Hi paulc

It is at the Trustee's discretion whether to close early or not and it appears there would be no benefit in paying the lump sum if he is not prepared to discharge the Trust Deed.

On the subject of the £500 payment, if this was agreed at the start and has not been paid, then the Trustee is likely to have the property valued at the end of the trust deed and if there is equity, you would be asked to pay this.

This £500 payment well £1000 as there are 2 of you is a pet hate of mine. Personally i think the position with property should be checked and agreed at the start and if there is no equity, then that's the end of it.

Mark

Bit confused to why they wouldnt release me, if there was any equity in the property how would I get the funds as I doubt anyone will remortgage

Hi paulc.

The trustee has to act in the best interests of creditors. You could look at this in a couple of ways:

1 - It makes sense for them to accept the lump sum as it protects your creditors from a negative change in your circumstances, might reduce the fees a little, and gets the money to them sooner.

2 - It doesn't make sense to accept the lump sum as your creditors may not benefit from an improvement in your circumstances, nor from any windfall that might come your way between now and the scheduled end date.

It's a judgment call for the trustee and we hear fairly often here that they take different views on this subject.

Regards equity in the property it would be your responsibility to raise the money somehow. You're correct that getting an increased mortgage would be very unlikely. Where the sum isn't enormous it might be possible to deal with this by an extension of the trust deed to pay it off in monthly instalments.

Will the trustee still accept the £1000 from you? Would your friend help with that instead?

If the 1k was to be paid now would they value at time of payment or from the start of the trust deed? How is there so many different variations in trust deeds? And how long can someone actually be paying a trust deed for?

And if the sum was a lot how would I raise the funds as remortgage would be out the question, sorry for all the questions I read so many different storys starting to think bankruptcy would have been the better option.

Hi paulc.

You'll have to ask your trustee regarding the valuation date. Presumably they did one at the start of the trust deed? They may well be prepared to rely on that if the payment is actually made.

No set of rules could possibly cover every scenario regarding the running of a trust deed. Therefore trustees work sometimes with guidance rather than rules and have to apply their professional judgment to situations. It's therefore natural that they'll come to different views on circumstances that might otherwise seem similar. I can understand that will be frustrating if you'd like for something to happen and the trustee will not agree to it.

There's no specific limit to how long a trust deed can last. Circumstances and the views of the trustee (balancing the interests of the creditors against being fair to the debtor) will determine what happens and what's viewed as being acceptable. I think you're asking about the equity if there were any? We've sometimes heard here that firms might accept the payment of equity over a period up to about two years (it will vary firm by firm). If the equity cannot be paid over within an acceptable period of time via surplus income it wouldn't release the debtor from the responsibility to pay over the sum of equity that's due by other means.

Do you think that there is equity in your home?

Hi paulc.

You added your last post while I was writing my last one.

As an absolute course of last resort a home might have to be sold to raise the equity. Trustees tend to be pretty flexible about alternatives to avoid that wherever it's realistic to do so.

Hi paulc

Your post demonstrates why issues and especially equity issues should be clearly set out and the start and agreed by both parties.

The payment of the £1k should have been discussed and agreed at the start and this normally comes from a third party. I've read other posts where it was agreed that this be paid after the final payment of the trust deed is made, that way the agreement would still stand.

Mark

I have been keeping up with my mortgage payments since I started so I suspect I now I wont be in negative equity possibly about 6k at a push, what would stop my trustee from making me pay that sum over yet another 2 years and then carry out a review and deem me better of and asking for more money over more years?

I have been keeping up with my mortgage payments since I started so I suspect I now I wont be in negative equity possibly about 6k at a push, what would stop my trustee from making me pay that sum over yet another 2 years and then carry out a review and deem me better of and asking for more money over more years?

Hi paulc

Once you have paid the contributions, then that's it. Your trutee cannot ask you to complete a current status form and request any other contributions.

If equity has to be dealt with, then the trust deed would normally be extended and all payments made would be equity payments until this is paid in full.

Mark

If he accepted the 3rd party payment would he still carry out a review in august?

Hi paulc

If all contributions have been made by then, there would be no need for a review as this is for the purpose of assessing contributions only.

Mark

The way I'm reading this Mark the trustee might want to.

The suggestion seems to be that the expected future contributions are paid now, plus later any improvement in the circumstances between now and August. Or, to put it another way, the creditors would get all of the upside but none of the downside.