we uphold the complaint, we'll tell you what you need to do to put things right. This could be by:

• paying compensation to your customer for any distress or inconvenience they’ve experienced
• refunding an early repayment charge – possibly with interest – if you charged it unfairly when your customer had to move into long-term care or downsize to a smaller property
• if equity release wasn’t right for your customer, putting them – or their estate – back into the financial position they’d have been in if they’d had suitable advice, or if you’d refused to lend or agree further lending
• telling you to make changes to the loan, such as adjusting the interest rate or the outstanding balance, if we think that things would have been different if you had acted fairly.

We follow the FCA’s dispute resolution rules (DISP) and will take into account how you’ve tried to put things right, if appropriate.