Can I ask please Adam, if you could afford to pay a contribution at the start, why did you and your adviser decide to proceed on the basis of a third party contribution instead?

i dont know why it was setup that way
like i said before i feel we were misinformed and talked into the td when we went to see them we said we wanted to pay the debt in full we just needed time to do it

Hi Adam,

Thanks for your answer. This part of the situation is really quite confusing and seems quite irregular.

Was the person helping to set up your trust deed an employee of the trust deed firm you were first with? Or did they work for another firm who then introduced you to the actual trust deed provider?

I can understand why this situation now must seem very confusing and why you would potentially feel misinformed.

The reason that it isn't straightforward to change to DAS is that you, your trustee, and your creditors are all bound by the trust deed. It's a contract - an offer made by you, handled by your trustee, and accepted by your creditors.

The trust deed also includes provision for how things would work if your circumstances change in the future, so there would not need to be any contractual provision enabling you to transition to a different type of debt solution if things changed later on.

Because of this I think you really need to focus on working with your trustee. If it were me, I'd be very clear with them about what you were told at the start, why you now think that advice was inappropriate, and why your trustee should work with you to bring your trust deed to a reasonable conclusion (reasonable for all parties).

I appreciate this isn't what you want, but it's my reading of where you are at the moment.