This experience stems back to 2004/5 and our interactions with Hodge Bank during 2024/25.In 2004, my parents were mis-sold financial services that they, in hindsight, never actually needed, by a third party company. Mum was unwell at the time, and soon after buying these services was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. One of the services provided was an equity release through Hodge Bank of around £90,000. At the time the property was valued at around £250,000. In return, Hodge Bank would be entitled to 90% of the equity raised when the property was sold in the future. Let's just run that again, 90% of the equity in the house! Even at the time, the bank's immediate gross profit would have been £135,000 if the property had been sold straight after the ink had dried on the contract! My parents explained to me at the time that I didn't need to worry when they die because the bank will buy the property.Fast forward 20 years. Mum had passed away in 2021, and Dad passed away in 2023.It was only during the process of Probate for Dad's estate that we found out that Hodge Bank had this claim against my parents' house. The property by this time was valued at £450,000 so Hodge Bank's share was now around £405,000, from an outlay of around £90k.Now it's important to say here that Hodge Bank had done nothing illegal, and the services that were sold through the broker weren't subjected to regulation until 2007, but can anybody reading this honestly say that the contract wasn't at the very least immoral? I guess that's the banking business for you.Our interactions with Hodge Bank during the Probate phase and the sale of the property lacked any empathy or sympathy for my shock and distress over losing what my parents had thought they were passing on to me after their lifetimes of hard work and dilligence.Even at the end, now owning 90% of the property, the bank penny-pinched and only contributed towards insurance costs and utility bills for around the last three months before the property was sold as opposed to when they took over the property on Dad's death, forcing me to pay all bills for at least 18 months.I recognise that other financial institutions have also gained financial benefits in a similar way but my experience is wholly with Hodge Bank and the way they do (or did) business, particularly where older and more vulnerable people are concerned. Please be very careful when using equity release schemes. Banks are after profit, nothing more, and really don't seem to care about the moral implications of how they make their money.
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