Readers’ forum: Equitable release

My client wishes to help his brother who is in financial difficulties. The brother owns a house jointly with his wife with a current market value of £300 000. This house has always been their main residence. They have taken out an equity release product which has a balance of £80 000. They have no other assets or liabilities.

My client is prepared to pay off the £80 000 debt but wants to ensure that his brother cannot enter into a similar transaction in future.

He is proposing that the property is transferred for nil consideration into a trust whose beneficiaries would be his brother’s three adult children (one of whom also lives in the property) in equal shares. The plan is that the trust rents the property to the brother and his wife for the rest of their lives at £1 a year and the...