Tempted by the offer of a salary for life and an inheritance tax reduction for his two daughters, Euan Armstrong, 73, signed up to an equity release plan in 2004 with Denmark’s biggest bank using his €2 million home in Spain as collateral.
Six years on, Mr Armstrong is forced to live with one of his daughters as he prepares to take on the bank that promised so much yet threatens to leave him penniless.
His lawyer is filing eight similar complaints against various Nordic banks on behalf of expats who bought into equity release plans in the false hope that they could avoid inheritance tax and enjoy a salary for life. He believes the true number of victims could run into the hundreds.
Scottish-born Mr Armstrong, aware that his daughters would eventually be liable to pay Spain’s top rate of 34 per cent inheritance tax on the €2 million Costa del Sol property he owned outright in Malaga, sought the advice of an independent financial advisor known to advise British expat pensioners living on the coast.
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