Scottish Trust Deed

kev1980_2

Taygal82 wrote: »

Also, as a word of warning, if you agree the equity figure and then prices do fall, the Trust Deed period is simply extended to cover the equity. For example, you say you have £3k ish equity to pay to the Trust Deed, a lot of IPs get the person to just keep paying beyond their 3 year period so your are in effect in an insolvency procedure for 5 years with all the risks that go with that.
My concern with KPMG's fees were that if they were too high then it could prevent creditors agreeing to your Trust Deed. There is a particular company that acts on behalf of a lot of creditors now and they reject all TDs with a certain amount of fees. I would suggest you go to a smaller IP firm who could do all the things KPMG can do but for less.
I'd like to declare that I have worked in personal insolvency but not since the change in legislation.

Hi Taygal 82,

Thank for that

I seem to be leaning more to the DAS - Debt Arrangement Scheme now as the best soloution to my financial situation.

With DAS I know that my house will be safe and that my creditors won't take any legal action against me, all interest and charges on my loans etc are frozen when the DAS is signed. The other plus point is that all the creditors will get their money back!!

If anyone wants further info on DAS plese see the link below:

http://www.moneyscotland.gov.uk/das/das_display_home.jsp;jsessionid=32BFD02A19E1D41143A3490D8784546B?p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&pContentID=3&

One of the good things with the DAS is that although creditors have the option to object to the proposals for repyment, if they do object but the DAS administrator agrees the payments are fair and reasonable then he or she can over rule the crediors decision!

kev1980_2

Have re done my budget and now have a little extra surplus income which should help the DAS if i go down this route!!

:money:

coolcait

Hiya kev

I'm really pleased to hear that you've got an appointment with one of the local authority advisers. Once you've had that second opinion, it should help you decide what option is best for you.

I have to admit that I think DAS looks like a great option. I'm not on one myself, so I can't say how it works in practice. But when you look at the advantages you've listed, I think it's well worth a look for anyone in Scotland who's on a DMP which is paying more than token payments to creditors each month. Or even for anyone who is managing to make the minimum payments to their debts each month.

It would be great to hear how you get on with all of this - if you don't mind sharing :beer:

kev1980_2

coolcait wrote: »

Hiya kev

I'm really pleased to hear that you've got an appointment with one of the local authority advisers. Once you've had that second opinion, it should help you decide what option is best for you.

I have to admit that I think DAS looks like a great option. I'm not on one myself, so I can't say how it works in practice. But when you look at the advantages you've listed, I think it's well worth a look for anyone in Scotland who's on a DMP which is paying more than token payments to creditors each month. Or even for anyone who is managing to make the minimum payments to their debts each month.

It would be great to hear how you get on with all of this - if you don't mind sharing :beer:

Thanks for the reply.

I'll keep you posted after my appointment with the local authority money advisor who deals with the Debt Arrangement Scheme

Cheers

County_Mounty

KPMG are an absolute nightmare. Just finished a 3 year trust deed (took nearly 5 due to KPMG), had to sell my flat at the end, which was not explained and they took all the equity.

Would strongly advise against them. The process was not explained and when there were problems it was impossible to speak to the same person twice.

Trust deeds may work for some people but seek independent advice. At the end of the day KPMG are a business and are making money form your trust deed.

coolcait

County_Mounty wrote: »

KPMG are an absolute nightmare. Just finished a 3 year trust deed (took nearly 5 due to KPMG), had to sell my flat at the end, which was not explained and they took all the equity.

Would strongly advise against them. The process was not explained and when there were problems it was impossible to speak to the same person twice.

Trust deeds may work for some people but seek independent advice. At the end of the day KPMG are a business and are making money form your trust deed.

I'm sorry to hear that. But I'm afraid I'm not surprised.

Have you raised your concerns with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), who are the professional body for most Scottish insolvency practitioners? Although, being honest, I found them about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. :mad:

That said, it gives you an opportunity to vent, and a record of your complaints - in case anyone ever finds an organisation that is willing to challenge IPs over the amount they charge for trust deeds, and the way they mislead the people who sign them. :rolleyes:

*In my opinion only, based on the experiences of people close to me*

kev1980_2

Hi Folks,

Thought i'd give you all a wee update as to how i'm getting on.

At the moment i'm still with the CCCS on a DMP, just had a review and have discovered I can thrown an extra £100 on top of what i'm paying into the DMP which will help clear my debts faster.

The advisor at CCCS in Glasgow was brilliant!! We went through my income and expenditure again and afterwards the advisor suggested i look at the Debt Arrangement Scheme as an alternative to the DMP with the CCCS as it guarantees that all interest and charges will stop on entering the DAS scheme.

I've got my interview with a DAS Approved Money Advisor next week so will let you know how that goes.

The two options really for me are either DAS or Scottish Trust Deed...... :rolleyes:

DAS is good as it freezes interest and charges and my house will be safe and all the crediors will get their money back over a longer period.

Trust Deed has its advantages that the debt will be repaid over a shorter period and anything left after 3 years will be written off....... Have to get the equity thats in the house together either at the start or the end of the trust deed, there is the chance that the trust deed will not become protected and if that happens we have to go down the sequestration (Scotland) route, bankruptcy in England and Wales.

Decisions Decisions Decisions.............

Can I get some more views and suggestions from others thanks!

milliemonster

I have no experience of any of this to be fair but having read through the whole of this thread I have no idea why you would be even considering a Trust Deed in your situation as opposed to Bankruptcy/Sequestration?, with you having little equity in your flat anyway, if sequestration works like BR in England, you would be better going down this route and wiping the slate clean from day one rather than spend 3 years paying into a trust deed and possibly losing your home at the end of it.

However, I think that a DAS sounds great (wish they did something like that in England!) and this would be a much better (and safer) route for you to take, yes it means you paying back the debts over a longer period but during that time you know your home is completely safe while you learnt o live a life without credit and within a budget

I hope it works out for you

JK11

milliemonster wrote: »

I have no experience of any of this to be fair but having read through the whole of this thread I have no idea why you would be even considering a Trust Deed in your situation as opposed to Bankruptcy/Sequestration?, with you having little equity in your flat anyway, if sequestration works like BR in England, you would be better going down this route and wiping the slate clean from day one rather than spend 3 years paying into a trust deed and possibly losing your home at the end of it.

However, I think that a DAS sounds great (wish they did something like that in England!) and this would be a much better (and safer) route for you to take, yes it means you paying back the debts over a longer period but during that time you know your home is completely safe while you learnt o live a life without credit and within a budget

I hope it works out for you

MillieMonster - not sure if there's a difference between bankruptcy in England and sequestration in scotland, but contrary to what you suggest, in a sequestration the slate is most definitely not wiped clean on day one. In a sequstration if there is any equity in a property, that value still needs to be paid into the sequestration. Likewise, if the bankrupt person earns more money each month than he needs to pay his normal living expenses, he would still need to pay that to the trustee for three years as well, so the money he would pay in total in a sequestration would more than likely be the same as the money he would pay in total in a trust deed. Don't meant to be negative, but thought I should point out that sequestration is not the easy way out which many people often mistakenly think. Also, I am pretty sure (someone please correct me if I am wrong) that you can't just apply for your own sequestration on a whim - a creditor needs to take you to court first for not paying your debts. Otherwise there would be nothing to stop anyone going out and running up a huge credit card bill and then popping down to the sheriff office to apply for bankruptcy. Kev1980 - have any of your creditors taken you to court to try to force you to pay back your debts?

To me it looks like the only two realitic options are DAS and trust deed and given the size of the debt (will take a looong time to pay back in a DAS) and the relatively small amount of equity in kev1980's house, I know I would choose the trust deed if it were me, purely and simply to allow me to get on with my life again debt free in a shorter space of time.

I should point out that the above is not based on any professional opinion (and hence therefore please do seek the advice of the professionals as well!), but rather on the experience of my other half who found herself in a very similar position to kev1980 about five years ago. Admittedly the Debt Arrangement Scheme didn't exist then (or at least I don't think it did) so she had fewer options, but she signed a trust deed, paid monthly for three years and raised the small amount of equity in her property and got discharged about eighteen months ago. I am now very pleased to report that credit rating wise it has done her the world of good and we now have a joint mortgage on a new house together. Even better news, she is now pregnant with our first child, but that's a whole other story for a completely different thread!!! My credit rating has always been good and it had been a big source of worry to me that we would struggle to get a mortgage due to the fact that my girlfriend had signed a trust deed. We waited six months after she was discharged before even speaking to a bank about a mortgage (I was terrified that they would laugh at us) but it didn't seem to cause us any problems and the two banks we spoke to - Halifax and Nationwide - both offered us a mortgage no problem.

Finally, whilst my experience of trust deeds is only based on my girlfriend's first hand experience, so I can't exactly comment in general, but I should point out that KPMG were the trustee for my girlfriend and I have to say we found them to be very helpful. Don't get me wrong, I know all big companies are primarily businesses and therefore exist to make money, but I appreciate that they must deal with a lot of people and there are always likely to be good and bad stories in any business with lots of customers, but certainly from our experience I would have to say that they treated us very fairly and would have no hesitation in recommending them. We found that everything was explained very well and any queries we had during the trust deed were always answered promptly and efficiently.

Kev1980 - I've just read over my post and it has become full of my ramblings - I hope there is something in there which is useful for you! I wish you all the best and hope things work out as well for you as they have for my girlfriend and I. The only debt we have now is the mortgage and a small overdraft for emergencies, long may it continue that way!

Never_Ever_Again

I am currently in a Trust Deed and although I have found it tough I have somehow managed over the past 2 3/4 years (final payment Feb 09!! ) Luckily the only think I own that could be taken from me at the end of my TD is my car but I reckon it is now worth less than the £1000 they said it would have to be worth for them to be interested in the money for it.

Kev1980 - good luck with the DAS interview ( it does sound a better option) but if you do decide to go down the TD route I would definately recommend calling Invocas. This is the IP I am with and they have been brilliant, if I ever have a problem I have a number to call to speak to the IP dealing with my case, if they are unavailable when I call they always respond within 24 hours.

Good Luck
NEA