FAQs

England

Your property needs to be held in the name of the person applying for the equity release loan.  If your spouse has died, the way that your solicitor will deal with this will depend on the way in which you owned the property together.  In English law, there are two ways of owning property with somebody else: joint tenants or tenants in common.  Your solicitor will be able to check your title deeds and advise you which applies to you.  If you were joint tenants, your solicitor will simply need to take a certified copy of the original Death Certificate of your spouse to take the name of the deceased person off the title deeds.  If you were tenants in common, this means that a trust has been created and will need to be wound up.  The complexity of this will depend on whether your spouse left a Will, whether you have obtained a Grant of Probate and who the beneficiaries are.  Your solicitor will be able to look at all of this for you and to advise you what needs to happen next.  You should prepare for additional costs if a trust needs to be wound up, especially if the deceased person did not have a Will, so always ask for a quote at the outset.  It is possible that your solicitor may ask you to appoint a third party solicitor to deal with this aspect as they may not be expert in this particular area of law.  Often, it makes sense to return to whichever solicitor you used to draw up your Will (if applicable) for this part of the work, as they will be familiar with your family arrangements.  Otherwise, ask your solicitor for a recommendation.

Scotland

Your property needs to be held in the name of the person applying for the equity release loan.  If your spouse has died, the way that your solicitor will deal with this will depend on the way in which you owned the property together.  Your solicitor will be able to check your title deeds and advise you.  In some cases you may be asked to provide an Extract Copy of the Death Certificate.  In other instances, additional legal work will be required and this could be complex depending on whether the deceased had a Will. You should prepare for additional costs especially if the deceased person did not have a Will, so always ask for a quote at the outset.  It is possible that your solicitor may ask you to appoint a third-party solicitor to deal with this aspect as they may not be expert in this particular area of law.  Often, it makes sense to return to whichever solicitor you used to draw up your Will (if applicable) for this part of the work, as they will be familiar with your family arrangements.  Otherwise, ask your solicitor for a recommendation.