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If you have a cash reserve facility in place, you can access the money when you need it. 

You won’t need to take financial advice each time you want to withdraw money from your reserve and you’ll only pay interest on the cash once you’ve withdrawn it.

Making a withdrawal

You can withdraw from your cash reserve facility at any time. To make a withdrawal:

1. Contact our customer services team on 0800 068 0212 
2. Let us know how much you want to withdraw and what you’ll use the money for
3. We’ll send you an Offer Letter and an Offer Acceptance Form. Make sure you read your Offer Letter carefully to understand how interest will affect the size of your loan in the future
4. Once you’re happy, complete the form and send it back to us
5. We’ll undertake some checks and make sure your application meets our lending criteria
6. Once our checks have been completed, we’ll pay the money directly into your bank account

Important information

• We apply a fixed interest rate to each cash reserve facility withdrawal, based on the rate at the time you apply. This may be higher or lower than the interest rate we applied to your initial advance
• The minimum withdrawal amount is £2,000 and the maximum is the total of your cash reserve
• If the remaining amount is less than £2,000, you’ll need to withdraw the amount in full
• Your cash reserve amount is fixed at the outset and won’t increase in line with the property value, your age or repayments

Find out more

Get in touch with our customer services team to find out more about additional borrowing, or to find out the remaining balance of your existing cash reserve facility.

Call us on 0800 068 0212

If you want to borrow more money, you can apply for a further advance. You can do this any point, as long as your application meets our lending criteria and there’s still enough equity in your property.

Do I qualify?

In order to apply, you’ll need to:

• Take additional financial advice
• Borrow a minimum of £4,000
• Let us know what you’re using the money for

How do I apply?

1. Seek advice from your financial adviser. You can find an adviser at the Equity Release Council if you don’t have one
2. Your financial adviser will contact us to start the application process
3. We’ll send them an application form and they’ll help you complete it
4. If your application is successful, we’ll pay the money directly to you

If you take a further advance, the value of your property might need to be reassessed and you may have to pay additional fees, including fees for financial advice. Your financial adviser can provide more details.

View our charges.

Interest rates

We apply a fixed interest rate to each further advance. This is based on the further advance interest rate for your product, at the time you apply. This rate may be higher or lower than the interest rate applied to your initial advance. Please read your Offer Letter carefully to understand how interest will affect the size of your loan in the future.

View our additional borrowing rates.

We know that life doesn’t always go to plan. It’s important to let us know if there are any changes to your personal circumstances, as this could affect your mortgage with us.

These changes include:

• Planning to move house or downsize
• Moving into long-term care
• Wanting someone to move in with you
• Adding someone to the title deeds
• A death or bereavement
• Getting a divorce
• Having a disability or needing extra support

Some of our mortgages allow you to make repayments without any early repayment charges.

There are two types of payments - voluntary payments and monthly payments. You can make voluntary payments if you have a Capital Select, Lifestyle Select or Voluntary Select mortgage, and monthly payments if you have an Interest Select mortgage.

Voluntary payments

How frequently can I make voluntary payments?

You can make as many payments as you like, from as little as £50 each year. You can start making payments as soon as your mortgage completes and there are no restrictions on making payments for any additional borrowing.

How much can I repay each year?

The maximum you can repay each year without any charges is known as your annual allowance. It’s normally a percentage of your initial loan amount. It starts on the day your mortgage completes and ends a year later on the day before your completion date.

If you want to make a voluntary payment of £10,000 or more, or your total voluntary payments reach £10,000 within 12 months, you’ll be asked to provide evidence to verify the source of the money being used before we can accept the payment. A response will be required within 14 days or a refund will be issued. The money will be allocated to your account on the date that the evidence of source of money has been accepted.

Can I transfer my annual allowance to the following year?

If you don’t use your full allowance, it won’t roll over into the following year. Your annual allowance expires on the date stated in section 4 of your offer letter. There’s no penalty for not using the full amount. 

How can I make a payment?

Most of our customers set up a standing order, but you can also choose to make a payment by BACs transfer. Please get in touch with our customer service team to find out more. 

Monthly payments

How much are the monthly payments?

You chose a monthly payment amount and payment term when you set up your lifetime mortgage. 

How do I make payments?

We’ve set up a direct debit to collect your interest payments every month. We take these payments on the first working day of the month. If you take any additional borrowing, we’ll set up a new direct debit.

What happens if I miss a payment?

If we’re unable to take the money from your account on the first working day of the month, we’ll try again seven days later. We’ll also let you know in writing if one your payments is unsuccessful.

If you have three outstanding payments, we’ll stop your ongoing interest payments and convert your lifetime mortgage to an interest roll-up mortgage. We’ll always let you know in writing before we do this. You won’t be able to restart your payments if this happens.

You can find out more information about this in section 7 of your offer letter, or by speaking to your financial adviser.

I’ve missed a payment. Can I pay it now?

Yes, if you’ve missed one or more interest payments and your loan has not yet been converted to an interest roll-up lifetime mortgage, you can contact our customer services team to make a one-off payment.

Can I change my payment amount and payment term?

You can’t change your payment amount or term after your lifetime mortgage has been set up. You can choose to stop making interest payments, but you won’t be able to restart them at a later date.

How can I change my direct debit details?

Get in touch with our customer services team to change your direct debit details. We will then send you relevant documents to complete and return.

The new account must allow direct debit payments to be collected and must be a personal account in the name of one, or both, mortgage account holders.

If you’re thinking about moving house, it’s important to let us know as soon as possible. 

We’ll need to check whether you can transfer your lifetime mortgage to your new property. We’ll also help you start a ‘porting’ application, which needs to be submitted alongside the purchase of your new property.

Find out more in our guide to porting

Repaying your outstanding loan balance is known as a ‘redemption’ and can happen in two ways:

Voluntary redemption

This happens when you choose to close your account and repay the outstanding loan balance because you no longer want the mortgage. You can choose to do this at any time, but you may incur early repayment charges.

Required redemption

This happens when you, or the last surviving borrower, dies or moves into long-term care. 

We’ll need to be contacted if this happens. We’ll explain the next steps and request any extra information we need.

After we receive the payment, we’ll confirm in writing that your mortgage has been redeemed and instruct the Land Registry to remove our charge from the property.

Where can I find my outstanding loan balance?

Our customer services team can give you an indicative figure and let you know if any early repayment charges will apply.

Additional information

If your property is in Scotland or the Scottish isles, you’ll need to appoint a solicitor to represent you in the redemption process. Your solicitor will need to offer ‘Conveyancing Residential’ legal services and be a member of the Law Society. 

The Redemption Quote is only valid for 28 days. After this, a new quote will need to be requested.

It’s not always easy to find the answer you’re looking for online, especially if you took out your mortgage a while ago. If that’s the case, then please get in touch so we can help.

You can email us at hf-customers@canadalife.co.uk, or call using the phone number below.