Hi bigall and welcome.

I'm sorry to hear that you are financially struggling and are now faced with losing your home.

When you entered into your Trust Deed what was the agreement in relation to your property and any potential equity? How much equity do you think might be in your property at the moment?

Also, how many payments have you missed to your Trust Deed?

If you could give us a little more information we will be able to better advise you.

Hello David ,

Thank you for your quick reply , at the offset I was told " oh we never sell peoples houses nowadays " I did take this as a bit of sales patter tho , the discussion regarding the property was that the trust deed would be extended to realise the equity , which is just under £ 10,000 but as the house is jointly owned with my wife who is not in a trust deed I would be expected to pay half ,

is a Trustee allowed to force my wife to sell her half of the house ?

Hi bigall,

Ah, I see. It's all too common that we hear that on the forum regarding equity and how assets will be dealt with.

Do you know if a valuation and redemption statement were obtained at the outset of your Trust Deed to calculate the level of equity?

I suspect that as you are no longer able to support your Trust Deed payments your Trustee is looking to realise the equity if possible. If the equity in your property has reduced since you entered into your Trust Deed then this might not be possible. I would look to clarify how much equity your property has at the moment.

If your wife does not agreed to the sale of the property then your Trustee would need to consider taking legal action and a sheriff would then decide if the house should be sold or not. A number of factors have to be taken into consideration before taking legal action and a lot of this depends on the level of equity within your property, who lives in the property etc.

Do you think that with the change in your financial circumstances that you would be able to continue to support the mortgage and other associated costs of the property? It might be the case that you are unable to do so and therefore a sale or repossession of the property could be inevitable.

Have you spoken with your Trustee or case manager to discuss the difficulties that you are having and to see if there is an alternative solution to this course of action? I would always advise someone to pick up the phone and discuss things or arrange an appointment to discuss things in person.

David I did ask for an appointment to meet with my trustee but was quite bluntly told there will be no meeting , they weren't there to chase after me and solicitors have been informed to sell my house , a very different attitude when compared to the discussions before I signed with them. I do believe that between my wife and myself we could easily meet our mortgage, council tax and so forth, its just the erratic nature of my self employment that is causing the issues, my trust deed figures where worked out on the assumption of a job I was promised but unfortunately the owner of the company decided to retire and the new owners changed his plans around , I am still self employed and earn much less now that I thought I was going to, hence the trouble in meeting my payments

Trustees are generally very reluctant to initiate legal action to force a sale against the wishes of a joint owner as it can prove to be an expensive business. If the equity is fairly low then it is hard to see how this course of action is justifiable to creditors on purely economic grounds. Indeed, the trustee could end up laying more money out in fees etc in order to sell the property than is actually achieved by doing so.

Instead, the vast majority of trustees would be open to negotiations in these circumstances. As David says, it would be worth trying to nail down exactly what equity is likely to be in the property, as a starting point for hopefully putting some kind of proposal to them.

It's disappointing to hear that they are not prepared to meet with you to discuss your situation after all, this could lead to the loss of your home.

I would correspond in writing with them and address any letter to your Trustee. I would ask them to provide you with a copy of their valuation and obtain an up to date redemption figure for your mortgage. It might be worthwhile speaking with a local estate agent to gauge what they feel you property is worth. You will then be able to calculate the level of equity within your property.

Unfortunately if you are unable to maintain any suitable payment to your Trust Deed and have equity within your property and this is sufficient to justify a possible sale via legal action then your Trustee may consider this an appropriate step.