i did thanks. they gave me the option of extending the trust deed till its paid off. it means another 18 months of payments but no need to sell the house. apparently they base the equity on the original value of the house so it wouldnt have mattered if the property had gone up or down. i still dont know why someone came out last week to look at it anyway. its not ideal but such is life. thanks for all your help guys

Many thanks. i'll give those people a call

i was never given the option of paying the £2000 he has always just said "we will deal with it a the the end" but thank you ever so much. i will try to get a hold of him on Monday

Yes, Ida. The original figure was £2000 but we have obviously been paying the mortgage for three years which is why the figure is now around £4500. i just wonder then, what the surveyor was doing at my house last week if he was not valuing the property:???: does your quote above mean that if i am unable to come up with the money then he will need to arrange another valuation? surely that would be to my advantage? sorry to bombard you with questions but i am really stressing and you seem to know what you are talking about

thanks Ida, but my wife and family are almost as skint as me! you dont think he would set a definite period for the trust deed to end?

but if my wife does not give permission to sell, could he in principle agree to accept a definite amount in monthly payments. i really couldnt cope with the thought of paying indefinitely and THEN still being forced to release equity at the end

the letter we got yesterday was based on the survey recently done, so he obviously has some kind of report valuing the house at its purchase price. its also incredibly difficult to get a hold of him and im usually passed on to his "assistant" who appears to be reluctant/unable to explain anything in any great detail to me

thank you Do you think an option would be to ask the trustee to approach the creditors with a view to having the equity written off, since it would be impossible to obtain a remortgage and I would be unable to sell the house? in failing that, do you think that he would accept continued monthly payments in lieu of the unreleased equity? i really hoped that this would be over after 3 years and now it just seems that it could rumble on

the survey was conducted last week but i was not allowed to see it. this is what makes me think that something is not right. to be honest, if i could get this supposed valuation for the property on the market at the moment, id bite your hand off for it. in reality id be lucky to get what i paid for it. i just dont know whether the trustee would accept a valuation from a surveyor of my choice...

the trustee DID have a survey done and (bizarrely) the house was valued at exactly what we paid for it 4 years ago. my argument is that this is NOT a true reflection of the house's market value since many identical flats in the same area are struggling to sell for around £10000 LESS than this. i have a feeling that it is in the trustee's interests for there to be some equity in the house but in reality there cant be much at all. do you think i could have an independent survey done to confirm this? would the trustee accept this if it was in dispute of the survey that he paid for? i really appreciate your help and input blueda

i know what you are thinking blueda but the equity release IS a legal requirement of the trust deed so i dont think that im being deceived in any way. my problem is simply to do with HOW i am going to release this equity. the only thing that i may dispute is the value of the quity since prices have definitely dropped in the last few years

yes, it is fairly misleading. however, equity release was discussed at the beginning and im not disputing this. however, in the current climate when it is virtually impossible to unlock this equity, even by selling the house, i dont really know where i stand hopefully someone can clarify it soon...

many thanks. im glad i found this place

he will not sign me away from my trust deed until i "release" the equity. he doesn't suggest how. it seems to me that my only options are to: A) re-mortgage (and theres not enough equity to do this) b) sell the house (but again, once all fees etc are taken into account, there will be no money to give him) i have no debts as all of my creditors were included in my trust deed. as soon as this is finalised, i should be debt free.

thanks for the speedy reply blueda. the half share is because the property is jointly owned between my wife and i. her share in the property is not inlcuded in the trust deed so any equity at the moment must be divided in two.