No - it's for me to provide the evidence should there be any.
I did all the obvious things like streetviewing the village and reading more sources about the story.
What I think is interesting is that the house was paid for, no debts associated with it and the house WAS insured. It's simply stated that the insurance company refused to pay and I don't know why.
But here is the interesting bit. They only raised £4000 of the estimated £25000 and he writes that his mother was forced to go down the equity release path. Now the thing is, my own parents have taken more or less ALL the equity out of their cottage in exchange for a decent pension. They aren't rich but for the rest of their lives, they don't need to count the pennies. They worked for it, it's theirs, they have every right to the money.
So I'm just a bit surprised that a lady who only had her state pention didn't go down the equity release path the moment she retired. After all, if nothing else, the equity company takes on the property insurance. As it is the guy ends by stating that NOW his mother will have to go down the equity release path. I had wondered if, previously, an equity company had taken a look, seen a huge issue and said NO, hence his mum living on not much at all and not being insured. But that would not seem to be the case.
Of course, the thing about my parents taking the equity of their home as their pension is that I obviously won't inherit a penny. Now I don't care. In fact on day my father retired I told him he absolutely SHOULD take the money because I wouldn't want them to struggle.
But this guy obviously understood equity release and for who knows what reasons, his mother didn't know or chose against it... who knows?
But if someone KNOWS that there is sufficient equity in a dewlling to pay for repairs but then tries to get donations...
It smells wrong. I wouldn't do it. I feel GoFundMe should be a last resort, not the first option (when clearly there were options).
Sadly the old dear pegged out in 2024 so if she got a lump sum to do all of the repairs and a pension - the pension ends when she dies and any offspring get nothing.
But do you see the potential conflict of interest? The equity company gambles on the house price continuing to rise at a greater rate than inflation so their profit margin is the difference between the inflation-linked pension and the value of the property when the owner dies. It's a reasonable system because they don't have a vested interest in when the owner dies. In fact in this case I presume they actually made a loss if they had paid out £21000 or so and then the pension. I imagine their calculations are based on average life-span in these situations.