Plans meeting the Equity Release Council product standards carry a right to move to a suitable alternative property, and the Council define suitable as one the provider would accept when setting up a plan for a new customer. So the new house faces the ordinary lending criteria, applied on the day. This sets out what that means in practice and what to establish first.
There is a right to move, and it has a condition inside it. The condition is that the new property is one your provider would have lent on in the first place.
Equity release may involve a lifetime mortgage, secured against your property, or a home reversion plan. It will reduce the value of your estate and impact funding long-term care.
The Equity Release Council publish that plans complying with their full product standards give you the right to move to a suitable alternative property. That is a real protection and it is worth knowing you have it.
Moving a plan to a new property is sometimes called porting, and portability is the word you will see in plan documents. The word doing the work here is "suitable", and they define it: a property "which your provider would accept if it were setting up a plan for a new customer". So the test applied to your new house is the ordinary lending criteria, applied on the day you want to move. Everything this site publishes about property criteria becomes relevant again at that moment.
They give retirement complexes as a property type not generally acceptable, "because the provider would not be able to sell them in the open market". It is a useful example because it shows what the test is really about: whether the security can be sold.
What lenders assess about a property →Find out whether your plan carries the Council standard, and get the criteria your provider applies now rather than the ones that applied when you took the plan out. Criteria move.
How a valuation works →The new property gets assessed like any other: construction, tenure, lease, title, location and value. A property that is fine to buy is not automatically fine to lend against.
If a lender will not accept a property →Establish what happens to the balance and the rate, and get it in writing. Moving is not automatically cost free and the arithmetic is specific to your plan.
How to read an illustration →The Council publish that where somebody moves into long-term care with no partner still entitled to live there, the property is sold and the plan repaid, and that no early repayment charge applies.
How early repayment charges work →It asks whether the provider would have lent on this house if you had walked in with it today. That is a more useful way to think about it than a list, because it explains why the answer can differ from the answer you got years ago.
Whether you may move and what it costs are two different questions, and the second one depends on your plan rather than on the Council standard. If the new property is worth less, some of the loan may need repaying, and whether an early repayment charge applies to that is a term of your plan.
Ask for the position in writing before you commit to anything. An adviser can obtain it, and it is much cheaper to ask before an offer than after one.
Whether your provider will accept a particular house. That is a lending decision about a specific property, taken by somebody who has seen it, and no page can make it.
What moving will cost you. It depends on your plan, the balance, the valuation and the terms, and every one of those is specific to you.
Whether you can move, and to what. The Council standard gives a right to move to a suitable alternative property, and suitability is a lending judgement about a specific house made by the provider. We are not advisers, we have not seen your plan or the property, and we cannot tell you what either of them will do.
Equity release may involve a lifetime mortgage, secured against your property, or a home reversion plan. It will reduce the value of your estate and impact funding long-term care.
All of this can be established before you view a single property, and it changes what you look at.
Questions worth asking before you fall in love with a house.
Does my plan carry the Equity Release Council product standards?
The right to move to a suitable alternative property comes with them. It is the first thing to establish.
What criteria will the new property be assessed against?
The current ones. Getting them before you view saves looking at houses that were never going to work.
If the new home is worth less, do I have to repay part of the loan?
Often yes, and the amount depends on the loan to value. It is the question that decides your real budget.
Would an early repayment charge apply to that repayment?
A term of your plan rather than a market rule. Ask for it in writing.
Does my interest rate move when I move?
Do not assume the rate travels unchanged. Ask specifically.
Short answers to the things that come up most. None of it is advice, and every figure on this page carries its source.
Usually there is a right to, with a condition attached. The Equity Release Council publish that plans complying with their full product standards give you the right to move to a suitable alternative property, and they define suitable as one your provider would accept if it were setting up a plan for a new customer.
One the provider would have lent on in the first place, judged against the criteria in force at the time you move rather than when your plan started. The Council give retirement complexes as an example of a type not generally acceptable, because the provider would not be able to sell them on the open market.
Expect one. The provider is taking security over a different property, so it assesses that property: its construction, tenure, title, location and value. A house that is straightforward to buy is not automatically straightforward to lend against.
That depends on your plan rather than on any general rule. If the new property is worth less you may need to repay part of the loan, and whether a charge applies to that is a term of your plan. Ask for the position in writing before you commit to a purchase.
The Council publish that where somebody moves into long-term care and has no spouse or partner still entitled to live in the property, it is sold and the borrowing plus interest is repaid, and that no early repayment charges apply in those circumstances. They say the time allowed is typically between six months and a year.
Equity release may involve a lifetime mortgage, secured against your property, or a home reversion plan. It will reduce the value of your estate and impact funding long-term care.
One qualified equity release adviser. They will go through your figures and tell you if there is a better answer. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
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