MortgagesNov 5 2014

Woman faces eviction over ‘mis-sold’ equity release

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The daughter of an elderly man in care has said she faces eviction from her family home because the equity release provider wants to call in the loan.

Sue Edwards, whose father John went into care in 2010, faces eviction from his Morden, Surrey property, her primary address, in November.

Ms Edwards has questioned how the policy was sold to her father in 2006, saying this happened just a few years before her father’s official dementia diagnosis in 2009 and subsequent deterioration.

Partnership bought the policy as part of a bulk book from the former Dunfermline Building Society, which now belongs to Nationwide.

A spokesman for Partnership said: “We purchased this case as part of a bulk book from Dunfermline Building Society in good faith and are not in a position to comment on this aspect of her complaint.”

Ms Edwards claimed her father had borrowed £35,000 but was being chased for £70,000, adding: “I find it incredible that a company can seize a property when the total owed is a fraction of the value in this way.”

When asked about the value of the loan, the spokesman said: “A standard clause in the majority of equity release contracts is that should the person be absent from the property for a set period of time, 6 months in this case, be unlikely to return and have no dependents – then the company can request repayment of the loan.”

Ms Edwards, who suffers from fibromyalgia (a chronic condition that causes pain in the muscles, tendons and ligaments) and depression, also claimed that Partnership’s solicitors, Robertsons, had failed to keep her updated until she was contacted about an eviction warrant in September, and that she had suffered from “stress” over this issue.

The spokesman for Partnership said Ms Edwards had spoken with Robertsons on 12 July, 2012 to provide an alternative correspondence address and was sent a letter to this address. On 21 January 2013, papers were served ordering her to attend a court hearing, but Ms Edwards failed to appear.

However, Ms Edwards said she had not been contacted between April 2013 and September 2014.

Partnership also said that Ms Edwards had installed a tenant in the property in October 2011, when her father went into care. The spokesman said: “This is not allowed under the conditions of the contract. As the tenant had signed a three-year lease, we agreed to let this run.

“In September 2014, we contacted Ms Edwards to find that the tenant has left and she had given up her own property and moved into her father’s home, which is also contrary to the contract. As it is unlikely that Mr Edwards will return to the property, the extended timescale and various contract breaches, the loan now needs to be repaid.”

Ms Edwards, who worked abroad before returning to the UK in 2014, said: “I did sign an agreement, but it was more asking a friend to move in and look after the place.”

She added: “I have offered to pay rent, and am applying for my deputyship (over her father’s affairs). I am also speaking to social services about the possibility of bringing him back home.”

When asked about the situation, a spokesman for Cardiff-based Robertsons Solicitors, which acts for Partnership, declined to comment.

Background

Earlier this year, theatre director Glen Walford won a case to stop her elderly mother’s house in Stourport-on-Severn being sold as part of funding for her Worcestershire County Council care, even though it was not her primary residence.