Equity release when you die: the lifetime mortgage is usually repaid from the sale of the home, and what is left goes to your estate.
A lifetime mortgage falls due once the last borrower has died or moved into long-term care, and the home is usually sold to clear it. Wondering what a plan would mean for the people you leave behind? A qualified equity release adviser, FCA-authorised, can go through your own position on a free call, which the form on this page books once you have given a few contact details.
What happens to equity release when you die?
Your estate repays the loan and the interest rolled up on it, the Equity Release Council explains, once you have died or moved into long-term care. For an executor it is one of the debts to settle: GOV.UK names mortgages alongside utility bills and credit cards when it explains how to value the estate of someone who has died.
Legal & General's bereavement leaflet says the mortgage is usually repaid from the sale of the home when the last remaining borrower dies or moves into long-term care, though the property does not have to be sold if the loan is cleared by other means. Just lists three routes: selling, refinancing, or using savings or investments. Whatever is left after repayment, Aviva says, goes to the beneficiaries of the estate.
How long do executors have to repay a lifetime mortgage?
Often up to 12 months, but each plan's own terms set the period, and lenders word it differently.
- Legal & General (bereavement leaflet Q0056892 03/26): "we allow up to 12 months to enable the estate to repay the mortgage. The property must be secure and insured during this time."
- Aviva (equity release process page, published 15 October 2026): up to 12 months for the people managing the estate.
- Just (Helping you through, JM 01924.4 08/2025, a guide for families kept in Just's adviser document library): repayment within 12 months of the last customer's death or move into long-term care.
- more2life: within the time limits in the Lifetime Mortgage Offer and Terms and Conditions, so the period depends on the plan; its bereavement guide asks families to check those terms or contact it.
What follows the deadline varies too. Aviva may allow more time where, say, a sale has been agreed and awaits completion. Legal & General writes to request repayment formally once 12 months have passed, may extend the period where active steps towards repayment can be shown, and treats repossession as a last resort. Just will get in touch to review the situation and, if the loan is still unpaid after any extra time, may have to intervene to sell the property. more2life may take further legal steps once the agreed timescale has passed, adding the costs to the mortgage, where they attract compound interest. The individual plan's terms are what count, and an adviser can help you find them, free, if you ask through the form.
Does the interest keep rolling up after death?
Yes, until the loan is paid in full; all four lenders say so, and Just adds that it cannot freeze the interest. Aviva warns that delays increase the amount owed, so less may be left for the estate.
Unless the full interest is paid each month, Just's guide explains, it builds up on a "compound basis", so months spent waiting for probate or a buyer can noticeably reduce what the family receives. How the interest works explains the mechanics, and how equity release affects inheritance shows what that does to the amount left.
What happens to a joint plan when one partner dies?
The loan carries on. Where a couple share the plan, the Council says, nothing is repaid while either of them still lives in the home; repayment follows once the survivor has died or moved into care. Just and more2life describe the same pattern for their own plans (more2life specifies permanent long-term care).
The lender still needs to hear about the first death: more2life asks to be told even when the loan is in joint names. Legal & General moves the account into the survivor's name if they still live there, and asks tenants in common to contact it.
Two points can matter to the survivor. First, early repayment charges: Legal & General applies none if the remaining borrower repays within three years of the other's death and the necessary documents have been received, and more2life says some of its mortgages offer a charge-free period, typically within three years of the first death, so the offer document needs checking. Second, further borrowing: Council standards tell advisers to flag that drawdown and further advances may not be available "after 1st death if the property is owned as tenants in common and the deceased’s estate is being left to any party other than the surviving applicant". How either point would work on your own plan is something the adviser can go through on the call-back, at no charge.
Can the family owe more than the house is worth?
Not on a lifetime mortgage from a Council member, as long as the guarantee's conditions are met. Standard 3.7.5 makes a no-negative-equity guarantee compulsory: if the property goes for the best price reasonably obtainable and the borrower kept to the loan's terms and conditions, neither the borrower nor the estate will owe more than the property is worth once reasonable selling costs are deducted.
The conditions matter. Where the terms have not been met, the standards give examples of when a provider may seek to recover a shortfall: a sale below the best price reasonably obtainable, a home not kept in a good state of repair, or a loan repaid early without the property being sold. The guarantee caps what the estate owes; it does not stop the loan taking most or all of the sale price. It binds Council members only; the standards page covers the rest.
What do executors need to do about a lifetime mortgage?
Broadly four steps, though each lender sets its own paperwork.
- Tell the lender and show authority. Legal & General asks for certified copies of the death certificate and of the Grant of Probate, Grant of Representation or Letters of Administration, and may consider a certified copy of the will. Where several executors have been appointed, more2life needs written consent from all of them.
- Get the figure. Legal & General confirms the balance only to the executor or administrator, once the documents are in. Just lets the executor or the estate's solicitor ask for a repayment statement giving the amount needed to clear the loan and the date it must be paid by; a statement of the balance at the date of death is needed to obtain the Grant of Probate.
- Choose how to repay. Just says the home can be put on the market before the grant arrives, but probate is needed to complete the sale. more2life cannot take repayment directly from the estate until a Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration has been issued.
- Keep the property insured. Aviva says the home and buildings insurance must stay up to date until the loan is repaid.
In Scotland the grant is called confirmation, applied for through the Commissary Department of the Sheriff Court according to Legal & General, and Just notes it is usually required for large estates. The loan itself is secured by a standard security, the only form Scots law allows for a heritable security over land (Conveyancing and Feudal Reform (Scotland) Act 1970, s9).
What happens to a home reversion plan when you die?
There is no loan to clear: the provider bought part of the home at the start. The property is sold and, as the Council describes it, the proceeds are split according to the proportions each side owns at the end. The percentage you kept stays fixed whether prices rise or fall, unless you took further cash releases, and that slice of the sale price is what passes to your estate. How home reversion works and the comparison with a lifetime mortgage go further.
Does inheritance protection change what happens?
It can, because it sets a floor for the estate. Legal & General's leaflet says: "Where Inheritance Protection has been taken out, the Estate will retain at least the protected percentage amount." That is one lender's wording, and others' terms may differ; the types page describes the option.
Before any plan is taken out, the wider trade-offs in our equity release guide are worth weighing: compound interest, a smaller estate, a possible effect on means-tested benefits (how benefits are affected) and early repayment charges. Council members' standards also require independent legal advice when the plan is first taken out, and member lenders accept no business arranged without advice. If leaving a set share to your family matters to you, raise it with the FCA-authorised adviser who rings once you have used this page's call-back form.
Equity release after a death: what families ask
Can my children be asked to pay off my equity release?
The Council describes the loan as repaid by your estate, and the no-negative-equity guarantee limits what the borrower or estate owes. Children who want to keep the house can clear the loan from other money instead.
What if I inherit a house that has equity release on it?
The loan must be cleared first, by selling, refinancing or repaying from savings. Just says you cannot take over the existing lifetime mortgage, though someone eligible can ask a financial adviser about taking out their own.
Does equity release affect probate?
It adds a step: Just says a statement of the mortgage balance at the date of death is needed to get the grant, and a sale cannot complete without probate, although the home can be marketed sooner.
What if there is no will?
An administrator deals with the estate instead of an executor. Legal & General says Letters of Administration may be needed in place of probate, which "will take longer than if there is a will in place", and interest keeps being added in the meantime.
Talking it over while you are able to
It is easier on the people left to deal with it if they know the plan exists and which lender holds it; more2life notes that repaying the mortgage is typically handled by your executor as part of the estate. Whether you are thinking about releasing equity or already have a plan, leave your number through the call-back form and an adviser qualified in equity release will ring you back, without charge.
Sources (read 22 October 2026): Equity Release Council, What is equity release?, Home reversion and The Standards, V2.0 (ERC_S2.0_0226); Legal & General, Helping you cope with bereavement (Q0056892 03/26), a customer guide in L&G's adviser document library; Aviva, Equity release process; Just, Helping you through (JM 01924.4 08/2025), a family guide in Just's adviser document library; more2life, Bereavement, Sorry for your loss (CS186 07/23) and What happens next?; GOV.UK, Identify assets and debts; Conveyancing and Feudal Reform (Scotland) Act 1970, s9 (legislation.gov.uk).