Equity release coersion

[Worzel77]

My 91 year old (very frail and anxious) grandmother is being pressured by her youngest son to borrow increasing amounts of money against the equity in her house whenever he is short of money. She does not want to do this again as she worries about the interest that is building up and that she will become homeless. This week he is putting a lot of pressure on her to take out another 10k.

Does anybody know whether he would have to go through a solicitor to do this and if so if the family were to tell the solicitor that she was being coerced they could refuse to allow it?

If not, any suggestions as to what we could do to stop it. My uncle is very manipulative and my grandmother does whatever he says even though she says taking out equity release in the first place was the worst thing she has ever done.

TIA

The best people to talk to are Age UK www.ageuk.org.uk/ tell them of your concerns and they can give advise

Sounds like elderly abuse.Can you contact Social Services

Is she short for cash? Or does she give the cash away to other people? Many (or at least not few) elderly borrow against their house (these now worth in the millions) to top up their meagre pensions. If she borrows say £100 per month, she will have to grow very old indeed before there's any risk of becoming homeless of the house is worth in the millions. The relatives will have to repay the loan once the house is sold when she has left this earth, and their inheritance will become somewhat smaller. There is nothing wrong in this per se, but if she were to take out huge sums (counted on monthly basis) and/or squanders it on certain relatives it's something else but nevertheless it's her money and her decision as long as she's not senile. A lot of people talk about "the house being their pension", in that case this is exactly what you'd end up seeing - the house funding old age.

You could probably "stop it" by paying your granny the £100 per month, out of your own money, like my dad used to pay granny each month (she rented a small flat so there was no equity).

If it is a proper equity release there should be s negative equity provision which means she would not lose the house
And she would definitely have a solicitor
Does she have full capacity

Thanks for your replies. She is not senile but she is in very poor mental and physical health. She does not need the money to live on herself. She is housebound and spends very little, her pension covers the bills etc.

The point is that she actually does not want to release any more equity from her house. She is very anxious and worries about the interest that is accruing / that she will have nothing left to leave her family in her will. Her son puts her under a lot of pressure to release equity to give to him when he is short of money.

Other family members don't think that she should be put under this kind of pressure, especially at her age / in her state of health.

If we contacted social services what could they practically do to stop it? Would a solicitor have the power to stop it if the family informed them she was being coerced?

Thanks

Suggest you take Legal advice
The interest on these type of loans is rolled over and that often means there is little or nothing left at the end
Which is fine if that is what the person wants
The difficulty is if she has capacity,she may say that is what she wants and undue influence can be difficult to prove
Perhaps get Power of Attorney
If you know who the solicitor is you could contact them with your concerns Difficulty is they should already have satisfied themselves that she has capacity