Welcome to the trust deed forum Pam. I'm glad to hear that you've found the site useful.

It will be interesting to hear the views of other members about your comments, especially as we have members at all stages of their trust deeds.

My impression from the comments here over the years is that living on the budget during a trust deed isn't easy, but that for many it's a whole lot better to the situation before. A lot depends on the budget being set realistically in the first place I think.

hi, and welcome to the forum.

Many people say that it alomost seems 'too easy'. If all your homework is done properly before you sign anything, then it can be a fantastic tool to sort out your debt. You should have enough money to pay all your essential bills, and a bit left over for contingencies. It may not be easy, but it does help just to know here is a light at the end of the tunnell. My only advise to you would be regarding your house. You do not mention whether a valuation has been carried out, or if there is any equity in your home. It may be that you have already sorted that with KMPG, but if not, get it all done before you sign anything!!! If not, KMPG could come back to you once you have signed the TD, and surprise you with the amount they require regarding the equity. Waiting until you have signed the TD is too late. Please, please, please get the details of how your home will be treated, and what the equity is, in writing before you sign anything.

thanks for your replies guys.

Shona Re: equity in the home. We're getting the house valued tomorrow (paid for by KPMG) and as I've read before on this foum, for once we're hoping for little or no equity. I just can't take a guess as our house is fairly unique for our area, i.e. it's not a 3 bed semi in a row of 100 similar houses. I've plugged my postcode into Zoopla and they've given a range between £110k and £144k. Oh really?! We paid £110k 6 years ago and we've not made any improvements apart from loft insulation and one wall of cavity insulation (the other walls are stone built).

Our debts are about £31k and our redemption figure for our mortgage is £95k. If the house is valued at the lower end of this scale, we'll still have too much equity which we don't have a hope in hell of releasing. In that case, I think we'll look at the Debt Arrangement Scheme route. Which would suit my conscience better!

By the time KPMG phone me tomorrow night, they should have had a verbal valuation which they can work on. If the house is valued much lower, say £100k, this leaves £5k equity, less fees, bringing it to £2500 which we'll tag onto the end of the TD. I've read somewhere that I should make sure that our TD contract states that our house can't be re-evaluated during or after the TD expires. Is that correct? Can you do that?

Fingers crossed!

Hi Pam.

If you decide to go ahead with a trust deed I'd suggest getting the full picture about your home put in writing before you sign. Most trust deed firms are happy to do this.

If there is substantial equity in your home the debt arrangement scheme may well be a better option for you.

Generally-speaking house values are a bit higher than they were 6 years ago on average, though there are of course significant variations among different areas. Definitely worth getting a proper valuation done before signing anything I'd say, not just a desktop as this cannot be relied upon.

If your debts are £31k , then at £600pm you would be clear of them within 52 months in a DAS payment programme anyway. If you are having to pay off equity of any more than around £9000 at the end of your trust deeds then you are no better off by having gone through the formal insolvency route of a trust deed.

As TDA and Kevin have said, the equity is the decision maker for you here. If the TD is going to take as long as the DAS, why have your house involved at all? Please let us know what the valuation is so we can give more accurate advise. If your equity is only £5,000, then there are plenty companies who ignore the first £5,000, not just £2,500.

On you question about revaluing your property at the end, please make sure you get something IN WRITING to confirm: the amount of equity, how it will be realised, and that no futher valuation will be carried out.

Will wait to hear about your valuation.

Pammy - I offer the view that the PTD is "easy" simply because so many of the other options are very expensive and include a greater element of fear/risk over assets etc, not least of losing your home although that remains a (smaller) element of the PTD process. Clearly, the lower the value of your house, the less equity contribution will need to be made to PTD.

Well, I'm expecting a call any minute now and hopefully we'll have a verbal valuation and we can take it from there.

I'll update as soon as!

I've had another conversation and unfortunately, a verbal valuation wasn't given today but this will be chased up first thing tomorrow (Tuesday). I'll be advised straight away and if the equity is less than £5k, they're going to proceed with the paperwork which, if all goes well, will be signed on Friday. Scary stuff. They don't hang about do they?

Re: revaluation of house - I've been assured, and this will be backed up in the contract, that our house wont be revalued at the end of the term unless, of course, we don't keep up our end of the bargain.

So, next update tomorrow - over and out.

Just remember, you are the decision-maker here pammy1969 and if you feel that everything is going too fast then just tell them you want to slow down. As I said before, I think you would be wise to ask that a proper valuation is carried out before you sign up, not just a verbal desktop estimate.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kevin Mapstone

Just remember, you are the decision-maker here pammy1969 and if you feel that everything is going too fast then just tell them you want to slow down. As I said before, I think you would be wise to ask that a proper valuation is carried out before you sign up, not just a verbal desktop estimate.

---

Just to clarify Kevin, the surveyor came out yesterday to do a valuation survey and were supposed to call my Trustee with a verbal figure before confirming in writing.

I've not had a phonecall yet so no further on from last night.

I'm giving serious thought to delaying the process for a month to give myself some breathing space. It's not as if I've reached a crisis point that I have to do something about it RIGHT NOW! If I'm correct, there would be 2 seperate PTDs set up (one for me and my OH) for our seperate debts (none of them are joint debts). If that is the case, I think we should start OHs on his next payday and mine on my next payday (23rd and 28th Nov). This gives us plenty of time to sort out bank accounts, shift DDs etc.

Pammy - it is inevitable your head will feel like mince and you can't focus! If there is such a thing as a PTD syndrome that is what you are experiencing and I have been there. Many on this forum have too!

The experts here will be better placed to advise on much of this but for me all that delaying my going for a PTD was that leap of faith into the dark - once it was done, I slept for the first time in months it had taken me to get to that stage. Why do you need more breathing space? Sounds to me like you have got things nicely arranged and in the right order. And yes - you will get anxious waiting to hear if the deed becomes Protected. But if your trustee does their work, getting that letter to confirm the protected nature is so much better - espescially as the credit card bills should stop around the same time.

Hurrah! Good news - the house has been given a valuation at the low end of the scale (as expected) so this means that our equity is very low. So, that's it then. PTD here we come.......

However, I'm pretty sure we're going to delay it for a month.

thanks to everyone who has replied to my queries so far. You've all been so helpful and I'm sure I'll have a few more questions once I've signed on the dotted line!

quote:

---

Originally posted by Charlie1958

Pammy - it is inevitable your head will feel like mince and you can't focus! If there is such a thing as a PTD syndrome that is what you are experiencing and I have been there. Many on this forum have too!

The experts here will be better placed to advise on much of this but for me all that delaying my going for a PTD was that leap of faith into the dark - once it was done, I slept for the first time in months it had taken me to get to that stage. Why do you need more breathing space? Sounds to me like you have got things nicely arranged and in the right order. And yes - you will get anxious waiting to hear if the deed becomes Protected. But if your trustee does their work, getting that letter to confirm the protected nature is so much better - espescially as the credit card bills should stop around the same time.

---

Thanks Charlie

I'm panicking a bit because one of my loan DD's comes out the day I get paid (this Friday) so I feel like I have to make a decision today if I'm going to do it so I can cancel the DD in time. Hmmm, the thing is, I've already made the decision... so why am I dithering?

What's the worse that can happen if I don't cancel a DD in time? If one creditor manages to get their monthly payment and another doesn't, does that mean I've shown favour to one over the other?

I'm also worried about OH's bank account. One of his debts is a loan with his bank. The plan is for his salary to be paid into my account from next month and all the DDs changed (like gas, electric, life cover etc. not the debts). I'm worried in case we don't get everything moved in time, and the bank wipes his account out once they see we've defaulted on the loan. Can we even cancel that DD?

You know what? I'm just scared to take that step of cancelling the DDs. I've never deliberately defaulted on any of my debts and it's going to be hard to do it.

This is scarier than I thought it would be.