A man is facing losing his home after a judge ruled that a lender was within its rights to seize the property to recoup an equity release loan taken out by his parents nearly 20 years ago.
David Regan, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, is being forced to give up possession of his three-bedroom house to lifetime-mortgage lender Pure Retirement after failing to repay a £172,000 loan within a year of his mother’s death.
Mr Regan’s parents, Joseph and Betty, borrowed an initial sum of £42,000 in August 2005 using an equity release scheme with a fixed interest rate of 6.64pc.
However, because interest was charged on both the original loan amount and any previously added interest, the size of the debt ballooned by £130,000 by the time Betty Regan died in August 2024.
Equity release schemes are increasingly being touted as a way to solve Britain’s retirement crisis by unlocking the billions of pounds bound up in the property market.
Last month, consumer group Fairer Finance presented recommendations to Lucy Rigby, the economic secretary to the Treasury, urging the Government to make sure property wealth becomes part of normal financial planning.
When Mr Regan inherited the property, where he also lives, he was left to repay the six-figure debt which, under the terms of the contract, was due upon both his parents’ deaths. Joseph Regan died a few months after signing the loan agreement.
Deputy District Judge Jackson of Huddersfield County Court ruled that Mr Regan must leave the property by Oct 21 or face eviction by High Court enforcement officers. Pure Retirement, which took over the loan from Mortgage Express in 2020, did not respond to a request for comment.
