Finance and ownership
Equity release legal work
Legal work for a lifetime mortgage or home reversion plan, including independent advice from your own solicitor at an in-person meeting.
This work depends on the details, so our team prepares a quote for you, usually within one working day.
Equity release is a long-term commitment secured on your home. Make sure you have had regulated financial advice and understand the plan fully before your solicitor completes it.
Equity release lets homeowners, usually aged 55 or over, take money out of their home without moving. The most common type is a lifetime mortgage: a loan secured on your home, where interest usually rolls up and the loan is repaid when you die or move into long-term care, normally from the sale of the property. A home reversion plan, usually available from age 60, means selling all or part of your home to a provider in return for a lump sum or income while you keep living there.
Because equity release affects your home, your estate and possibly your benefits, the Equity Release Council's standards require independent legal advice from a solicitor. Your solicitor explains the plan, checks you understand it and are choosing freely, and carries out the conveyancing.
Tell us about the plan, who lives in the home and any existing mortgage, and our team will prepare a tailored quote, usually within one working day.
What is involved
Once your financial adviser has recommended a plan and the provider has made an offer, the legal work usually covers:
- Instructions and identity checks: confirming who owns the property, who lives there and whether anyone else, such as a family member, has an interest in it.
- Title and searches: checking the title and any existing mortgage that must be repaid from the money released.
- Reviewing the offer: going through the plan's terms, including the interest, the effect on your estate, early repayment charges and the conditions for staying in the home.
- The advice meeting: your solicitor meets you in person to explain the plan and its risks, check you understand it and confirm you are not under pressure from anyone. Other adults living in the home may need to sign a form agreeing to leave when the plan ends.
- Solicitor's certificate: you and your solicitor sign a certificate confirming the advice has been given, which must be in place before completion.
- Completion: the provider releases the money, any existing mortgage is repaid and the balance is sent to you.
- Registration: the provider's charge, or its interest under a reversion plan, is registered at HM Land Registry.
Your solicitor gives legal advice only. Whether equity release is right for you financially is a question for your regulated financial adviser.
What the legal fee covers
- Identity checks and confirming everyone who lives in the property
- Checking the title and any existing mortgage
- Reviewing the provider's offer and explaining its terms
- Independent legal advice, including an in-person meeting
- Signing the solicitor's certificate with you
- Arranging signatures from other occupiers where the provider requires them
- Repaying any existing mortgage and sending you the balance
- Registering the provider's charge or interest at HM Land Registry
Costs you may see on top
- HM Land Registry fees for registering the provider's charge or interest
- Searches, or search insurance, where the provider requires them
- A home visit for the advice meeting if you cannot travel to the solicitor
- Early repayment charges on any existing mortgage
- The provider's own legal or administration fees, which some plans add
- The valuation and your financial adviser's fee, which are separate from the legal fee
- Identity checks and the bank charge for sending money
What to have ready
- The provider's offer and your adviser's recommendation report
- Details of any existing mortgage or secured loan
- Photo identification and proof of address for each homeowner
- The names of every adult who lives in the property
- Any lasting power of attorney, if someone else manages your affairs
- Your bank details for receiving the money
- Times when you can attend the meeting with your solicitor
How long it takes
Once the provider has issued its offer, the legal work often takes a few weeks. The main factors are how soon the advice meeting can be arranged, whether an existing mortgage has to be repaid, whether other occupiers need to sign and how quickly any title issues are resolved. The whole process, from first speaking to an adviser to receiving the money, usually takes longer, because the advice, application and valuation come first. Offers have expiry dates, so arrange the solicitor's meeting promptly.
Things to watch for
- Interest on a lifetime mortgage usually rolls up, so the amount owed can grow quickly and reduce what you leave to your family. Ask your adviser for illustrations over different periods.
- Equity release can affect means-tested benefits and council tax reductions. Check this with your adviser before going ahead.
- Plans that meet the Equity Release Council's standards include a no negative equity guarantee, so you or your estate will never owe more than the home is worth after reasonable sale costs. Check your plan meets the standards.
- Under the Equity Release Council's rules you normally need to meet your solicitor in person, and a video call does not count. Allow time for this, or ask about a home visit.
- Consider telling your family about your plans. It can avoid surprises later, but the decision is yours, and your solicitor will check you are making it freely.
Questions people ask
What are the Equity Release Council standards?
They are rules that members of the Equity Release Council follow. For lifetime mortgages they include fixed interest, or variable interest with a cap, for the life of the loan; the right to stay in your home for life or until you move into long-term care, provided it remains your main home; the right to move to a suitable property, subject to the provider's criteria; the ability to make repayments without charges, subject to lending criteria; and a no negative equity guarantee. Independent legal advice is mandatory.
Can I use the solicitor my adviser recommends?
You are free to choose your own solicitor, and you can use one your adviser suggests if you are happy to. What matters is that the solicitor acts for you independently and gives advice that puts your interests first. Ask the solicitor at the start who else, if anyone, they are acting for in the transaction.
Will my family have to repay the loan?
The loan is normally repaid from the sale of the home when the last borrower dies or moves into long-term care. Your family will not have to repay it from their own money, and with a no negative equity guarantee the amount owed cannot exceed the home's value after reasonable sale costs. They can repay it from other funds if they want to keep the property.
Will equity release affect my benefits?
It can. Releasing money may reduce or stop means-tested benefits, local authority grants or council tax reductions. Your financial adviser should check this before recommending a plan, and MoneyHelper's guide to equity release explains the main points to consider.
Who does the work
Your matter is handled by a law firm regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers or CILEx Regulation, or in Northern Ireland by a solicitor regulated by the Law Society of Northern Ireland. At the moment the law firms on our panel act for property in England and Wales, so for property in Northern Ireland we tell you whether a firm can act for you before we pass your details to anyone. The firm confirms who will work on your file, their experience and its terms before you instruct it. How we choose our firms.