The Equity Release Council standards, and what they protect you from

The five product standards

1. No negative equity guarantee. When the home is sold, if the proceeds after reasonable selling costs are less than the debt, the lender writes off the difference. Neither you nor your estate owes anything more. This is the one that matters most.
2. The right to remain in your home for life, or until you move into long-term care, provided you keep to the terms (insure it, maintain it, live in it as your main home).
3. Interest rates fixed for life, or if variable, capped for life at an upper limit set at the outset.
4. The right to move to another property, subject to it being acceptable to the lender, without penalty.
5. The right to make penalty-free partial repayments, within lender limits (introduced for all new plans in 2022).

The process standards

• You must receive advice from a suitably qualified adviser.
• You must have independent legal advice from your own solicitor, face to face, who signs a certificate confirming you understood it and were not under pressure.
• You must be given a personalised illustration showing the costs before you apply.

What is still not protected

The Council standards do not cap how much interest can roll up short of the value of the home, do not protect your benefits, and do not stop an early repayment charge. They make the product safe; they do not make it cheap or automatically right for you. That is what the advice is for.

How to check

Ask the adviser directly: "Does this plan meet all the Equity Release Council product standards?" It should be stated on the illustration. Most lenders and most advisers are members; a non-member is not necessarily a problem, but the plan should still meet the standards, and you should ask why they are not members.

And the regulator

Separately from the Council, lifetime mortgages and home reversion plans are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, which means advisers must be authorised, must hold the specialist qualification, and must recommend the plan that is suitable for you rather than the one that pays them most. If it goes wrong you can complain to the firm, then to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge.

A note on the numbers. Rates, loan-to-value limits, fees and timescales are typical figures at the time of writing (2026) and vary between lenders and with your age, health and property. This is information, not advice. Equity release must be arranged through an FCA-authorised adviser, who will give you a personalised illustration before you commit to anything.